development report 2012 - UMAR

70 Development Report 2012
Development by the priorities of SDS – A modern welfare state and higher employment
kindergartens and class units has been rapidly increasing
in recent years, the problem of providing sufficient
capacities has persisted during this time owing to the
rising number of births. Given the rising number of births,
even in 2010, and the continued and increasing need for
improved kindergarten capacities in the future, on the
one hand, and the current adverse fiscal conditions on
the other, it is expected that the problem of providing
sufficient kindergarten capacities will persist in the
coming years. At the same time, there are considerable
reserves in the area of pre-school education in terms
of human resources. The ratio between the number of
teaching staff 215 and the number of children is among the
lowest in the EU and considerably below the EU average.
In the past, the Kindergarten Act already allowed
the municipalities to resolve the lack of kindergarten
capacities by increasing the statute-determined number
of children in a unit by up to two children. The lack of
kindergarten capacities may present a major problem
to families in terms of coordinating their working and
family lives. Consequently, one of the alternatives for the
next few years would be to temporarily relax the norms
in the area of pre-school education (i.e. by increasing the
number of children in a unit), in addition to opening new
kindergartens.
The share of the population with at least upper
secondary school education is high and has been
increasing throughout SDS’s implementation.
According to Labour Force Survey data for the second
quarter of 2011, the percentage of the population aged
25–64 with at least upper secondary school education
was 84.8% in 2011, and grossly exceeded the EU average
(73.2%); it even rose in comparison with the preceding
year. It had also increased in comparison with the first
year of SDS’s implementation. The share of young
people aged 20–24 with at least upper secondary school
education is also high and amounted to 90.8% in 2011,
thereby greatly exceeding the EU average (78.6%); it
was maintained at approximately the same level as in
the first year of SDS’s implementation. The high share
of young people with at least upper secondary school
education is due to the high participation of young
people in secondary school education, a high secondary
education completion rate, and a low percentage of
early school leavers. The participation of young people
in tertiary education is also high 216 .
215
In Slovenia, teaching staff includes educators and assistant
educators.
216
See Chapter 2.1 Education and Training.
217
PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment)
is an international research on capabilities in reading literacy,
mathematics literacy, and science literacy, carried out under the
auspices of OECD. The research includes 15-year old students
regardless of the type of school they attend. The research is
carried out in triennial cycles. The purpose of the PISA research
is to gather data on the competences students will need for
their professional and private lives, and which are essential for
both the individuals and society as a whole. In 2009, the survey
focused on reading literacy. For Slovenia, data are available
for 2006 and 2009. The scale of reading literacy measures
The results of the 2009 international education study
PISA 217 revealed that the average scores of Slovenian
15 year olds dropped in reading, and scientific and
mathematical literacy. In terms of reading literacy,
Slovenia lagged behind the OECD average, despite
exceeding this level in 2006. However, the scores in
mathematical and scientific literacy were still higher
than the OECD average. A target has been set at the EU
level; thus the European education benchmark for 2020
is that the share of students with insufficient abilities 218
in reading, mathematics and science should be less
than 15%. In 2009, Slovenia’s share of 15 year olds with
insufficient abilities in reading was 21.2% and so quite far
away from the EU benchmark; moreover, this share was
also higher than the EU-25 average (19.6%) 219 . Slovenia
also lagged behind the EU benchmark in its share of
15 year olds with insufficient abilities in mathematics
(20.3%), and the share was below the EU-25 average
(22.2%). On the contrary, Slovenia’s scientific literacy
score was 14.8%, which means that the EU benchmark
set was already attained in 2009, and that was even
above the EU-25 average (17.7%).
Health indicators continue to improve and so does
satisfaction with the functioning of the healthcare
system Life expectancy in Slovenia has been increasing.
In 2010, it was 79.8 years, which is still below the EU
average (80.8 years). Slovenia is approximately at the
average European level for expected healthy life years,
which is slightly above 60 years. The infant mortality
rate has remained at a similarly low level (2.5 deaths
per 1,000 newborns), and was also among the lowest in
the EU in 2010. The accessibility of medical services in
terms of waiting times has greatly improved in the last
year. Within a year, the number of waiting patients has
been reduced from almost 84,000 to less than 40,000
patients, i.e. by more than a half. Only 8% of patients
have been waiting longer than the maximum waiting
period permitted (the figure was 20% just a year ago) 220 .
an individual's capacity to: understand, use, reflect on and
engage with written texts, in order to achieve one's goals, to
develop one's knowledge and potential, and to participate
in society. Mathematical literacy is defined as the capacity to
analyse, reason and communicate ideas effectively as they
pose, formulate, solve, and interpret solutions to mathematical
problems in a variety of situations. Scientific literacy covers an
individual's scientific knowledge and use of this knowledge
to identify scientific questions, to acquire new knowledge, to
explain scientific phenomena, and to draw evidence-based
conclusions on science-related issues based on data and
verifiable facts.
218
The scale of scores is divided into 6 difficulty levels: The basic
level of literacy in PISA survey is the 2nd level.
219
Progress towards the common European objectives in
education and training – Indicators and benchmarks, 2011.
220
The new Rules on the management of waiting lists and
the maximum permissible waiting times for individual health
services (adopted in August 2010) contributed greatly to
shortening the waiting times, whereas at the same time, in 2011
HIIS earmarked additional funds for operations and treatments
with maximum waiting times.