“If it is bad, we can create thousands of youngsters who will not have the opportunity to gain employment either at home or abroad. More taxpayers’ money is needed for retraining, or these individuals have to pay for retraining themselves. Time and money are wasted in both cases,” said the Prime Minister.

Below is the full transcript.

We are adopting the Slovenian and European resolutions on innovation, artificial intelligence, digital Slovenia and Europe. We are talking about how only innovation and new technologies can protect us against the consequences of global warming.

We are also planning admissions to our public schools and faculties, deciding on what know-how our children will have in 5, 10, 15, and 20 years.

Are the planned admissions compliant with our development resolutions? Will Slovenia, with its 39% of social sciences, humanities and art students versus 37% of natural sciences, technical and informatics sciences, be able to compete in any way with the countries where the ratio is 1 vs 2?

We also need to be aware of the vocational dynamics law in practice. A good engineer or doctor may also become a good manager throughout their professional career. It is very rare for a good economist, philosopher, or lawyer to become a good engineer or doctor.

Some comparisons show that highly developed countries like Norway, for example, have half as much variety of programmes as in Slovenia. Excessive fragmentation, inability to plan, poor orientation?

The country needs both good humanistic as well as technical intelligence. We need good engineers and good economists. Good doctors and good teachers. Good technicians and good educators. Good welders and good traders. Etc.

The ratios between specific profiles are the ones that dictate the needs of time and the environment. The needs of the economy and public services. They are dictated by factors like demographics and ecology. Slovenia is not an island in the middle of an ocean, nor an oasis in the middle of a desert. We are not a world superpower to dictate trends to others.

Our greatest wealth is Man. And the sovereignty of Man is in the knowledge. The knowledge with which they, as individuals, may compare themselves to others. The knowledge that is competitive at home and around the world. And in the ability to use that knowledge in their everyday life. The knowledge that allows them to choose and use the global pool of information in the internet age.

It is the responsibility of the country to allow young people to acquire the best possible knowledge and skills and the best possible incentive for life. The best possible help that the country can offer an individual, in the sense of balancing the starting options for a happy life, is general access to quality and competitive knowledge.

Of course, we cannot exactly calculate how many profiles we will need in 5 or 20 years. But we can see what highly developed countries are planning. We can see, without problems, how many individual profiles are currently without work, a burden to the employment agency, or employed in positions for which they did not train themselves. The additional admission of a large number of unemployable persons, considering all these options for realistic assessment, borders on social insanity.

Deciding on the number of admission places in public schools and faculties financed by taxpayers’ money is one of the most important strategic decisions in every country. If it is bad, we can create thousands of youngsters who will not have the opportunity to gain employment either at home or abroad. More taxpayers’ money is needed for retraining, or these individuals have to pay for retraining themselves. Time and money are wasted in both cases.

In all the mandates during my leadership of the RS government, we have always paid all our due attention to admission planning, and this will not change this year, regardless of some individuals who see only their narrow gardens and are not acting in a socially responsible manner. The government is responsible both collectively and individually. This is why ministers will co-decide on the number of admission places (the minister for the economy for economic profiles, the minister for agriculture for agricultural profiles, the minister for labour and social matters for social profiles, etc.).

The government will be responsible in its consent to the admission places, the ratios of which are shown in the table below. Your salaries and pensions in the future decade depend mainly on such decisions.