The Government amends the text of the Basic School Act

The Government has laid down the text of the Draft Act Amending the Basic School Act.  The Draft Act introduces a number of additions, including concerning national examinations, the extended programme, home-schooling rights and compulsory foreign languages.

The Draft Act introduces national examinations for pupils in Year 3 and allows the results of the national examinations in Year 9 to be taken into account as one of the criteria for the selection of candidates in the event of a limitation of enrolment in secondary education programmes.

The amended law also includes a reform of the concept of the extended basic school programme. The proposed amendments specify that the current elements of the extended programme (after-school classes, remedial and supplementary classes, individual and group learning support, and optional elective subjects) will be redesigned through the implementation of physical, health, cultural and civic education content, as well as content related to learning to learn skills. Pupils will participate in this programme on a voluntary basis. In practice, this also means that optional elective subjects will no longer be assessed. With the Act coming into force, schools will be able to run the programme before, during and after school hours. It should be noted that schools are obliged to offer these subjects to pupils in Year 1 before and after the end of the compulsory programme (i.e. lessons). In this respect, children will be provided with structured activities before and after the end of the compulsory programme (care provided through structured activities).

The new amendment to the Act introduces a compulsory first foreign language into Year 1 of the basic school curriculum. The pilot project "Introducing a foreign language in the compulsory programme and testing the concept of an extended programme in basic schools" tested the introduction of a compulsory first foreign language in Year 1 in practice. It was found that in the 2016/2017 school year, up to 92.73% of Year 1 pupils were already enrolled in a first foreign language class, and the proportion has increased over the years.

The amendments to the Act also affect home schooling. Among other things, they will ensure an equivalent standard of education to that of pupils in a traditional classroom setting. This means that home-schooled pupils will now have to sit exams in all subjects in each year.

Parents will also have to register their children's home schooling by 16 August for the next school year instead of 31 August.

The amendments also introduce the possibility of discontinuing home schooling during the school year (and thus integrating the pupil into the traditional classroom environment). Another new feature is that the entitlement to home schooling will be restricted for those pupils who fail their assessment.

The amendments introduce the teaching of Slovenian sign language and the language of the deaf-blind.

In addition, the Draft Act also provides for other systemic changes in the education of pupils with special needs and home schooling for pupils with special needs.

The amendment to the Act makes it possible to organise holiday care for children with special needs, thus solving the problem of the more difficult integration of children with special needs into other organised forms of care. The possibility of extending the status for three years for pupils attending a basic school programme with a lower educational standard is newly regulated. The amendments also regulate in more detail the issue of home schooling for pupils with special needs, which was previously governed solely by rules. The possibility of more flexible forms of education is also being considered.

Source: Ministry of Education

Action Plan to Alleviate Energy Poverty for a three-year period

The Government adopted the Action Plan to Alleviate Energy Poverty for a three-year period.

The legal basis for the preparation of the Action Plan to Alleviate Energy Poverty is the Regulation on criteria for defining and assessing energy poverty adopted in October 2022. The proposal for the Action Plan includes essential measures to reduce and alleviate energy poverty, including an estimate of the resources needed to implement them.

Three targets are set for 2030 to reduce energy poverty; these are aligned with the proposal to update the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (NEPN). They can be achieved if the right conditions are in place to implement the measures set out in the Action Plan (resources, staffing to set up and run the planned energy poverty alleviation scheme, etc.).

The overarching goal in energy poverty is to reduce the share of energy-poor households to between 3.8% and 4.6% by 2030. The second goal in energy poverty is to invest in energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy sources (RES) in at least 8,000 energy-poor households by 2030.

The third goal is based on Article 8 of the EED (Energy Efficiency Directive). According to preliminary calculations, the target cumulative energy savings in energy-poor households from 2021 to 2030 is 573 GWh. This objective will be finalised and included in the final version of the NEPN update.

Goals in energy poverty reduction by 2026. The main goal for the period 2024–2026 is to build on the existing group active in implementing measures for energy poverty alleviation under Eco Fund by setting up and operating an energy poverty alleviation scheme on a pilot scale. This will ensure the conditions for scaling up incentives for the energy poor and support the achievement of the 2030 goals. In total, in the pilot and other regions, the plan is to make, by the end of 2026, investments in EE and RES for energy-poor households (upgrade of the ZERO500 programme), investments for the installation of new wood biomass combustion plants, investments in collective measures for the energy renovation of multi-apartment buildings, and investments for the integration of the energy poor into energy communities. In order to achieve these goals, the conditions must also be in place for the implementation of the measures set out in the Action Plan.

Financing of the Action Plan measures. To implement the Action Plan’s measures over the period 2024–2026, EUR 33.8 million is envisaged: EUR 27.0 million for EE and RES investment measures, EUR 5 million for the integration of the energy poor into energy communities, and EUR 1.8 million for the operation of a project office with regional advisory points and an informal network for information and awareness-raising. Until the end of 2026, the main sources of funding are the Climate Change Fund and the European Regional Development Fund.

Source: Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Energy