268 Ukrainian children now in school in Slovenia, more until next week
STA, 1 April 2022 – Currently, 268 Ukrainian children are enrolled in 113 Slovenian schools. Next week, they will be joined by children living in the Logatec and Debeli Rtič refugee centers. According to the Minister of Education Simona Kustec, the schools have shown a great deal of understanding and concern in accepting new students.
She thanked all the principals, employees, children and their parents in Grosuplje today for “understanding how important it is to open the doors of schools in order to enable children to socialize in a safe and warm second home.”
According to Kustec, the Institute for Education has prepared additional guidelines on the inclusion of Ukrainian children in schools, which will be sent to schools next week.
Next week, the number of Ukrainian children attending Slovenian schools is expected to rise to 366, as children from Logatec and Debeli cape are also included in the education. There are currently 125 children in Logatec, some of whom will attend primary school in Horjul due to limited capacity in Logatec.
Some schools are also full on the coast, so children from Debeli Rtič will go to nearby Ankaran and the Hrvatini primary school.
Ukrainian children go to school all over the country, most of them in central Slovenia, in the Primorska region in the southwest and in the Podravska and Prekmurje regions in the northeast.
Currently, most children from Ukraine attend primary school in Ormož, where many Slovenian companies have cooperated with Ukrainians.
All Ukrainian children are entitled to free school meals and free borrowing of textbooks.
At the beginning of the school year, 228 children from Ukraine were enrolled in Slovenian schools, as their parents already lived in Slovenia.
Currently, seven students attend four secondary schools in Slovenia.
Ukrainian children also have access to public music schools, which are currently attended by four Ukrainians. 42 Ukrainian children attend Slovenian kindergartens.
The University of Ljubljana, the largest in the country, said in a press release that 38 Ukrainian students are currently studying at their faculties.
For the academic year 2022/2023, the university received 150 applications for enrollment from Ukraine, with the greatest interest being at the Faculty of Medicine.
Ukrainian students can also study at the University of Maribor.