Along with nine years of primary education, part of the plan of the Education, Science and Technology Strategy is five instead of four years of primary schooling and an earlier start to school, already at the age of six.
The plan is to have more vocational schools, but also to increase the number of gymnasium students. Identical vocational schools would be grouped into large school centers.
With an earlier start to school, social and family differences among students will be reduced, explains one of the ‘authors’ of the strategy.
– Likewise, the extension of basic general education brings a reduction of such differences, better preparation for continuation, and delaying entry into high school by a year will lead to children being more mature when they have to decide on the type of further education – assures Neven Budak, head of the National Operational Body for the Adoption of the Education Strategy.
He adds that after the fourth grade, one more year of primary schooling is more beneficial for students than subject teaching.
The new strategy will be publicly discussed for a full two autumn months, and it will only reach the Parliament next year. Until then, both the profession and the public, as well as students, will have their opinions, but before them all lies a long, warm summer.
