Author
Asylum seekers do not have access to free kindergarten until they obtain international protection.[1] As kindergarten is quite expensive asylum seekers do not attend it in practice.
The law provides that the right to elementary education has to be ensured to asylum seekers no more than three months after they lodge their application.[2] There is no age limit attached to this provision.
Asylum-seeking children and adults are ensured access to education in vocational and secondary schools under the same conditions as Slovenian citizens. Asylum seekers are also allowed access to post-secondary and higher education programmes and to programmes designed for adults’ education. The law expressly provides that, if necessary, preparatory educational assistance has to be provided to children in order to facilitate their access to the education system.[3]
In practice, all asylum-seeking children accommodated in Logatec enrol in elementary school within around one week’s time from arrival. Problems with children accessing the elementary school are not reported. Most of them attend the two elementary schools in Logatec as the majority of families are accommodated in Logatec after the lodging of the application. Slovenian language classes are carried out by Javni zavod Cene Štupar in the Asylum home and its branches. In Student Dormitory Postojna Zavod Znanje Postojna carried out literacy and language classes for children.
Elementary school children that are accommodated together with their families in private apartments outside the Asylum Home go to various other elementary schools, where special educational assistance is also carried out.
Elementary school for adults is organised by Javni zavod Cene Štupar, where students are placed in a suitable class, based on initial testing of their knowledge level. They can then complete two regular school years per year.
Children do not face specific considerable obstacles accessing the education system. The same is true for adults accessing elementary school for adults. Adults wishing to enrol in high school have to pay a tuition fee, same as Slovenian citizens. Cases of asylum applicants accessing high school are rare, since asylum procedures are usually concluded before their command of Slovenian is sufficient. Universities are mostly free, same as for Slovenian citizens, but programmes carried out in English are rare. Asylum seekers have to carry the cost of proving their previously attained education. The cost can be covered by the state if they are registered as unemployed.[4]
Special needs of asylum-seeking children are taken into consideration the same way as those of Slovenian students.
[1] 101(1) IPA.
[2] Article 88(1) IPA.
[3] Article 88(1)-(2) and (4) IPA.
[4] Article 88(7) IPA.