ZAGREB, Feb 18 (Hina) - Croatia's education and sports minister has not scrapped a draft project for education in the 21st century but on Tuesday outlined the ministry's "positions...regarding an expert and argumented debate" on a
reform of the school system.
ZAGREB, Feb 18 (Hina) - Croatia's education and sports minister has
not scrapped a draft project for education in the 21st century but
on Tuesday outlined the ministry's "positions...regarding an
expert and argumented debate" on a reform of the school system. #L#
Addressing a news conference, Vladimir Strugar said the debates
held so far did not contest the most important points of the draft
reform.
Changing the education system is crucial for Croatian society as a
whole and must not be abandoned, said Strugar, adding it must not be
politicised either but have all issues resolved in an expert and
argumented debate.
Strugar maintains there is no need to scrap a project of a nine-year
primary education and said there had been no dispute about it. How
to organise mandatory education should be left to experts and a
feasibility study, he said.
The ministry agrees about the need to introduce state school-
leaving exams, computerise schools, begin studying foreign
languages early, improve work conditions for the material position
of teachers, and change curricula, Strugar said.
"The ministry is not prepared to accept the assessment that the
government and the ministry have done nothing over the past three
years," said Strugar.
He added that a lot had been done to decentralise the school system,
increase funds for schools, that 142 schools had been built or
reconstructed, Internet access had been made available in every
school, and funds for school equipment had been tripled.
(hina) ha sb