The entitlement to enrolment is universal for all preschool children. Parents decide when and where to enrol their child.
The main admission requirement is the age of the child. Parents can enrol their child when the child turns 11 months and their right to parental leave in the form of full-time absence from work has ended. Parents have to submit the paediatrician’s certificate on the health situation of the child. Parents can enrol their child whenever during the year and at any child’s age up to their sixth birthday or until the child starts basic school.
Parents can choose the programme in a public or private kindergarten. Parents can choose any kindergarten in any municipality; there is no limitation to the municipality’s catchment area of their residence. Commonly, children attend a kindergarten in the area of their residence. Parents can enrol their child in another kindergarten with available places (for example, near their place of work).
Kindergartens make a public call to new candidates for the next school year at least once a year, commonly in March, online and on the kindergarten’s information display. The municipality publishes the call on its webpage.
The public call has to include no less than information about the application, final dates, and timeframe in which the candidates will receive further information about enrolment.
Kindergartens can enrol more children than there are available places. In case there are more applicants than available places, the selection commission takes the final decision. The municipality appoints the selection commission and specifies the selection criteria on the recommendation of the kindergarten’s council. The commission considers all applications. It examines the information in the application and the information it receives by virtue of the position from administrators of personal databases. It specifies priority order of all candidates according to the number of points awarded under the defined criteria (for example, the municipality of permanent residence, disadvantaged family background, age, and other children of the same family already attending the kindergarten). The SEN children with the relevant decision of the competent authority and children whose parents submitted the relevant opinion of the social work centre have priority. Those are the children from families with health, material and/or social distress. The children not admitted are waitlisted. Parents have the right to challenge the ranking and/or wait listing with the kindergarten’s council. The decision of the kindergarten’s council can be further disputed administratively.
Parents of children accepted in the programme sign an agreement with the kindergarten about mutual rights and obligations.
By law, a municipality that has several kindergartens in its catchment area can introduce a single enrolment for all of them. It creates a central registry of children enrolled and lays down the same criteria for all kindergartens.
By law on kindergartens (en), kindergartens organise settings in two main age groups:
The same law defines the minimum and maximum number of children allowed in a class, as well as number of education staff in a class.
The rules on norms and staff requirements for preschool education apply (sl).
The Minister responsible for education specifies further provisions on the number of children in a class.
Kindergartens can set up homogenous, heterogeneous and composite classes: one year-olds, children of the first or second age group, and children of the first and second age group respectively.
No. of children in a class:
The first age group (under age 3)
Second age group (age 3–6)
In certain circumstances and situations, the municipality may raise the maximum number of children in a class by maximum two. The municipality can also issue a decision to decrease the number of children in individual classes.
Preschool teachers (bachelor’s degree in preschool education – ISCED 6) and preschool teacher assistants (upper secondary education in the relevant field- ISCED 3) manage educational activities together in a class (see chapter Education Staff).
The number of hours per day during which a preschool teacher and a teacher assistant are both present in a class varies according to the type of programmes attended by children. In the case of a day programme, they are both present at the same time in a class of the first age group for at least six hours a day, and in a class of the second age group, for at least four hours a day. They do together the half-day programme in a class of the first age group for at least three hours, and in a class of the second age group, for at least two hours a day.
Only one person – either preschool teacher or preschool teacher assistant – attends the children during their rest.
During the time the preschool teacher and the teacher assistant are present at the same time in a class, the child/staff ratio is 7:1 in the first age group, and in the second age group, max. 11 or 12:1.
Kindergartens carry out programmes of early childhood education and care throughout the year. Certain private kindergartens close their doors during summer for up to two weeks. By law, kindergartens define own business hours in their annual working plan, namely they take into consideration the need of employed parents and specifics of the programme.
Kindergartens operate five days a week. Individual kindergartens organise Saturday walk-in hours for all children from all kindergartens in the municipality, or they stay open until late at night. All kindergartens are closed on Sundays and public holidays.
A kindergarten can set up several dislocated units. A kindergarten can group children from different units if there is a drop in attendance during certain times (summer months, before or during public holidays). They carry out the programme in one of the kindergarten units for children from different units. A kindergarten can carry out three types of education programmes for preschool children, namely of different duration.
In the day programmes, children attend activities for 6 to 9 hours a day in the morning and/or afternoon or on alternate (one week in the morning, the next in the afternoon).
In the half-day programmes, children attend activities for 4 to 6 hours a day.
The short programme is organised, in particular, in demographically challenged areas and distant localities. It aims to attract five-year-olds not attending kindergarten before they will start school. By law, the Ministry responsible for education defines the 240 to 720-hour programme in an invitation for kindergartens to apply. The kindergarten decides on how it will carry out the programme, namely in a composite form (every day) or stretched out (every second or third workday, for example) throughout the year.
Commonly, kindergartens open at 5.30 or 6 a. m. and close between 4.30 and 5.30 p. m. and/or at 9 p. m. if they operate in shifts.
In kindergarten offering the day programme, the business hours are 11 to 12 hours. At the beginning and end of the business hours, the education staff joins children of different groups together in the walk-in playroom. A child should go home after 9 hours.
Day and half-day programmes include education, care and meals for all children. The short programme includes education, care and can include meals for all children. Kindergartens are autonomous in scheduling activities of the programme and flexible to adjust the provision to the local community, namely within the opening and/or business hours of the kindergarten. They take into account specifics of the age groups, times children arrive and leave, meal times and biorhythm, as well as need of parents.
By law and collective agreement, the full-time teaching load is 30 hours for preschool teachers, and 35 hours a week for preschool teacher assistants.
Commonly, the day and half-day programmes start with welcoming children in the morning: