Today, 4 April 2024, the Deputy Ombudsman responsible for children's rights at the Ombudsman, Dr Jože Ruparčič, invited representatives of NGOs working for the realisation of children's rights to a regular meeting. In a comprehensive discussion, they touched upon a number of topical issues in the field of children's rights, ranging from children's mental health, peer violence and safe use of the internet to the amendment to the Primary School Act adopted in February this year.
The panellists agreed that some of the changes to the reform of the school system are a step in the right direction, such as the mandatory provision of lessons in Slovene sign language and in the language of the deafblind for deaf pupils, pupils with severe hearing loss and pupils with deafblindness. Participants also support the innovation of adapting the content, methods and forms of work in the classroom for pupils with disabilities and learning difficulties and enabling them to be included in appropriate activities within the extended curriculum, although the change does not yet guarantee inclusive education under the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Participants also welcomed the fact that the extended programme includes organised forms of educational work with pupils, and that the amendment to the law introduces the same standards of knowledge for home educated children, as this means that, once the law comes into force, home educated children will also be assessed on their knowledge of all subjects in the publicly valid primary school curriculum. "We are concerned that the amendment did not follow our proposals on the need to reduce the burden of school duties and tasks on children. Our proposal was that the changes should not only aim to increase performance and competition, but also to emphasise and reinforce values such as cooperation, recognition of feelings and mutual respect. We regret that the amendment to the law has introduced a national examination in the third year of primary school, as this puts unnecessary pressure on children and has no particular added value. In this context, our proposal, which was also supported by the profession, that the amendment should have ensured more exercise at school to improve children's psycho-physical health, was also ignored," said Dr Ruparčič.
The meeting was attended by Dr. Blaž Lenarčič, representative of the Koper Scientific Research Centre, Tanja Povšič and Sara Geiger Smole, representatives of the Slovenian Friends of Youth Association, Andrej Motl, representative of Web Eye, Anja Bohinec, representative of the National Institute of Public Health, Mateja Lemovšek from the Slovenian Red Cross, Ajda Petek from the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ljubljana and Tjaša Bertoncelj from TOM telefon, an organisation that works within the Slovenian Friends of Youth Association, Tanja Hrovat Svetičič from the Association for Nonviolent Communication, Manca Raušl from the Ključ Association, Stane Sočan from the White Ring, Alja Skele from UNICEF Slovenia and Mateja Lamovšek from the Slovenian Red Cross.