This note provides an overview of Slovenia’s digital education ecosystem, including the digital tools for system and institutional management and digital resources for teaching and learning that are publicly provided to schools and educational stakeholders. The note outlines how public responsibilities for the governance of digital education are divided and examines how Slovenia supports the equitable and effective access to and use of digital technology and data in education. This includes through practices and policies on procurement, interoperability, data privacy and regulation, and digital competencies. Finally, the note discusses how Slovenia engages in any initiatives, including with the EdTech sector, to drive innovation and research and development towards an effective digital ecosystem.
Country Digital Education Ecosystems and Governance
25. Slovenia
Abstract
Key features
In Slovenia, the ministry assumes some responsibility for the public provision and governance of digital education to schools. Notably, it centrally manages a student information system and provides a selection of digital teaching and learning resources, including open resources. Schools have the autonomy to procure digital management tools as well as other types of digital resources they see fit. The ministry thus offers guidelines to assist them in making informed decisions regarding digital infrastructure procurement, while organising teacher training and development programmes on the pedagogical application of digital technologies.
Slovenia’s digital education strategy, codesigned with teachers and other educational stakeholders, prioritised five main areas: students’ and teachers’ digital proficiency; national co-ordination for digital education; digital divide; appropriate infrastructure for digital education.
The ministry has enacted rules and provides guidelines to support access to and use of digital technology in education and offers earmarked fundings to schools upon request – notably to procure the commercial tools of their choice, such as their learning management systems. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) dictates the standards for data protection and privacy, while specific guidance ensures third parties can access data for research under specific conditions.
General policy context
In Slovenia, the public governance of the education system is a collaborative effort shared among the central government (ministry), schools, and to a lesser extent, municipalities. While municipalities are responsible for certain aspects like funding and establishing in basic public schools (primary and lower secondary levels), their role in school governance and regulation remains limited. The ministry of education (Ministrstvo za vzgojo in izobraževanje) takes the lead in developing the national curriculum, formulating education regulations, and overseeing their implementation.1 Schools themselves primarily manage resource procurement and allocation, and the Education Inspectorate (Inšpektorat za šolstvo), an agency of the ministry, conducts school inspections.
Division of responsibility
Public responsibilities for offering schools with access to components of the digital education infrastructure follow this somewhat centralised context. System-level digital tools, such as the central education register and student information system, are centrally managed. Conversely, school-level digital tools, like learning management systems, are typically procured by individual schools, supported by public agency ARNES (Academic and Research Network of Slovenia), with operating budgets and subsidies provided by the ministry of education.
Concerning digital teaching and learning resources, the ministry offers a selection, notably open educational resources. The ministry also assumes a significant role in supporting and promoting the uptake of the resources, offering comprehensive guidelines to assist schools in making informed decisions regarding digital infrastructure procurement, while organising teacher training and development programmes on the pedagogical application of digital technologies. Despite the relative centralisation of digital education infrastructure management in Slovenia, schools retain autonomy in selecting and using tools and resources that align with their specific needs. They engage in procurement from various educational stakeholders, including universities, EdTech companies, and teacher unions. The only exception to this autonomy pertains to system-level tools, which are mandatory for use.
The central government plays a pivotal part in facilitating and overseeing the utilisation of digital education infrastructure, establishing regulations governing access to and use of data and digital technologies within education. In tandem with the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR), Slovenia has specific rules safeguarding the data and privacy of students, as well as teachers and school staff.
Digital education strategy
In 2022, the ministry of education (then the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport) unveiled the Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027, formulated through a collective effort with diverse education stakeholders.2 This consortium included schools, universities, teachers, students, teacher unions, policy makers, and public entities. Recognising the ramifications of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Action Plan spotlighted several critical challenges within the current education landscape. Top priorities identified were addressing: students’ and teachers’ digital proficiency; national co-ordination for digital education; digital divide; appropriate infrastructure for digital education; among other concerns.
In 2023, the government adopted the Digital Slovenia 2030 strategy (Digitalna Slovenija 2030), a strategic roadmap charting the country’s visions and aspirations for harnessing technology to spearhead a cross-sectoral digital transformation. Regarding education, this strategy emphasises the crucial need to keep education universally accessible, while fostering the comprehensive development of digital competencies among all education stakeholders. This aligns with the establishment of the Ministry of Digital Transformation (Ministrstvo za digitalno preobrazbo) in 2021, which oversees the progress of the digital transformation and coordinates and implements initiatives across all sectors, including education.
In the upcoming years, the Ministry of Education is committed to sustaining investments in both hardware and software infrastructure. This encompasses providing students and teachers with laptops and tablets, as well as amplifying Internet connectivity and speed throughout educational institutions at all levels. Complementing this, the Ministry of Digital Transformation has earmarked funds specifically for ICT equipment for students and schools. The Ministry of Education will introduce Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR/VR) tools and 3D printers in many schools to support new approaches to teaching and learning. Equipping vocational education and training (VET) institutions with robotic arms is another focal point of investment. Concurrently, the government envisions innovating next-generation digital tools for system and school management. This will concern a new student information system, learning management systems, a digital credential system, and a digital exam administration system. Cutting-edge technologies, including intelligent tutoring systems and classroom analytics tools, are also planned for future development.
The public digital education infrastructure
This section reviews two aspects of the public digital infrastructure in Slovenia: digital tools for system and school management, and digital resources for teaching and learning.
Digital ecosystem for system and school management
Central education database and student information system
Under the Organisation and Financing of Education Act (Zakon o organizaciji in financiranju vzgoje in izobraževanja), the ministry of education owns and operates CEUVIZ (Centralna evidenca udeležencev vzgoje in izobraževanja), a central education database.3 CEUVIZ serves various purposes, including monitoring key education objectives, informing school funding decisions, and providing data for scientific and statistical research.
For these purposes, CEUVIZ houses a diverse array of data about students and schools at all educational levels, spanning from pre-school, primary and secondary, to short-cycle higher vocational education and training (VET). The data encompasses student performance (e.g. grades and assessment scores), school timetables, academic calendars, indicators of school meal eligibility, and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), among other data points. Within CEUVIZ, each student is tagged with an EMŠO (Enotna matična številka občana), a national-level unique, longitudinal identifier that is also used by other government ministries. In parallel, information about teachers, such as human resources, payments, and teaching qualifications, is stored and managed within KPIS (Centralna evidenca zaposlenih na področju vzgoje in izobraževanja), a central database of employees in education.4 Within KPIS, each teacher is also tagged with an EMŠO.
Additionally, schools use eAsistent, which is licensed from a commercial vendor. Most public and private educational institutions are required to manually input into this system education-related information about students. While the bulk of the data is sourced from the educational institutions themselves, certain data, such as students’ gender, date of birth, and place of residence, is imported from other government databases, including the Central Population Register (Centralni register prebivalstva), Register of Institutions and Programmes (Razvid izvajalcev javno veljavnih programov vzgoje in izobraževanja), Register of Spatial Units (Register prostorskih enot), and eVŠ, the Records and Analytical Information System for Higher Education (Evidenčni in analitski informacijski system visokega šolstva v Sloveniji).
At present, EMŠO serves as the key identifier, ensuring data consistency and accuracy when exchanging information between these databases. Nevertheless, to further enhance this exchange and boost system interoperability, the Slovene government has launched the Smart School (Pametna šola) initiative. This project envisions a next-generation student information system. Alongside this technical overhaul, efforts are underway to streamline the associated legislation.
Learning management systems and other support systems
During the COVID-19 outbreak, eAsistent offered a learning management system for providing feedback on student assessment. Since then, at the institutional level, Skupnosti (a Moodle-based platform) and Microsoft Teams stand out as the primary learning management systems in Slovenia.5 Although the use of these systems is not mandated, Skupnosti is particularly endorsed by the ministry of education. To ensure its effective deployment, the ministry extends technical assistance and teacher training, and finances ARNES (Akademska in raziskovalna mreža Slovenije), the Academic and Research Network of Slovenia, to tailor Skupnosti to the country’s school specifications. As for Microsoft Teams, the ministry has drawn a partnership with Microsoft to offer students with access to both Teams and the Office Suite on a maximum of five devices. Teachers also benefit from Microsoft-provided guidance and trainings on its optimal use. Notably, the prevalence of these learning management systems surged post the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, the number of online classrooms on eAsistent increased from none to 36 946, registering a total user count of 86 961.
The Slovene government also provides a suite of applications available for schools to utilise for various administrative purposes. The e-Government platform, eUprava, features two central student admission systems, facilitating enrolment into both primary and lower secondary schools, as well as upper secondary and VET schools.6 Other publicly offered digital tools includes Mojaizbira, a career and study guidance platform designed for VET students, and COBISS, a national library and information system linked to individual school libraries and databases.7 While the ministry handles the procurement of these institutional management systems for primary and lower secondary schools, upper secondary and VET schools are responsible for their own acquisition process.
Digital ecosystem for teaching and learning
The Ministry of Education offers a range of digital resources tailored for teaching and learning, affording schools and teachers the latitude to select resources that best fit their needs. Several of these resources are openly accessible to the education community. For instance, the ministry manages SIO (“Slovensko izobrazevalno omrežje”), an Open Education Resources (OER) repository, which extends a wealth of learning materials, details about educational events and pertinent regulations, and a directory of available training programmes.8 RTV Slovenija (“Radiotelevizija Slovenija”), the country’s public broadcaster, delivers educational programmes for primary and lower secondary students. While most of this content does not strictly adhere to the national curriculum, an exception was made during the COVID-19 outbreak. In parallel, some digital teaching and learning resources are reserved exclusively for those who are enrolled in formal education. Examples include a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform tailored for teacher training, complimentary digital textbooks (provided when schools purchase physical textbooks from publishers), and interactive resources.
All publicly supplied resources, barring TV content, are mapped to the national curriculum, covering a large spectrum of subjects and skills. While the ministry allocates school budgets for these resources, the final decision on purchases and usage rests with the schools themselves. Additionally, schools retain the autonomy to independently source extra resources from private vendors and other education stakeholders.
Enabling the use of digital tools and resources
While the provision of public digital education infrastructure and funding for digital resources is crucial, it does not automatically ensure their uptake by schools and teachers. To enhance the adoption and effective use of these tools and resources, various rules and guidelines are established to facilitate access to, and promote the use of, digital technologies in education.
Ensuring access and supporting use
Equity of access
In Slovenia, comprehensive system-level policies are in place to promote digital equity in education. Through centralised public provision and procurement of digital tools for system and school management, the government ensures that educational institutions have sustained and equitable access to the digital education ecosystem. Key digital tools for system management, like CEUVIZ, must be used. Additionally, a specific portion of the school budget is earmarked for the acquisition of one of three privately-developed applications (eAsistent, eSchool, or localis), which schools are required to use to input data into the national student information system connected to CEUVIZ. This incentivises every school to possess a foundational digital system for school management and data reporting to the government.
To further bolster digital equity, specific rules and guidelines exist to facilitate equitable access to and use of digital technologies in education. Schools have the option to request additional funding earmarked for acquiring digital equipment, with allocations influenced by student enrolment numbers. In terms of policy, all schools are treated equally, but there is a particular emphasis on addressing the needs of students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Since 2000, a dedicated budget has been in place for a special educational institution catering to blind students (but regular schools with such students may not necessarily access this budget).9 Slovenia also benefits from REACT-EU funds from the European Commission, aimed at supporting students from low socio-economic backgrounds, particularly concerning the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic and ICT equipment requirements.
Apart from these efforts, the Slovene government's educational strategies do not target a particular group, and neither the Ministry of Education nor other government ministry proactively monitors or oversees the internal allocation or management of digital infrastructure budgets within schools. This might lead to some disparities in digital resource access, especially in upper secondary and VET schools, which have independent procurement responsibilities for school management tools. Nonetheless, with the array of support measures in place for disadvantaged students and the significant provision of digital tools and resources through public channels, the disparities in resource availability across institutions are considered to be relatively limited by government officials.
Supporting the use of digital tools
The Ministry of Education actively champions the adoption and use of publicly provided digital tools and resources through a range of strategic measures. As with most other OECD countries, it sets aside an operating budget for schools to purchase digital tools and resources. A specific segment of this budget is dedicated to the acquisition of digital tools, such as eAsistent, eSchool, and localis, as stated above. The ministry further extends support by providing guidance on system-level tools, and by coordinating professional development opportunities for educators. Concerning digital teaching and learning resources, schools and teachers in Slovenia enjoy a high degree of autonomy in their selection, use, and procurement. This freedom encompasses both resources made openly available by the ministry, and those created by other educational stakeholders. The ministry also strongly endorses the use of school management tools, such as the Skupnosti learning management system.
Beyond providing an operating budget and guidance, the ministry arranges professional development sessions to assist schools and teachers in using the digital technologies in education. It also complements the slate of public digital tools and resources with certain publicly procured commercial software, such as Microsoft Teams and Office Suite, for which the ministry negotiates special education pricing to ensure affordability. Additionally, the development of digital didactics and educational materials receives financial backing from REACT-EU funds as well.
Cultivating the digital competence of education stakeholders
In Slovenia, the ministry of education has taken some steps to enhance teachers’ digital competence. It has appointed several mathematics teachers as ICT coordinators in schools and introduced roles of school ICT advisors based in municipalities. The national curriculum offers directives on employing digital tools, providing practical examples of using the tools in several subjects. Nevertheless, the ministry’s primary focus remains to offer non-binding guidelines, which are meant to guide both pre-service and in-service teachers on digital competences, particularly regarding classroom technology integration.
However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic magnified the ministry’s commitment to enhancing teacher training and digital competence. A salient example is the 2021 launch of a two-year initiative across 220 schools, emphasising the refinement of digital strategy and encouraging peer reflections among teachers. Moreover, as part of its national recovery and resilience plan, the ministry invited educational professionals and school leaders for specialised training, targeting the digital upskilling of 20 000 educators. Leveraging the European Structural Funds, the ministry also rolled out a suite of support programmes for schools in need, including initiatives designed to enhance the digital proficiency of school leaders.
Concerning the digital competence of students, unlike many OECD countries, digital skills and competence are currently not taught as part of the curriculum. However, this absence does not mean that there are no efforts to cultivate student’s digital competence. Computer science is a compulsory subject in the first grade of upper secondary schools, and other levels offer it as an elective, alongside courses like data processing, programming, and computational thinking. Furthermore, in 2023, the ministry unveiled a public tender for proposal for innovative projects designed to foster digital competence and basic skills in computing and informatics.10 Co-financed by the ministry and the European Union’s (EU) NextGenerationEU initiative, this call aimed at developing training programmes outside formal education for students at all educational levels, aligning with the European DigComp framework.
Finally, while not specific to education, the Slovene government has recently adopted the Promotion of Digital Inclusion Act (“Zakon o spodbujanju digitalne vključenosti”).11 This act aims at enhancing digital inclusion, incorporating measures like subsidising quality public educational programmes that foster public interest in digital technologies; collaborating with ministries on digital competence policies; launching campaigns to boost confidence in and safe use of digital technologies; and establishing a scheme where Slovene citizens and permanent residents can either obtain a digital voucher for tech equipment or lease it for free.
Governance of data and digital technologies in education
Effective support for the integration of digital technologies in education, as well as the management of the resulting data, hinges on the recognition by stakeholders that such adoption is not detrimental to their interests. Consequently, there exists a set of rules governing their use, safeguarding the data of education stakeholders. In addition, the government takes steps to involve students and parents in consultations and workshops regarding the implementation of digital technologies in educational settings. However, there are currently no specific policy initiatives in place to regulate the use of automated decision-making, AI-powered algorithms, or digital proctoring in education. As of 2023, their application remained limited.12
In Slovenia’s education sector, as in other sectors, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) dictates the standards for data and privacy protection. This has been adopted into the country’s legislation through the Personal Data Protection Act 2022.13 Additionally, the specific safeguarding of data and privacy for students, teachers, and school staff is outlined in the Organisation and Financing of Education Act. Together, these pieces of legislation oversee the collection, retention, and use of educational data.
Equitable access to and use of educational data, including information within the central education database (CEUVIZ) and the central database of employees in education (KPIS), are regulated by both the Personal Data Protection Act 2022 and the Organisation and Financing of Education Act. The former, aligning with the EU GDPR, stipulates that personal data can be shared without individual consent when third parties engaged in scientific, historical, or statistical research that serves the public interest request the data. The latter introduces more specific provisions concerning the data of students and educators. It elaborates on the entities permitted to gather the data, the data collection methodologies, the type of data eligible for processing, and the exceptional circumstances under which certain data can be accessed and linked in a non-anonymised manner. This includes research about student progression to higher vocational and tertiary education, or analysing the job prospects of higher education graduates.
To enhance data portability across systems, the ministry offers guidelines for developing and sharing open educational resources that are compatible with other systems, in line with UNESCO’s Open Educational Resources standards.
Supporting innovation, research and development (R&D) in digital education
Over the past five years, the Ministry of Education has actively championed innovation, research, and development in digital education. It has delineated clear research priorities in digital education, and launched public tenders for organisations to develop educational resources and software, as evidenced by the above-mentioned projects aiming to bolster students’ digital competence and skills in computing and informatics. The ministry’s agency, the National Education Institute Slovenia (“Zavod Republike Slovenije za Šolstvo”), delves into research spanning various educational facets, including digital learning and creating didactics for diverse subjects.14 The ministry has also forged collaborations with the Academic and Research Network of Slovenia (ARNES), a public entity that facilitates research and educational institutions in Slovenia by offering them a platform for networking and collaborative ventures, connecting them to global research networks.
In addition, the ministry announces annual calls for academic research to analyse the influence of digital technologies on student learning trajectories, allocating competitive research grants that universities can apply for. Examples of such research encompass projects about the use of digital technologies to enhance teaching, student engagement and assessment, as well as devising strategies that cater to students with special educational needs and disabilities.15 In 2023, two projects – AI in the classroom and Standards on blended learning – were selected.16 Moreover, Slovenia is among the eight countries collaborating on the EU-funded ATS STEM initiative, which endeavours to supply teachers and students with digital assessment approaches fine-tuned for nurturing students’ transversal skills in STEM education.17
One of the catalysts for digital innovation in Slovenia’s educational landscape is the synergy between public and private sectors, encompassing governmental bodies, educational institutions, and EdTech companies. Although the Ministry of Education does not directly invest in EdTech ventures or provide tax incentives, it does underwrite the R‑D endeavours of these companies. In this setup, the companies are incentivised towards fostering partnerships with educational stakeholders – schools, universities, and public agencies – primarily because several public research tenders necessitate collaboration between educational entities and the private sector. While the Ministry of Education does not independently craft EdTech products, other governmental wings, such as the Ministry of Digital Transformation, also announce public tenders for product development. Amplifying this drive, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, a non-governmental organisation for Slovene businesses, established in 2016 the Digital Coalition, a multi-stakeholder platform bringing together a range of organisations, thereby galvanising the development and update of ICT solutions across sectors.
Notes
← 1. The Ministry of Education, Science and Sport has been recently renamed the Ministry of Education, with its mandate refocused. Research, innovation, and higher education are no longer within its purview. Instead, these responsibilities now lie with the newly established Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Innovation.
← 2. https://www.gov.si/assets/ministrstva/MIZS/SDIG/JR-NOO-usposabljanja-303-35/2022/Akcijski-nacrt-digitalnega-izobrazevanja-2021-2027.pdf
← 4. https://www.gov.si/assets/ministrstva/MIZS/Dokumenti/JN-BMMB/Izhodiscne_specifikacije_Priloga_2_popis_zbirk_OP_K.docx
← 6. Primary and lower secondary: https://e-uprava.gov.si/podrocja/vloge/vloga.html?id=2212
Upper secondary: https://e-uprava.gov.si/podrocja/izobrazevanje-kultura/srednja-sola/vpis-v-srednjo-solo.html
VET and higher education: https://e-uprava.gov.si/si/podrocja/izobrazevanje-kultura/visoka-in-visja-sola.html
← 9. Centre IRIS – Centre for Education, Rehabilitation, Inclusion and Counselling for the Blind and Partially Sighted. https://center-iris.si/o-nas/center-iris-en/
← 10. https://www.gov.si/novice/2023-06-09-objavljen-javni-razpis-eksperimentalni-projekti-st-303-842023/
← 12. In 2017, the Jožef Stefan Institute and the Ministry of Education (previously the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport) jointly piloted METIS, an intelligent early warning system. METIS employs machine-learning algorithms to analyse students’ grades and attendance, assisting teachers in identifying students facing challenges. However, due to various technical and legal hurdles, the system was never fully implemented.
← 15. See, for instance, the project Innovative Pedagogy 1:1, which lasted from 2017 to 2022: http://gu.puslapiai.lt/gu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/journal/published_paper/volume-18/issue-1/V74qfqSw.pdf