Museums are not just spaces that preserve objects of the past; they are also rich educational institutions offering opportunities for learning, exploration, and personal growth. For children, museums are special places where they can explore the world around them through play and experiences.
In 2023 Slovenia was the guest of honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair. This year's title went to Italy. However, Slovenia continues to play an important role, as it participates in several Slovenian-Italian projects and events at the fair.
Last November, the first round of the Mobile Heroes project was completed, with trained professionals delivering digital literacy training to over-55s in local rural settings, starting in May 2023, through a travelling classroom. The training was very well attended. In 313 training sessions across the country, 5533 older people have significantly increased their digital skills.
In Slovenia, nearly half of young people aged 19 to 24 are enrolled in tertiary education, with 48.2% actively pursuing higher learning. The stats reveal a notable presence of women and full-time students, emphasizing a diverse academic landscape. Most students opt for a first-level higher degree, with the average age at the end of higher education clocking in at 27.0.
Children’s Week is celebrated every year in the first week of October. It offers an opportunity to reflect on the issues that arise for parents, carers, educators and teachers in relation to children, as well as those that children themselves deal with.
The Frankfurt Book Fair is increasingly moving from a predominantly business fairground, which is closed to the non-specialist public for half of the fair, to bookstores, libraries, cultural institutions and schools in the city itself, becoming what the Germans call a "Publikumsmesse" – a fair for the public.
Summer holidays are over, and, on the 1 September, school starts in Slovenia. Schools opened doors for about 275,000 basic and upper secondary school pupils. According to the Statistical Office, in the previous school year, the first year of primary school was attended by 20,847 children.
Interest activities are an important part of lifelong learning in Slovenia. The school organises them outside of school courses as an extended programme of the school with the aim of determining and developing the student's interests and introducing students to life and training them to spend their free time usefully.
Of course, the children were full of excitement, full of anticipation, back then too! Today, children go to school on 1 September, whereas in the past it was only on 15 September. On the first sports day, pupils usually harvested potatoes for the school cooperatives and brought firewood to school instead of having physical education lessons. Even if much was different, what the children had in common then and now was that they found friends at school and gained useful knowledge.
The United Nations General Assembly declared 24 January the International Day of Education with the aim to emphasize the role of education for peace and development. Education is a human right, a public good and a public responsibility.
The Academy of Fine Arts and Design of the University of Ljubljana (UL ALUO) takes pride in its long-standing tradition. It was founded on 27 October 1945 as the Academy of Figurative Arts and first offered courses in sculpture and painting.
From year to year a growing number of students come to study in Slovenia, currently 6.504, the majority of them still from the former Yugoslav countries. Along with the increasing interest among students from third countries in studying in Slovenia, the demand for study programmes in English is also increasing.
