An efficient education system
The elementary cycle offers a single, compulsory education - theosnova sola - from the age of 6 to 15. Elementary school and junior high school form a single cycle. The focus shifts to gymnazija - the equivalent of our high school - where secondary education continues for four years, until the age of 19. The matura is a diploma that marks the end of secondary education, similar to the French baccalauréat.
From then on, students are divided between the country's five universities. The one with the largest student body is, of course, Ljubljana University, with 40,000 students. This is the country's first university, founded in the Napoleonic era at the time of the Illyrian epic. The country's second university is Maribor, founded in 1961, with some 18,000 students. The third general university is Primorska, which attracts 6,500 students. These are complemented by more specific university courses in Nova Gorica (environmental sciences and agronomy) and Novo Mesto (engineering, management and IT). There are some 65,000 students across the country, including a significant proportion of foreign students - 4,000 or 6% of the total in 2019, mainly from the Old Continent.
A society that wants to be egalitarian and progressive
In terms of individual freedom, human rights protection and gender equality, Slovenia is committed to its role as a good performer among OECD countries.
Human rights are improving every year. Corruption has declined in the country, and transparency is gaining ground, although more remains to be done.
Slovenia is also relatively tolerant and open-minded. LGBTQI people are safe here, and homophobic outbursts are relatively rare. This is more an urban reality, with some rural areas remaining more conservative and homosexuality less well accepted. Homosexual marriage is not authorized in the country. It was the subject of a bill put to a referendum in 2015. The "no" side won with almost 60% of the vote. However, the Slovenian state has promoted several laws to limit employment discrimination for homosexuals and authorized civil unions between same-sex couples in early 2017. Ljubljana is undoubtedly gay-friendly, and has been proudly promoting its LGBT Film Festival for over thirty years. To better understand the complexity of Slovenia's view of sexual minorities, we recommend viewing Darko Štante's excellent 2018 film Consequences, which deals with the adolescent upheavals surrounding homosexuality in contemporary Slovenia.
When it comes to gender equality, Slovenia has made serious progress. There is a fairly good distribution between women and men in positions of high responsibility. However, in the political sphere, the current government has only four women among its sixteen ministers. Although improvements are expected in the hiring rate of women, which is still lower than that of men, the gender pay gap is beginning to narrow drastically (around 5%), making Slovenia one of the European Union's best performers in this area.
A sometimes targeted intolerance that needs to be corrected
The fate of "erased" persons is emblematic of this variable-geometry tolerance. The first to be mentioned are Slovenian residents from other Yugoslav peoples who failed to apply for Slovenian citizenship within the allotted time at the time of the country's independence. Around 20,000 people were removed from the list of Slovene citizens in February 1992, and are now suffering from a form of social downgrading. The situation is in the process of being resolved thanks to court rulings in recent years.
The Slovenian government has also imposed a tough policy against migrants with the construction of a border fence in 2015-2016. This policy of repression is partly explained by the redoubling of diplomatic tensions between Slovenia and Croatia over the last decade, and has been gradually easing in recent months. However, xenophobic sentiment is not non-existent in the country, with a heightened fear of the disintegration of the young national identity. This resentment concerns not only migrants and asylum seekers, but also the Roma minority.
Prostitution and crime
Prostitution was decriminalized in 2003. It is relatively rare in the public arena, limited to a few outlying strip bars andescorting websites. Damjan Kozole's moving 2011 film, Slovenian Girl, deals with the problem of student prostitution.
Crime and delinquency rates are particularly low throughout the country. Slovenia can pride itself on being one of the safest countries in the world. It combines a number of superlatives in this respect: the lowest imprisonment rate in the EU, a very low homicide rate, and so on. The most common incivility takes place on the roads, with recklessness and sporty driving leading to a higher death toll than the OECD average.
Marriage and birth rate: the central place of the family in Slovenia
Slovenian society, while tolerant, is nonetheless traditional in certain areas. The institution of marriage is as essential to the country as ever. It is often the subject of two ceremonies: one civil, the other religious. An ancient tradition has it that the husband performs the sragna: sawing a log in public to attest to his protective strength. This rite of passage underlines the central place of the family in Slovenian society. For example, multi-generational households are still commonplace in rural areas. However, although the divorce rate is lower than in most EU countries, the fertility rate remains low. After the steep fall of the 2000s, there has been a slow recovery which continues today, reaching 1.61 children per woman in 2019. This figure, combined with the steady rise in life expectancy over the last few decades, is pushing Slovenia's population towards a general ageing trend, the negative effects of which are to be feared. This dual effect is contributing to a population increase that is set to continue until 2030, before declining until 2050.
An efficient but unbalanced health system
The Slovenian healthcare system remains relatively efficient despite its high cost and complexity. Health spending by Slovenian citizens is relatively moderate, in line with the low average of OECD countries. Attempts at structural reform have often failed due to divided public opinion and a lack of transparency on the part of those in power. One of the main shortcomings of the healthcare system is the low ratio of doctors to the European average, with the result that consultation times for specialists are getting longer and longer. General practitioners, on the other hand, are less affected and are of high quality.
A relaxed relationship with work
Slovenians do not perceive their personal fulfillment solely through the prism of their professional activity. Indeed, although working hours are set by law at forty hours a week, they organize their days according to their personal prerogatives. The solar time difference of around an hour with Western Europe encourages them to start their working day at around 7:30 a.m. and end it before 5 p.m..
