National youth program

1.1. Formal education
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Formal education represents the central part of the national educational system in which 
service knowledge, skills and values are systematically and methodically passed onto 
children and youth from preschool, over elementary and secondary school, to university, 
including (additional) adult education. As it represents an instrument used by the state to 
ensure the realization of the general right to education for its citizens, the basic principles 
of formal education system operations are regulated by the Constitution and special laws, 
which is also the case in Croatia. In the Republic of Croatia, there is the Law on Upbringing 
and Education in Elementary and Secondary Schools (Official Gazette, 87/08), effective from 
2 August 2008. But unlike developed countries, Croatia still does not have a general law on 
education which would regulate the relations between subsystems of formal education 
and relations between systems of formal, non-formal and informal education.
1.1.1. High school education
The lack of unifying legal regulation particularly affects high schools, which have a key role 
in education, since they prepare young people either for entering the labour market or for 
continuing education. Therefore, this education period is being fully or partially regulated 
in more and more countries as a part of compulsory education. These changes are about to 
occur also in Croatia, where compulsory education is still reduced to eight-year education. 
One of the causes for this is Article 65 of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia, which 
does not guarantee the compulsiveness of high school education, but its accessibility to all 
under equal conditions and in accordance with abilities, as well as for the academic education.
According to the Law on Upbringing and Education in Elementary and Secondary Schools 
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The analysis of the situation in formal education relies on data from the National Program of Measures for 
Implementing Compulsory High School Education, adopted by the Croatian Parliament on 21 June 2007 
(available at the web site: http://www.nn.hr/clanci/sluzbeno/2007/2184.htm, 1 June 2008).

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(Official Gazette, 87/08), this part of education system comprises grammar schools (four-
year schools of general education), art schools (four-year music, visual arts and design 
schools) and vocational school (technical four-year schools, three-year schools for craft, 
industrial and related vocations, programs for acquiring lower professional qualifications 
and so-called adapted programs). The programs are conducted in public schools, 
accredited private schools, public open universities and other appropriate institutions. In 
2006, in Croatia there were 413 public and 25 private high schools.
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The choice of school 
mainly depends on the student’s success and availability of appropriate capacities, but 
in the last few years, the labour market becomes more significant factor for choice than 
before. An important role in this is played by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sport, 
which determines the number of students to be enrolled in specific high schools according 
to public needs.
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The official data show that in Croatia around two thirds of the pupils, after completing primary 
school, choose vocational education
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, which undergoes through significant changes lately. 
Upon the analysis of the labour market, the Agency for Vocational Education reduced the 
number of vocational sectors (from 32 to 14) and the number of vocational professions (from 
330 to 199, with the tendency of further reduction until the level of 150 professions). In the 
middle of 2006, it established 13 vocational councils, which have drafted propositions of 
vocational professions, following which the changes in the vocational education programs 
begun. The final objective is to harmonize general professional-theoretical and practical 
dimensions of vocational education and ensure vertical and horizontal serviceability of 
the educational system. In strategic development documents, the emphasis is put on the 
acquisition of professional competencies and on self-organized and life-long learning in 
accordance with the established needs of the labour market.
The second significant change is a new approach in validation of school achievements. 
Related to this, and as a permanent system of external validation of work and achievements, 
and improvement and ensuring the quality, the national exams were introduced, which 
have been implemented in high schools since 2006 and in primary schools since 2007. The 
state graduation exam is also being implemented, aimed at assessment and valuation of 
acquired knowledge and capabilities of pupils at the end of their four-year high school 
education. Since 2010, the state graduation exams are taken by the pupils in grammar 
schools who complete their high school education by passing the state graduation exam, 
and pupils in vocational and art educational programs, which last for at least four years, 
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According to some sources, around 20 percent of students, who have completed elementary school, do not 
continue their education, and of the total number enrolled in high school, around 70 percent receive final 
certificates in time. In comparison, in 25 ‘‘old’’ European Union members, around 15 percent of students drop 
out of the system after elementary school, and around 77 percent of enrolled students complete high school.
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By the Decision on Enrolling Students in High School in Accordance with Public Needs for the year 2007/2008, the 
Ministry of Science, Education and Sport allocated 59,000 places in the following way: general programs (22 
percent); four-year vocational programs for technical and related vocations (41 percent); three-year vocational 
programs for industry and economy (9 percent); three-year vocational programs for related crafts (22 percent); 
art programs (3 percent) and three-year vocational programs for crafts, one-year and two-year vocational 
programs for acquiring lower professional qualifications, and adapted and special programs for students with 
developmental and behavioural difficulties (around 1 percent each). 
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We find similar situation also in the countries of the so-called Germanic culture, unlike in Scandinavian 
countries, where around 50 percent of youth opts for vocational education.

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and who complete their high school education by creating and defending the final work, 
organized and conducted by the school, but who wish to continue their education on the 
academic level. The state graduation exam comprises compulsory and elective part – the 
compulsory part includes taking the exams in Croatian language, mathematics and foreign 
language, and mother tongue for students belonging to ethnic minority groups, while the 
elective part comprises exams in subjects selected by the students themselves. National 
exams and state graduation exams are conducted by the National Center for External 
Valuation of Education in co-operation with schools.
In addition, in 2006, Croatia joined the OECD PISA program (Program for International 
Student Assessment), which assessed the knowledge of reading, mathematics and natural 
sciences on the sample of 400,000 students from 57 countries. The results of Croatian 
students were statistically significantly below the OECD average in all three assessed areas, 
which indicates the need to conduct a thorough analysis of the situation in this subsystem 
and to apply the excellence principle in its development.
The strategic development documents emphasize the harmonization of curricula with the 
needs of the market, local community and pupils’ interests, they call for an increase in the 
number of elective, facultative and out-of curriculum programs and a decrease in lectures 
in favour of research projects and cooperative learning, they introduce the practice of self-
assessment and external assessment of achievements, they call for more efficient use of 
new technologies and media and emphasize the need to improve working conditions in 
high schools. Simultaneously, significantly less attention is paid to the issues of preparing 
young people for the role of a citizen in a democratic society, inclusion of civil society 
organizations, especially youth associations, into the work of school and stimulating 
domestic and foreign exchange of students and teachers.
The space, opened by reduction of contents, overloaded with facts, should be fulfilled more 
by programs that prepare young people for active participation in democratic processes, 
encourage the development of critical thinking, teach young people the human rights
principles, non-discrimination, solidarity and social responsibility, develop intercultural 
sensitivity and prepare for conflict management, promote the need to protect the 
environment and strengthen for the challenges of consumer society. With the purpose of 
promoting socially responsible citizenship, greater attention should be paid to familiarizing 
students with their rights and responsibilities in school and society, and preparing them 
for making and implementing decisions, including the preparations for holding student 
councils and participation in their work. Since the education is proving to be one of the most 
important factors of the youth social engagement, for the same purpose it is necessary to 
introduce the programs of service learning into high school education. The compound of 
voluntary work and learning makes learning more purposeful and meaningful, encourages 
the development of responsibilities for common benefit and strengthens the ties between 
school and local community in social changes.
Bearing in mind the problem of social stratification of the Croatian society, low educational 
structure of population and relatively high rate of school drop-outs, great attention in 
changes of high school education should be paid to socially or in other way vulnerable 
students. This means there is the need to increase the number and amounts of student 
scholarships, to expand and modernise the capacities of pupil dormitories, to subsidise more 

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significantly public transport of pupils commuters and to introduce new forms of support, 
especially in co-operation with youth associations and other civil society organizations.
Solving of many of mentioned problems is connected with the prolongation of the 
compulsory education period. The Croatian Parliament adopted this important goal in 
2007, by adopting the National Program of Measures for the Introduction of Compulsory 
Secondary Education. The changes are aimed at increasing the number of young people 
who complete high school, improving the quality of high school education and harmonizing 
high school curricula with the needs of the labour market and European standards, in order 
to keep young people in the system until they are trained for their first profession. The 
success in this also depends on the full linking of the overall education system in terms of 
norms, contents and functions.
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1.1.2. Academic education
Academic education is based on the freedom and autonomy of participants, on ethics and 
publicity in operation, on respect and recognition of human rights and on prohibition of 
any kind of discrimination.
Although the entire Croatian educational system is changing quickly, the most thorough 
changes take place in the area of academic education. The reason for this is quick 
harmonization with the EU countries, as well as removing obstacles detected in the process. 
In order to avoid the concentration of institutions of academic education in major Croatian 
cities, the Government of the Republic of Croatia and the Ministry of Science, Education and 
Sport implement the policy of polycentric development of academic education, and the 
development of professional studies in less urban areas. Accordingly, since 2005, one public 
university (Juraj Dobrila University in Pula), six public colleges (Marko Marulić College in 
Knin, Lavoslav Ružička College in Vukovar, Nikola Tesla College in Gospić, College in Šibenik, 
College in Slavonski Brod and College of Međimurje) and one academic school (College of 
Management in Tourism and IT in Virovitica) were established. Such development policy 
enables the profiling of universities, colleges and academic schools in accordance with 
regional needs and peculiarities. Establishing new colleges in county centers will contribute 
to economic development of the area and keeping young people. Also, in co-operation of 
the Ministry of Science, Education and Sport and the Development and Employment Fund, 
a Development of Professional Studies project was launched for the purpose of promoting 
employment in less urban areas in the Republic of Croatia.
The new system of financing academic institutions was also launched, according to the Lump 
sum model, by which a single financial policy of university was introduced, in January 2006.
Although certain improvements have been made, the strengths still need to be directed 
to modernization of programs, teaching methods and learning sources; increase in the 
number of elective subjects and extension of interdisciplinary approaches; and to place 
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A contribution to the education system unification represents the Strategy for Creation and Development of the