National youth program

Studies and Remuneration of Portions of Scholarships to Post-graduate Students with Disabilities for 2008, by 
the Ministry of Science, Education and Sport, scholarships were awarded in nine categories: A – very successful 
students; B – students of rare studies and professions; C – students who oblige to work in special state care 
areas or on islands upon completion of studies; D –1 students with special status according to the Law on the 
Protection of Military and Civil Homeland War Disabled Persons; E – students in poorer economic status; F – 
students with residence in Vukovar; G – students who lived in foster homes or in social care homes until the 
age of 18, and I and P – regular and post-graduate students with disabilities.
11 
The research was conducted in 2006 by the Research and Training Centre of the Faculty of Humanities and 
Social Sciences in Zagreb on the sample of 1,350 students of final years at the Universities in Zagreb and Rijeka.

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citizenship, social competencies, strategic planning, critical, research and applicative 
thinking and, generally, service learning, in co-operation with organizations of civil 
society
12
, which has also been envisaged in the National Program for the Protection and 
Promotion of Human Rights in the Republic of Croatia from 2008 till 2012. In addition, 
we would like to emphasize that the National Council for Higher Education has issued a 
recommendation (10 September 2008) in which it supports the introduction of gender-
sensitive education on the academic level and accordingly recommends the creation 
and implementation of the new course in ‘‘female studies’’ in undergraduate, graduate 
university and postgraduate studies of the academic institutions having the possibilities 
and conditions for their introduction.
1.1.3. Adult education
Young people who have left the system of regular education, as well as those who want 
to broaden or acquire new knowledge and skills due to personal or professional reasons, 
may use the services of the adult education subsystem. These are organized and verified 
educational programs for adults, that have compensational (basic education) and 
supplemental function, and they form an important part of life-long learning.
There are no reliable data on the portion of adults in education in elementary and high 
school programs.
13
From the period when Croatia had gained independence till the 
adoption of the Strategy for Adult Education in 2004 and establishing the Agency for Adult 
Education two years later, this area did not receive appropriate attention, so the activities 
were maintained mainly owing to individual initiatives. By adopting the Law on Adult 
Education (Official Gazette, 17/07), the situation changed significantly. The Law integrates 
this area into the overall educational system of the Republic of Croatia, thereby creating 
conditions for vertical serviceability (continuation of education on any level) and life-long 
learning. In addition to the provision on integration, the Law introduces the principle of 
partnership of all relevant factors in creating measures for improving adult education, and 
the principle of participation of all in financing the adult education according to the needs 
and abilities of interested parties (state, local and regional self-administration, employers 
and students). The Adult Education Council has also been established, formed of the 
representatives of ministries, employers, trade unions and educational institutions, and its 
task was to monitor the situation in this area and propose measures for its improvement.
Based on the Law on Adult Education, the following rulebooks were adopted: The Rulebook 
on Standards and Norms, and Manner and Procedure for Determining the Fulfillment of the 
Conditions in Institutions for Adult Education, the Rulebook on Records in Adult Education, 
12 
The program that has been conducted since 2005 at the Information Sciences Department of the Faculty of 
Humanities and Social Sciences in Zagreb and at the Faculty of Political Science in Zagreb, in co-operation 
with the DIM organization, confirms that it is essential to introduce into academic education service learning 
through voluntary work, cause of its positive impact on students.
13 
According to the National Youth Action Program 2003 – 2008, in 2000, around 25,000 adults participated in 
some kind of verified high school programs of professional training and additional education, of which 90 
percent were under the age of 30, and around 50 percent completed the programs successfully.

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the Rulebook on Public Documents in Adult Education, the Rulebook on Contents, Form and 
Manner of Keeping and Maintaining Andragogical Documentation (Official Gazette, 128/08).
The adult education is defined in the Law as an overall process of learning directed to 
the development of personality, training for employability (including acquisition of 
qualifications for the first profession and education for retraining or supplementation 
of existing professional knowledge and skills) and training for active citizenship. It is 
conducted as formal, non-formal, informal and/or self-directed learning and is based on 
the principles of life-long learning, availability, freedom of choice, difference, warranty of 
quality and respect for personality and dignity of each participant.
Within formal adult education there are elementary, high school and academic education, 
retraining, additional education and professional training, and it is conducted according to 
institutional and other verified educational programs. Non-formal adult education relates to 
the organized processes of professional training for work, various social activities and personal 
development, and they do not provide a public document. Informal education relates to 
knowledge, skills and attitudes adopted by an individual in communication with its immediate 
environment, whereas self-directed learning relates to learning activities that individuals 
themselves select, monitor and for the outcomes of which they are individually responsible.
Adult educational services may be provided by public open universities, elementary and high 
schools, academic institutions, schools for foreign languages, institutions for accommodation 
and care for persons with disabilities, penological institutions and other institutions and 
organizations, provided they meet the required conditions.
According to the data from commercial courts, in Croatia there are 82 public open colleges, 2 
open colleges and 18 colleges; 7 public universities and 20 culture centers, 3 culture homes 
and 23 legal entities (limited liability companies and joint-stock companies) engaged in adult 
education
14
. They conduct programs of first profession acquisition, professional advanced 
education, additional training and retraining, from basic literacy to acquisition of knowledge 
and skills from certain vocational or general cultural field, such as foreign languages, 
information and communication technologies, entrepreneurship and management, active 
citizenship and environment protection. Programs are financed from the state budget, 
budgets of local and regional self-administration units and by students and employers.
1.1.4. Special youth groups education
In contemporary democracies, which are developing in the direction of knowledge society 
and economy, and which are, moreover, mutually obliged to respect the principles of 
human rights, equality and pluralism, governments must ensure the conditions in order to 
make education accessible to everyone, irrespective of gender, nationality, religion, socio–
economic status or developmental difficulties. The accessibility of education to everyone is 
the most important factor of life opportunities’ equalizing.
14 
Compare the Adult Education Strategy, the Ministry of Science, Education and Sport, Zagreb, November 2004, 
p. 38.

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In Croatia there is no gender disproportion in education in favour of men which we find in a 
number of developed countries in the world. The number of women and men is balanced on 
all education levels, and in the last two or three decades, a constant trend of the increase in 
number of women in comparison with men is visible in academic education. But we find the 
gender disproportion in selecting schools and professions, where the traditional patterns of 
the gender roles distribution are visible.
Children and youth from ethnic minority groups participate in special programs from 
preschools to universities, which are conducted in ethnic minority educational institutions or 
in Croatian language schools, in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia, 
Constitutional Law on the Rights of Ethnic Minorities (Official Gazette, 155/02) and the Law on 
Upbringing and Education in the Language and Script of Ethnic Minorities (Official Gazette, 
51/00). Education of Roma children and youth is conducted according to the National Program 
for Roma, adopted by the Government of the Republic of Croatia in 2003, and the ‘‘Decade for 
Roma Inclusion 2005 – 2015’’ Action Plan. Depending on the selection of the ethnic minorities, 
classes are organized according to one of three adopted models (in the language and script 
of the ethnic minority – model A; bilingual classes – model B, or cultivation of language and 
culture – model C), or as a special educational form (e.g. summer or winter schools). Ethnic 
minority education is integrated into the Croatian educational system, and is financed from 
the state budget and budgets of local self-administration units. Teachers and members of 
national minority groups work in education, but also teachers of other backgrounds if they 
master the language and script of the ethnic minority. Elementary school programs in the 
language and script of ethnic minorities are conducted in special institutions or within 
Croatian language schools for Serbian, Italian, Hungarian, Czech, Austrian, German, Rusyn, 
Ukrainian and Slovakian ethnic minorities. High school education is organized for Serbian, 
Italian, Czech and Hungarian ethnic minorities, and on the level of academic education for 
Italian ethnic minority only.
Religious education has been introduced into Croatian schools as an optional subject, two 
hours a week beginning from the school year 1991/1992, and it was subsequently regulated 
by the Law on Legal Position of Religious Communities (Official Gazette, 83/02). Depending 
on the number of students, it may be organized in schools or religious institutions. Catholic 
religious education is conducted in schools, and it is attended by around 80 percent of 
elementary school and around 77 percent of high school pupils. Other religious communities 
(Orthodox, Evangelistic, Jewish, Islamic, Adventist, Evangelic, etc.) mainly organize religious 
education in their religious institutions according to their programs, confirmed by the Ministry 
of Science, Education and Sport.
Education of young people with developmental difficulties is regulated by the Law on 
Upbringing and Education in Elementary and Secondary Schools (Official Gazette, 87/08), 
which promotes the integration principle through regular, adapted and special programs. 
The implementation of the integration principle is connected with a number of problems 
which are mainly the consequence of a large number of students in classes, insufficient 
preparation of teachers for work in integrated conditions, the lack of assistant teachers and 
appropriate professionals, the fact that the peers are unprepared and the transportation 
and infrastructure are not adjusted. A portion of high school and academic institutions 
is, due to physical obstacles, still inaccessible to youth with disabilities. Although the 

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accessibility of professional and university studies to youth with disabilities is gradually 
being increased by the introduction of special forms of support (scholarships for disabled 
persons, adjusted accommodation in student dormitories, etc.), this satisfies their actual 
needs to a minor degree only.