Primary and secondary education is essentially free because it is mostly sponsored by the
Ministry of Education of the
government of Croatia. Higher education is also mostly free because the government funds all public universities and allows them to set quotas for free enrollment, based on students' prior results (usually high school grades and their scores on a set of exams at enrollment). However, due to the low wages that teachers are paid, there are shortages of teachers throughout Croatia. This shortage of teachers has become an ongoing problem due to the number of educational programs in Croatia. Croatia signed the
Bologna declaration at the Prague meeting of ministers in charge of lower education in 2009, thereby promising to adjust its system of higher education to the so-called
Bologna process by 2010. The first students enrolled under the new setup in the academic year 2005/2006. In 2005, the Croatian Government decided to start a redesign of the programme of primary and secondary education under the title
Hrvatski nacionalni obrazovni standard (Croatian national educational standard). In the school year 2005/2006, a new system was tested in 5% of the primary schools. Croatia had begun work on digitalizing its schools through a countrywide digitalization effort managed by CARNET, the Croatian National Research and Education Network. In a pilot initiative, 920 instructors and over 6 000 pupils from 151 schools received computers, tablets, and presentation equipment, as well as improved connection and teacher training. When the
COVID-19 pandemic struck, those schools were ready to begin offering online programs within two days. More than 1300 primary, secondary, and art schools in Croatia are expected to be entirely digitalized by the end of 2023. About 20 000 teachers and other educational personnel is expected to be trained. The goal is to give IT equipment to all Croatian schools, but also to educate instructors and generate digital instructional material, boosting the digital maturity level of Croatian schools.
Early childhood education The early childhood development education is organized in kindergartens, which are not compulsory. There are three stages of early childhood education: • from when the child is 6 months old to when they're one • from the ages of one to three • from the age of three until the child starts attending primary school Even though these three stages are not compulsory, every child must attend kindergarten for a year prior to primary school. There are over 450 kindergartens in the country; most of them are state-run, although there are also private ones. There are many kindergartens integrated with primary schools.
Primary education , a part of
Ilača-Banovci elementary school '',
Mimara Museum palace, Zagreb Croatian elementary (grade school) education lasts eight years, and is mandatory. Children begin school at the age of 6 or 7. The students are divided into classes, and these classes are named
X. a,
X. b,
X. c, etc., with X being the grade school year, for example
2. b,
3. d, etc., depending on the number of same-age students in a specific school. Grade school education is split into two stages: • grades 1 through 4, taught by one teacher per school year, who teaches every subject (except for foreign languages and religion) such as Croatian language,
mathematics,
culture of visual arts (
likovna kultura), nature and society (
priroda i društvo),
physical education,
culture of music, and at least one foreign language (often English, usually in the 1st grade and compulsory from the 4th grade). Religious education is an elective subject, and students can choose among Catholic, Orthodox and Islamic religious classes. The students stay in one classroom for the first 4 years. • grades 5 through 8, where different teachers teach different subjects, with further subjects such as
history,
geography,
biology,
chemistry,
physics,
vocational education,
informatics and, in addition to English, often a second language (usually German,
French or
Italian). The students no longer stay in the same classroom, but rather move around the school to get to their various classrooms. Ever since primary school became mandatory during the Yugoslavian era, the literacy rate in
Croatia is at a substantial level of 98.1%. The majority of children manage to complete grade school. The majority of schools offer either English,
German or
Italian language classes as early as 1st grade. They then offer a second language class, starting from the 4th grade. The most popular foreign languages are English, German and Italian, followed by
Spanish,
French and
Russian. There are currently 940 primary schools in Croatia. Public primary schools are under the jurisdiction of local governments, the cities and municipalities.
Secondary education Secondary education is currently optional, although most political parties advocate the stance that it should become compulsory. Secondary schools in Croatia are divided into: •
gymnasia with four available educational tracks;
prirodoslovno-matematička gimnazija (specializing in math, informatics and science),
jezična gimnazija (a focus on foreign languages and with less science),
klasična gimnazija (a curriculum centered around
classics, namely
Latin and
Ancient Greek) and
opća gimnazija (a general education which is not as specific). As a general education school, gymnasia are a transition to professional training in colleges, universities, and faculties, i.e. it does not qualify students for a particular profession, but mainly focuses on further education. The subjects taught include: Croatian, mathematics, English, second foreign language (of choice), third foreign language (an option in foreign-language-centric schools only), Latin, art history, musical arts, history, geography, biology, chemistry, physics, sociology, psychology, information technology, politics and economics, philosophy, logics, physical education, and an elective (students may choose either religious studies or ethics as the elective). Education in gymnasia lasts for four years. It is harder to get into gymnasia than vocational or art schools and are generally harder to complete. •
vocational schools that teach students a certain craft, such as cooking or carpentry, and last three, four, or five years, depending on the chosen vocation. Economics and engineering schools fall under this category as well, and they last for four years. Medical high school is the only one that lasts for five years since the 2010/2011 school year. •
art schools that focus on visual arts, music, and similar. They last four years. Secondary schools supply students with primary subjects needed for the necessary work environment in Croatia. People who complete secondary school are classified as
medium expertise (
srednja stručna sprema or
SSS). Graduates of vocational schools lasting for 4 years are allowed to sit for the national graduation exam (
državna matura) and attend university. Graduates of vocational schools lasting 3 years can attend technical vocational higher education institutions, however both groups of students are also eligible to work after completing secondary school just like art school graduates, while gymnasium graduates must go to university. The process of getting into a high school in Croatia is rather difficult. A student chooses 5 schools which they wish to attend (students that are interested in vocational schools may choose two programs within a school) and then list them by priority. A point system determines whether a student may enroll. The maximum number of points while signing up is 80; these points are gathered from primary school grades (from 5th to 8th grade) and other extra criteria, such as additional points for high placements in different subject knowledge competitions. Schools usually have quotas determining the number of students which can enroll in a particular school year. There are currently around 90 gymnasia and 300 vocational schools in Croatia. Public secondary schools are under the jurisdiction of regional governments (counties).
Higher education , 1396 Students may enroll into two basic kinds of higher education: •
polytechnic schools (
veleučilište), higher-level education •
universities (
sveučilište), highest level education The distinction between the programs taught at universities and polytechnics used to be the length of studies and the final classification of the students. However, this line is being blurred by the implementation of the
Bologna process. Previously, the
veleučilište approximately matched the German concept of
Fachhochschule. People who previously completed a
veleučilište were classified as
having higher expertise (
viša stručna sprema or
VŠS). People who previously completed a
sveučilište were classified as
having high expertise (
visoka stručna sprema or
VSS). It was also possible to enroll in post-graduate studies and earn the distinctions of
magistar and
doktor znanosti (
PhD). The 2003 changes to higher education legislation, which introduced the Bologna process in Croatia, abolished the terms "higher" and "high" expertise. Since the Bologna process, the levels of expertise are: •
Bachelor of Science and
Bachelor of Arts (
prvostupnik) •
Master of Science and
Master of Arts (
magistar) •
Master of Education (
magistar edukacije) •
Doctor of Science and
Doctor of Arts (
doktor) All larger universities in Croatia are composed of independent
faculties (
fakultet, meaning college or department). Each independent college or department maintains its own administration, professional staff (also known as a "faculty") and campus. The colleges focus on specific areas of learning: natural sciences, philosophy, law, engineering, economy, architecture, medicine, and so on. Although a university's colleges or departments are usually located in the same city as the administration of the university, some are located in different cities, such as Zagreb's University's Faculty of Metallurgy located in the city of
Sisak. The universities of Dubrovnik, North (Koprivnica, Varaždin), Pula, Slavonski Brod and Zadar do not have independent colleges. The description of the Croatian higher education system as of July 2008 is available from the official Croatian Guidelines for the Publication of Diploma Supplement, which was published by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia in July 2008. Although the document itself is in Croatian, the English description of the higher education system is available from page 25. Croatia had a significant negative tertiary education attainment gender gap of -22.3 pp in 2024.
Minority schools A special law on minority education exists. Education of the representatives of national minorities is carried out in 24 elementary schools, where the program is conducted in the language and writing of a relevant national minority, while 61 elementary schools have classes with such program. There are six models of minority education.
Homeschooling and alternative schools Home education was legal in Croatia in 1874 when Croatian law stated that parents had a duty to educate their children either at home or by sending them to school. The child had to pass an exam in a public school at the end of every school year. The primary education in Croatia is compulsory from the age of six to fifteen and spans eight grades. In September 2010 a religious organisation,
Hrvatska kršćanska koalicija submitted a proposal to change the law so home education would become legal in Croatia. The civil organisation
Obrazovanje na drugi način joined in and is now working on its own proposal. The proposed model is based on
Slovenian and
Montenegrin model of home education. The child is required to enroll into a local school (public or private) and pass annual exam in certain subjects (mother language and math only in lower grades; with addition of foreign language in middle grades and more subjects in higher grades). If the child does not pass all the exams in two attempts, they are ordered to continue the education with regular school attendance. Every year the parents have to notify the school by the end of May that they will be educating their child at home. Like in the case of Slovenia and Montenegro, the proposed model does not impose any limitation on who can home educate. The parents educating their children at home are not eligible to receive any kind of state help. The schools are free to choose whether they will allow special arrangements with children educated at home (flexi-schooling, the use of school resources, participation in field trips and other school activities, etc.). The Ministry of Education and schools are not required to provide any form of help to parents of children educated at home (teacher guides, worksheets, consultation, etc.). The proposed model was chosen as it requires minimal change to the existing law and would be possible to implement within the current educational framework. The Croatian Constitution, in the Article 63 paragraph 1, states that parents have a duty to
school their children. Similarly, in the Article 65 paragraph 1, it states that primary
schooling is compulsory and free. As of July 2011 there are three alternative primary schools in Croatia – one Montessori and two Steiner Waldorf schools. Alternative schools in Croatia are required to follow national curriculum (Article 26 paragraph 1, Article 30). ==Other educational institutions==