Review article
https://doi.org/10.21857/yq32oh8ko9
Longer duration of compulsory schooling in Croatia: The much-needed Europeanization of Croatian education has not yet been achieved
Vladimir Strugar
; Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, The Institute for Scientific Research and Artistic Work in Bjelovar, Bjelovar, Croatia
Abstract
The subject of this research is the structure of the school system in Croatia and some European countries with special reference to the duration of general compulsory schooling. In doing so, a descriptive method with a historical-comparative approach is applied. In this article, the author presents the efforts of some European countries, especially the countries of the European Union, to reform the structure of the school system with the aim of extending compulsory schooling. In this context, the author presents the efforts of the Republic of Croatia known as the europeanization of Croatian education after the 1990s, with special reference to the follow-up of those reform proposals that prevised changing the structure of the school system and extending the duration of compulsory schooling. The research confirmed that structural changes in the school system were carried out in most European countries between the 1970s and 1980s, but already in the first years after the Second World War. Changing the school system is a continuous process, and extending the duration of general compulsory schooling is an effort that continues even in modern conditions. Such efforts were not consistently followed in Croatia. In the same way, not all reform documents after the 1990s, which provided for a longer duration of compulsory schooling (nine and ten years), were implemented. Thus, attempts at europeanization failed in one of the important changes in the school system. There are four groups of reasons for the longer duration of compulsory schooling in Croatia: to join the development of a common society (the European Union), to achieve a common European educational orientation, to respect the specifics of the psychophysical development of children and young people, and to meet the specific needs of Croatian society.
Keywords
Europeanization; the European dimension of education; innovations; reformology; reform; education system; schooling; school system
Hrčak ID:
313600
URI
Publication date:
22.1.2024.
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