By: Sara Bertoncelj / Nova24tv.si
“At 24UR, the Secretary of Ministry of Education, who did not prepare the materials for the government in time, criticises the government because it has not yet considered university enrolment material as if the government is just a formality,” pointed out former Minister Matej Lahovnik, adding that the shock that the Prime Minister wants a timely delivery of materials for the government so that everyone can read them, is very telling. For the privileged and corrupt, every move of the government is a shock, because corrupt networks are present in all areas. Many believe, that the shock is just confirmation that the government is eliminating anomalies that have accumulated over the past thirty years.
According to the management of the University of Ljubljana, enrolment in faculties could be endangered, as the government has not yet given its consent to the tender for enrolment in study programmes, which the Prime Minister denied. He also responded to the misleading of the central state daily newspaper, in which they stated, among other things, that the Prime Minister stopped the publication of the tender for enrolment in faculty studies. According to Prime Minister Janez Janša, the material is of a strategic nature and must be considered by the competent committee before the government, which uses data relating to staffing needs in the economy, the public sector and the country in general. Moreover, at the press conference, the Prime Minister stressed out again that it is not true that the government is blocking the consent to the tender for enrolment at faculties. He explained that the government had not addressed this point. The Ministry of Education sent the material a few days ago and there was no time for it to be considered by the competent government committee. Since the proposal has not yet been considered, they do not know whether it is good or bad. According to Janša, these are strategic decisions and it makes no sense to tackle these decisions as our predecessors used to do in the past, consequently creating thousands of young people without employment opportunities both in Slovenia and within the common European market: “Enrolment in faculties is one of the basic strategic and development documents of the country and cannot be a collection of wishes of those who run colleges, as it is taxpayers’ money.”
The 24ur.com portal reported that the postponement of the government’s consent to the tender for enrolment in study programmes in the next academic year had negatively surprised the rectors of all four public universities. At the presided conference of rectors, Zdravko Kačič from the University of Maribor said that the entire enrolment process was tied to February 1st. The rector of the University of Maribor pointed out that future students are already facing very stressful situations, when they have to finish high school with many open questions about their graduation exams. “And now they are faced with the fact that we will not be able to present all key information at the information days, so that they will be able to count on whether they will be able to enrol in the desired study programme or not, because we do not know how many places we will be able to announce,” Kačič told 24ur.com. The Prime Minister Janez Janša explained that the material had only been submitted to them a few days ago. As it is of a strategic nature, it must be considered by the competent committee before the government.
The rectors deny responsibility for the delay in the procedure, saying that it has been the same for many years. According to Kačič, the universities prepare the material and coordinate it with the ministry for several months and agree on a timeline. If this time, the Ministry of Education had requested the material for November, it would have been presented by then, the rector explained. He added that it is not just a matter of a few days. Universities currently have no information on whether this will really take a few days or maybe a month. “We prepared and handed over the material on time, as in previous years,” Secretary of the Ministry of Education Jure Gašparič told Dnevnik, and explained to 24UR that the government was informed that it would receive the material a few days later and assured that this will not delay the proceedings. The secretary also wonders what Janša will be able to analyse in a few days and adds: “All of us who seriously manage the country know that we have no data on what the needs of the labour market will be in five years.” The fact that the “delay” of the government is criticised by the Secretary of State, who did not prepare the material in time, was pointed out by the former Minister Dr Matej Lahovnik, who also stressed that fictitious enrolments in some programmes have been a problem all years. “Programmes whose students are unemployable, we import and with the light of day we are looking for workers in health care and nursing, because we restrict enrolment in these programmes to students despite their wishes,” he wrote.
On Friday, January 29th, the Minister of Education, Science, and Sport Dr Simona Kustec, announced that the material for the tender for study programmes in the academic year 2021/2022 will be discussed next week according to the usual protocol of government materials. “Every government must make a decision regarding this, every year on the basis of the legal obligation from Article 40 of the ZviS,” she wrote. Former Prime Minister and champion in throwing in the towel, Marjan Šarec, accused Janša on Twitter that he did not have a plan even an hour in advance, let alone working out a plan for the next ten years. He finds it ridicules that the real cause would be the delay. However, Janez Snoj also pointed out more than obvious fact, namely that the KUL coalition uses every move of the Prime Minister for criticising, even if he does something that the KUL members had been ardently defending a little earlier. KUL thus criticised the government in September for failing to train five hundred additional health workers, and is now criticising the prime minister for pointing out that study programmes should be adapted to the needs of the state.
Former Minister Pavel Gantar also expressed his opinion on Twitter, believing that by holding the tender, Janša intends to reduce enrolment places in public social sciences and humanities, and at the same time increase enrolment in private faculties. Political scientist Dr Miro Haček replied that he hoped that the government would add an enrolment place in the deficit professions, and above all, preserve the right to freely choose studies as one of the fundamental human rights.