Education and Training Monitor 2024

1. Learning for sustainability

Learning for sustainability is present at all levels of education and it is growing stronger. Croatia recognises its importance in several strategic documents. The National Plan for the Development of Education System until 2027 states that by 2030 ‘all learners should acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development’ (NPRSO, 2023). The National Curriculum for Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) reflects the values of sustainability, teaching children about community, inclusion and responsibility (including towards nature). Since 2019, sustainability is covered in three cross-curricular topics to be integrated in all subjects in primary and secondary school: sustainable development, civic education, and personal and social development. Teachers don’t evaluate pupil outcomes at the end of each year but at the end of each of the five cycles, which together span the 12 years of school education. The curriculum for sustainable development contains recommendations for implementation, specific content and detailed leaning outcomes. In vocational schools, curricula for some sectors (technical, economics and healthcare) also include sustainable development in a vocation-relevant manner. Proposed new modular curricula will integrate sustainability in the vocation-relevant manner in more sectors. In higher education (HE), implementation depends on the individual universities and faculties, which create sustainability programmes with different focus areas and goals (Raditya-Ležaić et al., 2018) and integrate sustainability in other study programmes. HE institutions also implement short adult education programmes on sustainability resulting in micro-credentials that can be financed by vouchers.

School students have good knowledge of sustainability and many have participated in activities related to it. In the 2022 International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS), in eighth grade, students’ knowledge is above the EU average (519.8 points vs EU-17 506.7 points). In general, girls and students with highly educated parents have better scores (28.15 and 79.3 points more, respectively). In 53.8% of schools, nearly all eighth grade students have participated in activities related to environmental sustainability – a very high result (EU-17: 48%) (Schulz et al., 2023). Nearly a quarter of all schools in Croatia participate in the international Eco-schools programme, and sustainability is often taught through participation in projects, e.g. the ‘Most Beautiful School Garden’¹.

Teachers are insufficiently trained in teaching about sustainability, and yet many participate in projects and activities. According to the ICCS, only 30% of lower secondary education teachers have participated in training on environmental and sustainability issues, the lowest share among participating countries², despite the curricular obligation of linking this field to all subjects. Sustainability-related competences are not included in teacher competence frameworks or professional standards. Teachers are expected to have a theoretical knowledge of sustainability, but not how to teach it (European Commission, 2024a), an aspect that is left out of teaching training programmes (Mlađenović, 2023). In schools, sustainability-related themes are mainly integrated in teaching based on projects and activities (56.8% of teachers in eighth grade vs EU-17 52.8%) (Schulz et al., 2023). Teacher training seems to be insufficient both in initial teacher training (Vukelić et al., 2019) and in continuous professional development (Anđić, 2020). Only three out of seven universities educating ECEC teachers offer courses on education for sustainability (Višnjić-Jevtić et al., 2022).

Croatia aims to make its VET system greener. Since 2022, digital and green skills have been mapped for a catalogue integrated into the application for learning vouchers, financed by the recovery and resilience plan (RRP) and the ESF+. All new occupational standards include both green and digital skills (Cedefop and Refernet, 2023d). In addition, the Croatian Agency for VET and Adult Education (ASOO) offers VET teachers a course in green skills via VET teacher conferences, sector-specific training and the teacher training web portal.

2. Early childhood education and care

Participation in early childhood education and care is increasing, but still below EU average. In 2023, 29.6% of children under 3 were enrolled in formal childcare, 2.1 percentage points (pps) higher than in 2022 and close to the national target for 2030 of 29.9%. This rate increased by 18.6 pps between 2013 and 2023. In 2022, the participation rate of children between the age of 3 and the beginning of compulsory primary education was 83.5%, 5.7 pps higher than in 2021. Although it is still among the lowest in the EU (EU: 93.1%), it increased significantly (by 15.9 pps) between 2013 and 2022.

Croatia is taking major steps to boost participation, supported by large investments in infrastructure and with the new model of state co-financing of ECEC. The infrastructure investments included in the RRP aim to create 22 500 additional places in ECEC and increase the participation rate to 90% by Q2 2026. According to reports, 343 projects have been selected, that shall provide 21 380 additional places³. Additional funding for ECEC infrastructure is also provided by cohesion policy funds (EUR 45.6 million)⁴ and the state budget⁵. The Central State Office for Demography and Youth launched a call for tender (with a budget of EUR 3.3 million) aimed at improving material conditions in ECEC, intended for equipping playgrounds and improving outdoor areas. Since 1 October 2023, the government has co-financed ECEC facilities’ operating costs based on the number of children and the development category of municipalities. The funding is to be used to increase the availability, sustainability and affordability of ECEC⁶.

Shortages of ECEC teachers persist and may hamper the increase of participation in ECEC. According to updated data on the shortage of ECEC teachers, 7 002 teachers would need to be hired to meet the 2030 targets. Covering the shortage would require increasing the number of graduates from ECEC teacher study programmes and additional immediate measures (Matković, 2021). In 2022, the Ministry of Science and Education legally enabled the recruitment of primary school teachers with a requirement to complete a requalification programme within 2 years after recruitment, approved programmes await implementation (University of Osijek). Despite rising number of ECEC teachers indicated by the national statistics (1948 more between 2020 and 2023)⁷, data from the Croatian Employment Service indicate also rising shortages⁸.

New curricula are being developed for ECEC and pre-school education. In 2023, working groups were set up to draft a proposal for a national ECEC curriculum ⁹ and a pre-school curriculum¹⁰. The pre-school programme is the obligatory part of ECEC for all children before starting primary school. It is integrated in longer ECEC programmes, while children not in those programmes would have to attend it the year before starting school¹¹. The current proposal for the new pre-school curriculum would increase the number of hours of pre-school education to 700 and would be based for the first time on defined developmental areas and educational expectations. During recent public consultations, this proposal was criticised by the Association of ECEC workers and by the Chamber of Psychology as pedagogically not sufficiently adapted to the level of children’s development¹².

3. School education

Basic skills have generally remained stable since 2018 and improved in science. The results of the 2022 OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) show relatively stable performance of students, despite the COVID pandemic disruptions and earthquakes that affected parts of Croatia during this period, indicating resilience in Croatia’s education system. The results could be due to the relatively short period of school closures in Croatia (Markočić Dekanić et al., 2023), successful transition to digital education when COVID started, and the introduction of the new competence-based curricula in schools in 2019-2022. The underachievement rate (i.e. the share of students with an insufficient skill level) is now below the EU average in reading (22.7% vs EU 26.2%) and science (22.4% vs EU 24.2%). In science, the long-term trend is negative (5.1 pps increase in underachievement since 2012), but the short-term trend is positive, with underachievement reduced by 2.9 pps (OECD, 2023) – the second biggest improvement since 2018 in the EU. Although Croatia’s current results are better in comparison with the EU average than before, this is mostly due to the EU average falling (from 2018 to 2022 for math by 6.6 pps, reading by 3.7 pps, and science by 2 pps).

Figure 1: Development of underachievement in mathematics, reading and science in PISA 2012 - 2022 (%)

One third of all students and nearly half of disadvantaged students underperform in mathematics. The underachievement rate in mathematics remains persistently high (32.9% vs EU 29.5%). Underperformance is higher among disadvantaged students (47.8%). According to the national PISA report, students say that they are mostly taught formal mathematics, not applied mathematics. The PISA results show that 70% of Croatian students (those with lower results) took additional classes (usually private) in mathematics that year (Markočić Dekanić et al., 2023). The low results may also be related to the low instruction time and the shortage of qualified teachers in mathematics and physics.

In all three subjects, Croatia has fewer top performers than the EU average. In mathematics (5.9% vs EU 7.9%) and reading (4.2% vs EU 6.5%) the share has not improved since 2012. In science (5.4% vs EU 6.9%) it has increased by 1.8 pps since 2018, the highest increase during this period in the EU. There are no gender gaps in science, but boys are more likely to be top performers in mathematics and girls in reading.

Figure 2: Equity gap: the effect of socio-economic background on combined underachievement in mathematics, reading and science, PISA 2018 and 2022

Equity of the Croatian education system is better than the EU average. Severe underachievement (i.e. underachievement in all three basic skills combined) is a bit lower than the EU average (13.6% vs EU 16.1%) and the gap in underachievement between students with high and low socio-economic backgrounds is one of the lowest in the EU (14.9 pps vs EU 24.1 pps). More students are considered resilient¹³ than the average in the EU (10.7% vs 9.4%). Grade repetition is the lowest in the EU: only 1.2% of students repeat a grade and it generally happens only once, in lower or upper secondary school. The share of students with a migrant background is also relatively low (8.8%), and their migrant background does not significantly affect their results. In 2023, 2% of students left education and training early, the lowest percentage in the EU. Despite the relatively good equity, some challenges remain. Although primary education is free, some materials and activities are not accessible to disadvantaged students (UNICEF, 2022). Access to school can also be a problem as transport is organised only to first to fourth grade pupils living over 3 km and to fifth to eighth graders living over 5 km away (Pravobraniteljica, 2022). Disadvantaged students are overrepresented in three-year vocational secondary programmes, which do not give students access to the state Matura and HE. More than half of Roma children attend segregated schools where all or most children are Roma.¹⁴

Wellbeing has a strong effect on student performance. According to PISA 2022, bullying happens at least a few times a month to 15.9% of students, but it is more frequent among disadvantaged students and in disadvantaged schools. It is associated with a decline in mathematics performance by 24 PISA score points¹⁵. The negative effects are strongest in cases involving threats (-42 points), extortion (-64 points), fights (-50 points) and not feeling safe in school (-45 points). Many students feel that they belong at school (83.2% vs EU 72.4%), and they score 15 points higher in mathematics.

Interest in STEM careers is growing, but stereotypes affect career choices. Interest of students in STEM careers grows as they move up the grades, but their selection of field of study is shaped by stereotypes. Boys are predominantly interested in computer science and engineering and girls in biomedicine and healthcare, while they share an interest in natural sciences and mathematics (Jokić & Ristić Dedić, 2024). In 2023, the digital skills of 16-19-year-olds were among the highest in the EU: 90.29% had basic or above basic digital skills (EU average: 66.49%).

Implementation of the experimental whole-day school project started in 62 schools. The Ministry of Education allocated EUR 2 million to elective activities (sports, creative or IT competencies) that are run in schools in the afternoon. In December 2023, the government amended the Primary and Secondary Education Act¹⁶, introducing changes such as the option to increase teaching hours for pupils in one-shift schools, to organise assisted and enriched learning, employ former beneficiaries of STEM scholarships and to give temporary employment to retired teachers until the age of 67 if no qualified teachers are available. The amendments also abolished obligatory school enrolment areas and left them to the decision of school founders. A call for tender was published from July 2023 to July 2024 to develop school infrastructure for single-shift teaching, supported under the RRP, with a budget of EUR 303 million¹⁷. This RRP grant is supplemented by 1 billion euros RRP Addendum loan to move all primary schools to single-shift. All schools in Croatia are supposed to be able to work in one shift by Q2 2026.

National exams to monitor education outcomes have been expanded to the fourth grade of primary school. For the first time, in March 2024, national exams were also taken by all fourth grade pupils in Croatia, in Croatian, mathematics, nature and society and a national minority language¹⁸. The results of earlier national exams are not publicly available. However, pupils can access their own results, teachers can access their pupils’ results and school principals can access their school results to compare them to the national average¹⁹ and see where there is potential to improve. First evaluations of the results will be done in a few years.

4. Vocational education and training

Croatia continues to improve the labour market relevance of vocational education and training (VET). It has one of the highest shares of learners at medium-level education that are enrolled in vocational programmes in the EU (70.5% vs EU 54.2% in 2022)²⁰. However, the employment rate of recent VET graduates is still below the EU average (70% vs EU 81% in 2023)²¹. The Croatian VET system is shifting from being input-oriented to being learning-outcome oriented, with many aspects of the reformed system currently in development. In 2023, 25 VET schools successfully transformed into Regional Centres of Competence, to ensure innovative teaching, top quality infrastructure and work-based learning (Cedefop and ReferNet, 2023a).

Croatia is undertaking major reforms to improve the relevance, quality and attractiveness of VET. With the support of the ESF+ programme, outdated subject-based curricula are replaced by modular curricula based on occupational standards and aligned with labour market needs. A module connects a general education subject with a vocational education subject. Though modules are a positive development, concerns have been raised by teachers, civil society and the general public about this reform, which also makes the subject politics and economics elective, i.e. potentially abolishes it for students in 3-year secondary programmes. This is worrying as the subject provides VET students with deeper civic education knowledge²². Work is ongoing to increase participation in work-based learning (39.5% of VET graduates aged 20-34 in 2023, compared to EU 64.5%²³) by providing incentives for learners and employers. In 2023, Croatia finalised the development of quality assurance system in adult education, including continuing VET (CVET) (Cedefop, 2024; Cedefop and ReferNet, 2023b). The country is also reviewing the self-assessment of training providers in initial VET (IVET) and expanding the scope of the pilot scheme to track VET graduates (Cedefop and Refernet, 2023c). These are important milestones towards a comprehensive VET quality assurance system. A reform of national skills competitions seeks to boost the attractiveness of VET and to align them with international competitions like WorldSkills and EuroSkills. It also seeks to promote lifelong learning through strategic planning and awareness campaigns (Cedefop, 2024).

5. Higher education

Tertiary educational attainment (TEA) is increasing. In 2023, the TEA rate for people aged 25-34 was 38.8%, 3.3 pps higher than in 2022. It is still below the EU average of 43.1% and the EU-level target of 45%. The gender gap in favour of women is high at 20.7 pps The rate of young people (25-34) with a TEA living in cities is 20.7 pps higher than for young people living in rural areas²⁴. There are also big regional variations, with the TEA rate in the City of Zagreb (58.4%) more than twice that of the Pannonian region (26.7%)²⁵. 28.2% of young people (18-29 years) are in undergraduate or graduate studies, up by almost 5 pps since 2013²⁶. In 2023, the employment rate of recent HE graduates (20-34 years) was 84.4%, below the EU average of 87.7%, but 3.7 pps better than in 2022²⁷.

Learning mobility is low, and most foreign students come from European non-EU countries. In 2022, only 7.9% of HE graduates from Croatia were mobile²⁸. This is one of the lowest mobility rates in the EU (EU average: 10.9%) and much lower than the EU-level target of 23% for 2030. The majority of Croatian mobile graduates obtained their whole degree abroad (4.6% of all Croatian graduates). Of those who went abroad for shorter periods of study (3.3%), 90.4% did so through EU study programmes. The share of foreign graduates in Croatia was very small, just 2.5% (EU: 8.7%) in 2022, and most came from non-EU countries in Europe: 78.4% (EU: 12.4%).

Under the HE reform, the first full performance agreements are being negotiated. Prior to the reform, universities were financed by the state according to their needs and the number of students. In recent years, partial performance agreements were introduced in Croatia and used by some universities. Now performance agreements have become the obligatory method of financing for all public universities, tying financing to their performance and fulfilment of certain goals. Agreements are negotiated between the Minister of Education and the university, and consist of three components: basic, development and performance. Development and performance components are dependent on the university achieving the negotiated goals, and, under the new law, correspond to up to 20% and up to 10% of the amount of the basic component, respectively. They should provide an incentive to improve quality and increase internationalisation and relevance of HE. Agreements have already been signed for 25 public scientific institutes and two smaller universities of applied sciences, while negotiations with other public universities are still ongoing. Implementation will be evaluated in 2026.

6. Adult learning

Adult learning in Croatia still has limited coverage and skills mismatches contribute to labour shortages. Croatia’s rate of participation in adult learning remains at a low level compared to the EU average, particularly among the low-skilled, elderly, rural and the long-term unemployed. In 2022, only 23.3% of Croatian adults aged between 25 and 64 had participated in learning in the previous 12 months (excluding guided on-the-job training), down from 26.9% in 2016 and far below the EU average of 39.5%²⁹. Moreover, there are large inequalities in adult learning participation in 2022 depending on gender (19% of men vs. 27.5% of women), age (33.4% of adults from 25 to 34 years vs. only 13.2% from 55 to 64) and labour status (28.6% of employed, 12.2% of unemployed, 8.9% of inactive). Croatia is investing (with funding from the RRP and the ESF+) in adult learning and in the provision of labour market-relevant skills. However, further efforts are needed to reach the national 2030 target of at least 55% of all adults participating in training every year. More investment is needed to create individual learning accounts based on the success of the learning vouchers system (European Commission, 2024b).

Croatia is making progress in developing a high quality and labour market-relevant adult learning system. New curricula are being developed based on the Croatian Qualification Framework (CROQF). The implementation of the voucher for skills scheme under the RRP helps learners build digital and green skills relevant for the labour market. The system will be further developed with the support of the ESF+. In addition, significant progress has recently been made in developing the system of quality assurance in adult education (Cedefop and Refernet, 2023b), and in developing the system to recognise non-formal and informal learning (the framework for the validation of prior learning for the acquisition of micro-credentials, partial and full qualifications presented in March 2024)³⁰, which was supported by the European Union’s Technical Support Instrument.. These policy measures are significant steps forward to improve the provision and quality of adult learning.