1. Case-study No. & Title:
244. Secondary-level educational opportunities for the Italian minority in Slovenia: the example of ‘Slovene’ and ‘Italian’ high schools in the Piran/Pirano municipality

Keywords

2. Author information
2.1 Author’s Name
Simona Zavratnik Zimic

2.2 Institutional Affiliation and Contact Details:
Institute for Ethnic studies
Erjavčeva 26
Ljubljana
Phone: ++ 386 1 200 18 70 (or 86)
Fax: ++ 386 1 2510 964
E mail: simona.zavratnik@guest.arnes.si

2.3 Date recorded
08/03/2001

3. Good Practice Information Sheet
3.1 Local Level Good Practice:
The good practice deals with educational system developed in three Slovenian municipalities: Piran/Pirano, Koper/Capodistria and Izola/Isola, in the bilingual Slovenian-Italian territory on the ‘Slovenian coast’. Monolingual school for Italian ethnic community/minority members have been developed in this region. This practice contrasts with Prekmurje where a bilingual (Slovenian-Hungarian) educational scheme has elolved. In this region there are three high schools that have Italian as the language of instruction, one high school in each of the bilingual municipalities.

In the municipality of Piran/Pirano there are two high schools, one with Slovenian as the language of instruction and one taught in Italian. The latter is crucial in terms of ensuring equal educational opportunities for those pupils whose first language is Italian. Mostly they are members of the Italian ethnic community/minority in Slovenia, but this is not exclusively so. This local practice is unique in two - interconnected - respects: first, members of the Italian ethnic community/minority are given opportunities and have access to education in their mother tongue; and second, all children in Slovenian high schools in the bilingual area are obliged to learn Italian. This principle is important in terms of minority language promotion. It promotes the minority language as the actual language of the bilingual environment, giving it a role in everyday communication.

3.2 Location:
The secondary level education practice being described in this report is being implemented in three municipalities on the Slovenian coast, which have the status of Slovenian-Italian bilingual areas: Piran/Pirano, Izola/Isola, Koper/Capodistria. The practice of monolingual minority high school education is presented in the case of Piran/Pirano municipality through the example of the ‘Slovenian high school’ and the ‘Italian high school’.

3.3 Minority/Target Groups:
Minority: Italian ethnic community/minority in Slovenia
Target group: pupils attending secondary-level education in bilingual Slovenian-Italian area (respectively municipality Piran/Pirano)

3.4 Major Actors Involved

3.5 Budget allocated by local government authorities and/or by other actors
In line with Slovenian educational legislation, the Ministry for Education, Science and Sport provides funding for secondary level educational institutions. Financing of schooling and education in Slovenia is the joint responsibility of local authorities (municipalities) and the state, i.e. the Ministry for Education, Science and Sport. In this particular case the local government also provides funding for specific projects. In accordance with inter-state agreements, Slovenia guarantees the availability of material and other requirements for the work of education advisors in Italian (and Hungarian) languages.

3.6 Timeframe
Educational activities within the high school system with Italian as the language of instruction were implemented after the Second World War, starting in the year 1945. (Within the framework of the national reform of the educational system some new elements were introduced in the Italian-language minority education system.)

3.7 Local level good practice relation to national level ethnic policy
According to the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia (23 December 1991), two ethnic groups have a status of indigenous ethnic communities or minorities. These are Italian (3064 or 0.16% of the Slovenian population according to the 1991 census) and Hungarian (8503 or 0.43% of the Slovenian population according to the 1991 census) ethnic communities, whose special rights are provided for and regulated by Article 64 of the Constitution. In addition, the realisation of these rights is morally and materially supported by the central State, which also assures the participation of these minorities in the political system from the local level to the representation in the National Assembly.

Special rights under Article 64 refer to various spheres of social life in ethnically-mixed territories. The most important of these could be summarised as follows:

In sum, the right to education and schooling in their own language is seen as a key feature of the local level implementation of national level ethnic policy, i.e. in municipalities within defined ethnically mixed areas.

4. Good Practice Description
Legal foundations
According to the report ‘Ethnic Minorities in Slovenia’ by the Institute for Ethnic Studies in Ljubljana "In accordance with the 1954 London Memorandum of Understanding (the stipulations of which were reconfirmed by the Osimo treaties of 1977 and the Slovene-Italian Agreement of 1992) which is a special Statute establishing standards of minority protection for the Slovene minority living in the Trieste/Triest region of Italy and for the Italian minority in Slovenia, educational institutions in the coastal areas from kindergartens to colleges are monolingual with either Slovene or Italian as the language of instruction" (1994, p. 30).

The Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia (1991) under Article 64 (Special Rights of the Autochthonous Italian and Hungarian Ethnic Communities in Slovenia) guarantees the right to education and schooling ‘in their own’ – Italian - language. "The two ethnic communities shall have, consistent with statute, the right to education and schooling in their own languages, as well as the right to plan and develop their own curriculae."

The case of two high schools in Piran/Pirano
Before describing secondary level education, mention should be made of the obligatory nature of Italian language tuition in all primary schools in the Slovenian-Italian ethnically mixed area.

At secondary level there are three high schools with Italian as language of instruction, one high school in each of the bilingual municipalities.

In the case of municipality Piran/Pirano, there are two high schools, one with Slovenian as the language of instruction (with approx. 330 pupils in the 2000/2001 school-year) and one with Italian as the language of instruction (with approx. 65 pupils in the 2000/2001 school-year). The characteristics of this monolingual educational system is that it separates educational institutions according to language criteria, namely their language of instruction.

The teaching method in the Slovenian high school in Piran/Pirano is, however, different from other high schools in Slovenia at least in one important aspect: teaching of the minority language is compulsory for all pupils through all four years. In the first two years the pupils have Italian language tuition two school hours per week and in the third and fourth year three school hours per week.

Italian is also an option when it comes to choosing subjects for final examinations. In that case, supplementary educational activities are provided.

One specific aspect of the teaching of the minority language in the Slovenian school should be noted: in Slovenian high schools in the bilingual area Italian language is taught not as a foreign language but as a language of the environment. This kind of learning requires a high level of language knowledge and language skills from the pupils, and thus differs from teaching of other ‘foreign languages’, such as English, German etc.

The expectation is the achievement of reasonable language skills. This has to be achieved through primary schools, where Italian is taught in all eight years of schooling. After completing primary school children are generally proficient in Italian as a language of everyday communication in their local environment.

At the Slovenian high school in Piran/Pirano pupils have two options as far as Italian-language tuition is concerned: a so-called advanced level that is designed for pupils with good language knowledge, and a beginner programme, designed for pupils with poorer language skills. It remains the case, however, that the level of language proficiency among pupils is heterogeneous, although all receive Italian language lessons in primary schools. This is why the two different levels of Italian language tuition are available in secondary schools.

At the Italian high school in Piran/Pirano there are currently 65 pupils in four classes. Approximately 24 pupils are registered at the beginning of each school year, later on the number is a bit lower, above all on account of drop-outs (the same tendency is present also at Slovenian high schools).

According to school authorities this number is realistic regarding the relatively small area that ‘is covered’ by this high school.

There are some differences in timetables as far as Slovenian language tuition is concerned in the period before and after Slovenian independence: in the former Yugoslavia pupils learned the Slovenian language three school hours per week in first and third year and two school hours per week in the second and fourth year. In the newly independent Slovenia the number of school hours for Slovenian language has been increased to three school hours in all four years.

The speciality of this educational practice in the Italian high school in Piran/Pirano is thus learning Italian as the pupil’s first language and at the same time teaching Slovenian as a second language or as it is called the ‘language of the state’. In the terminology of the educational policy, in this context Italian language is not called the ‘mother tongue’ but the ‘first language’. Italian language would not be a mother tongue for quite a few of the pupils, but it is certainly everybody’s first language in the sense of being the language of instruction. Educational activities are carried out in Italian as the first language with Slovenian having the position of the second language.

A discrepancy can be found between learning Slovenian as the language of the state at the Italian high school and learning Italian as language of the environment at the Slovenian high school. The level of Italian language tuition in the Slovenian high school is lower. When compared with the time allocated to other language classes, Italian actually has the status of second foreign language. The number of school hours devoted to the subject is only one criteria, however, since in learning Italian as a language of the environment the most important objective is to achieve a much higher level of proficiency than in is true for any other foreign language, which would not be a part of local communication practice.

One important characteristics of the Italian high school in Piran/Pirano is that this particular educational institution is not closed to pupils coming from outside the Italian ethnic community in Slovenia. The principle of exclusiveness is not a part of the educational practice, although the Italian high school was above all set up for members of the Italian ethnic community/minority. Any pupil who has finished primary school and who has adequate proficiency in Italian can attend this school.

Another important fact is that approximately 20 per cent of the pupils every school year come from the neighbouring Croatia. Out of the total number of 65 pupils, there are between ten and fourteen from Croatia, depending on the year. All of them have finished Italian primary schools in Croatia. Most come from nearby towns and villages on the Croatian side of the Istria peninsula, mostly from the Umag and Buje areas. That kind of ‘exchange’ is already traditional for the Italian high school in Piran/Pirano, since it has been going on for the last 30 years. Many parents of today’s pupils attended the same high school.

Together with their Slovenian peers, pupils from Croatia are learning Slovenian as their second language while in the former Yugoslavia they would learn Croatian as their second language. In the first year of high school they generally need some more time to become sufficiently familiar with the Slovenian language.

As far as teaching staff are concerned, the Italian high school in Piran/Pirano presently has twelve teachers, of whom five have come from abroad. Three are from Italy and two from Croatia. The recruitment of suitable teaching staff is a constant problem. The main reason is that the Italian minority in Slovenia represents rather a small proportion of the population and therefore cannot produce the necessary number of native language teachers, thus teachers from abroad are needed. Unfortunately the rather complicated procedure (specified by legislation) governing the employment of foreign teachers is a serious problem, that this specific high school has to deal with . The teaching staff recruited from Italy or from Croatia are required to prove their active knowledge of Slovenian language in order to receive a work permit.

The present case of local secondary level minority educational practice is a local good practice, the importance of which transcends Slovenian national borders. It should be noted that after the independence of Slovenia and Croatia in 1991, the Italian minority in the former Yugoslavia has became ‘divided’ into two nation states and the educational system provided for the Italian minority in Slovenia also serves the purposes of the Italian minority in Croatia.

The role of Italian educational institutions
In evaluating the role of Italian-language educational institutions on the Slovenian bilingual territory, their contribution to multicultural and pluralistic socio-cultural life should be noted first and foremost. These schools can play an active role in bringing together the young generations from the different ethnic groups. However, the openness of the Italian high school also brings with it a degree of ‘risk’ for the Italian ethnic community.

For example, the Italian high school Piran/Pirano has on its register above all pupils of Italian, Slovenian and Croatian ethnic origins, but also some Albanians, Muslims, Jews and many children from ‘mixed marriages’ of every kind. The description ‘Balkan Peninsula in miniature’ would be quite appropriate for this mix. It is anything but Italian. But in the same time this kind of plural school environment supports values and orientations that are very important from the point of view of multiculturalism. This is also an important challenge for these teaching programmes.

The existence of Italian high schools is crucial in terms of ensuring equal educational opportunities for those pupils whose first language is Italian. Generally speaking, Italian high schools have a key role to play above all for members of the minority, but tend to be well respected in their local environment, and to have good levels of attendance. Some problems can be expected in the next few years because of a decreasing demographic curve, a common problem in Slovenia.

What is unique about the regulation of the Italian minority educational system in Slovenia is that members of the Italian ethnic minority have access to education in their first language, while the minority language is taught, as a compulsory subject, in all Slovenian educational institutions throughout the ethnically mixed area. All children in Slovenian high schools in the bilingual area are obliged to learn Italian language as a language of their environment. This principle is important because it promotes the standing of the minority language as an actual language of the local bilingual environment, and keeps it in use as a means of everyday communication.

Options for third level education for members of the Italian ethnic community
After completing secondary education, different options exist for Italian pupils for continuing their education at university level. There are now faculties that have Italian as their language of instruction in Ljubljana or Koper/Capodistria in Slovenia. In this regard, especially the Pedagogical Faculty’s department for Italian language and literature in Koper/Capodistria as well as the Chair of Italian Language and Literature at the Faculty of Arts at Ljubljana warrant mention.

After finishing secondary school many pupils leave the local environment. They usually go to study in Italy, in Italian universities or in Croatian universities at Rijeka and Pula. It should be pointed out that these universities provide courses for teachers in Italian minority schools.

In this context, the creation of the ‘Third Slovenian University at Primorska’, comprising some very important faculties in Koper/Capodistria, can be regarded ad having considerable relevance for members of the Italian ethnic minority. Regardless of ethnic origin, students will have the option of studying and eventually staying in the region. The newly-founded ‘Primorska University’ is also significant because of its policy of openness towards neighbouring and other Mediterranean countries, as well as in its emphasis on the inclusion of different languages, among them Italian. Members of the Italian minority generally expect to have cross-border connections with Italian universities such as University of Trieste and University of Goritzia.