Funding

The funds for financing and stimulating adult education are provided from the state budget, local and regional government units’ budgets, directly from the learners and employers, and from other sources, in accordance with the law. From the state budget, funds are allocated for:

• costs of the elementary adult education programme implementation;
• costs of the upper secondary adult education programme implementation for adults who have completed only primary and lower secondary education or other education programmes;
• costs of monitoring, improvement and development of adult education.

From the budget of local and regional government units, the funds can be provided for:

• investments and investment maintenance in the adult education institutions established by these authorities,
• material operational costs for the purpose of adult education activities in the institutions established by these authorities,
• programme implementation costs.

Financial incentives for adult education institutions from the state budget and the budget of local and regional authorities can be allocated for: procurement of teaching and other materials and the development and implementation of innovative programmes.

The funds from the state budget and the budgets of local and regional authorities are allocated to adult education institutions through public calls.

Administrative monitoring and inspection over adult education institutions are carried out by the ministry in charge of education. The inspection of the operation of the adult education institutions is carried out by the Agency.

The Council is professional and counselling body of the Government of Croatia with the following tasks: monitoring current conditions and proposing measures for the development of adult education; proposing or giving opinions on the proposals of the provisions of acts and by-laws; proposing funding of adult education programmes for which the funds are provided from the state budget.

The Agency is an institution for monitoring, development, evaluation and improvement of the adult education system in the Republic of Croatia. One of the tasks of the Agency is to define the criteria for establishing, implementing and monitoring systematic financing of adult education in terms of the programmes, investments and material operations.

Financial Support for Adult Learners

According to the Labour Force Survey conducted in 2012, the share of the adult population (age: 25 – 64) in Croatia participating in some form of education and training or professional development activities was very low (2.4 %) as compared to the average of 27 EU member states (9 %). In order to achieve a desirable level of involvement of more than 5 % of the population by 2020, the Strategy for Education, Science and Technology states that it is necessary to introduce a certain number of activities and measures which will help overcome current obstacles to the access and participation of adults in the programmes of formal and non-formal education.

In accordance with the United Nations Literacy Decade Resolution 2003 – 2012, the Government of the Republic of Croatia implemented a project “For Croatian Literacy: a way to a desirable future – literacy decade in Croatia 2003 – 2012”. The project was managed and monitored by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sport, while the activities were organised by the state administration offices in the counties, open universities, single structure education schools and other institutions which have obtained the accreditation for the provision of adult education programmes.

The purpose of the project is to provide the opportunity for the learners older than 15 to complete primary and lower secondary education and to improve the education level in the Republic of Croatia by providing a chance for the adults to continue their education. The project also provides an opportunity for the learners who have completed primary and lower secondary education to complete a training programme for simpler jobs in certain occupations in order to help them find a job. Each year, the funds for financing learners in the programme of primary and lower secondary adult education are provided from the state budget. Therefore, primary and lower secondary education is free of charge for all learners. The training programme for simpler jobs is also free for learners who participate in the literacy project.

Also, education of more than 100 adult learners was financed from the EU funds through the grant schemes “Regional network of local education institutions” and “Strengthening of the adult education institutions capacities”. The objective of the grant scheme “Regional network of local education institutions” is to strengthen the adult education institutions through the development of short programmes and/or through modernisation of the existing programmes in order to develop key and other competences of adult learners, and to promote lifelong learning with the purpose of creating the conditions for the improvement of competitiveness of adult learners on the labour market and to improve their socio-economic status. The general goal of the call is to strengthen the adult education sector with the aim of improving competitiveness of adult learners on the labour market, while the specific objectives are focused on the support and comprehensive strengthening of adult education institution capacities in cooperation with the local stakeholders.

Among other, the agreed list of set goals of programme agreements concluded between higher education institutions and the ministry includes facilitating access to and ensuring the quality of educational programmes for learner older than 25.

Pursuant to the Act on State Aid for Education and Training, the state aid beneficiary which can be classified as a large enterprise according to the regulations governing the financial operations of enterprises can deduct the profit tax base by the amount of up to 50% of justified cost of general education and training of the employees, and by the amount of up to 25% of justified cost of special education and training of employees. The beneficiary of state aid which is considered a small or medium enterprise according to the regulations governing the financial operations of enterprises can deduct the profit or income tax base by the amount of up to 70% of justified cost of general education and training of employees, and by the amount of up to 35% of reasonable cost of special education and training of employees.

The state aid beneficiary who, according to special regulation, meets the conditions for regional state aid can increase its deducted tax bases by 10 percentage points if it operates in the Region A, as defined by the regional map for state aid, or by five percentage points if it operates in the Region B, as defined by the regional map for state aid. Pursuant to the Act on Adult Education, employees can be granted the right to a minimum of seven days of education leave per year to participate in the programmes provided in accordance with this Act. The right to an education leave is determined under a mutual agreement between the employee and the employer. In order to exercise the right to an education leave, the employee must submit the application for the enrolment in the programme and the attendance and completion certificate the employer. The final and attendance certificates are issued by the adult education institution free of charge. An education leave can be either paid or unpaid. During the paid education leave, the employee receives a full salary.

Private Education

Adult education institutions can be established by: the Republic of Croatia, a local or regional government unit, other legal and natural persons. The Institution Act applies to adult education institutions.

Adult education institutions must comply with the provisions of the Ordinance on the standards, norms, methods and procedures for compliance assurance in adult education institutions, which prescribes standards and norms as well as the methods and procedures for ensuring the legal compliance of the institutions which provide programmes for adult education. The Ordinance prescribes minimum technical and hygiene requirements for the premises in which adult education programmes are conducted; minimum requirements regarding the facilities; staff and material requirements in the provision of adult education programmes; standards for adult education programme provision; the methods and procedures for compliance assurance in the provision of adult education programmes.

In order to conduct activities related to primary and secondary adult education, music schools and similar schools operating independently of the regular school system, public film projections, journalism and publishing, radio and TV broadcasting and activities related to training, professional development and retraining of youth and adults outside of the regular education system, local authorities as well and natural and legal persons can establish public institutions for permanent education and culture called open universities. Public institutions for permanent education – open universities – perform their activities in the form of public services. A special regulation applies to open universities which govern the provision of certain activities described in Article 1, Paragraph 1 of this Act and in the Institution Act. Learners participating in the primary or secondary adult education or in the training, professional development or retraining programmes, obtain certificates issued by open universities in the form and including the content which is prescribed by the minister competent for education.