The quality assurance is the responsibility shared by
- Educational institutions
- Public research institutes
- Evaluation bodies and agencies
- Ministry responsible for education, and
- Government of the Republic of Slovenia.
There is external and internal quality assurance at all levels of education.
The basis for the process of quality assessment and assurance in school education is self-evaluation.
Educational institutions have to carry out self-evaluation every year. They have to report on it to own governing bodies.
Law does not specify the method of self-evaluation. The procedures are not the same at all levels of education.
In school education, one applies traditionally the following resources:
- annual analysis of learning outcomes
- school inspectorate’s report, and
- analysis of outcomes of external assessment, as well as results of domestic and international research.
In the self-evaluation process, the educational institutions can retrieve and obtain information from external institutions (National examinations centre, Educational research institute, Statistical office of the Republic of Slovenia, etc.).
The external evaluation of the regularity of the educational institution's operations is in the responsibility of the School inspectorate of the Republic of Slovenia. The common focus of external evaluation or inspection in school education is operating of the system as a whole, and the quality assurance for education programmes. The key elements of the external quality assurance in school education:
- national external assessment of knowledge as specified by law in grades 6 and 9 of basic school
- matura and vocational matura: compulsory final examination at the end of upper secondary general and vocational education
- international assessment of learning outcomes in various areas supported by the international research
- national evaluation studies under the coordination of the Quality and evaluation council
- reports on the introduction of innovations in kindergartens and schools that the public research institute in education develop, and
- accreditation of education programmes with the Council of experts of the Republic of Slovenia for general education and Council of experts of the Republic of Slovenia for vocational education.
The accreditation procedures, as well as internal and external evaluation procedures are set up to assure quality in short-cycle higher vocational and higher education. The Council of experts of the Republic of Slovenia for vocational education is competent in accreditation of short-cycle higher vocational programmes; the Slovenian quality assurance agency (SQAA) is responsible for quality assurance in higher education. It is competent in external evaluation of short-cycle higher vocational and higher educational institutions. The internal evaluation procedures are in the domain of higher vocational colleges and higher educational institutions.
The same principles as for school education and individual areas of education apply to quality assurance in adult education for delivering officially recognised programmes. Furthermore, the Slovenian institute for adult education has been developing quality assurance approaches for adult education providers to participate in voluntarily. The Council of experts of the Republic of Slovenia for adult education is competent in accreditation the officially recognised programmes for adult education.
The Ministry responsible for education supports the activity with financial instruments. It prioritises funding of research and development project that are associated with quality assurance. The outcome of such projects are recommendations for self-evaluation to educational institutions, protocol, as well as non-compulsory selection of various tools and indicators to support the making of self-evaluation, for example, the collection Quality in kindergartens and schools by the National School of Leadership in Education, and online collection of recommendations and good practices Quality mosaic by the Slovenian institute for adult education.