The monitoring of work in public kindergartens and schools is conducted by school inspectors. They are employed at the Inspectorate of the Republic of Slovenia for Education and Sport, an independent body within the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport. It is responsible for inspecting the implementation of educational regulations in kindergartens, schools, upper secondary student residence halls, higher vocational colleges, institutions for children and youth with special needs, institutions for adult education, and private institutions offering publicly valid programmes. The inspection mainly includes the monitoring of the regularity of work, the implementation of rights and obligations of children and teaching staff, the organization, documentation management, eligible use of funds etc.
The inspectorate is managed by the chief inspector. The chief inspector must hold at least a higher education degree (equivalent to a master’s degree) and have 10 years of work experience in education.
School inspectors implementing control in kindergartens and schools must hold at least a higher education degree (a master’s degree or equivalent) and have 7 years of work experience in the teaching, development-research or administrative field of education and must have completed the professional exam for inspectors. The inspector must pass a test of professional competences every four years. The test is prescribed by the minister.
In their work, the school inspectors are often assisted by specialists, who must also have at least a higher education degree (equivalent to a master’s degree) and 10 years of work experience in the teaching, counselling or development-research field, and at least the promotion titles of councillor or higher education teacher.
School inspectors and specialist experts are civil servants. Their status, conditions of service and salaries are defined by the rules applying to public servants.
Specialist experts are usually educational advisers employed at public development-research, education and counselling institutes. These institutes are:
- National Education Institute Slovenia,
- Institute of the Republic of Slovenia for Vocational Education and Training, and
- Slovenian Institute for Adult Education.
The working tasks and responsibilities of education advisers include research and development work, the preparation of proposals for decision-making in the national councils of experts, the monitoring of experiments and the implementation of new programmes, counselling to kindergartens and schools, the organization of continuous professional development for teaching staff etc.