In Slovenia parents pay the total cost of workbooks, co-finance "school in nature", and many other things. The state took the obligation to pay the cost of "school in nature" once to every child during nine years.
Contributions from the Ministry do not cover all costs
Yet the Association of Parents Council Working Groups claims that EUR 67 per pupil contributed by the Ministry of Education does not cover all the cost for this activity, and thus parents must contribute the difference, explained the president of the association of parents Anton Meden.
"According to the data from the Statistic Office the parents in Slovenia must contribute quite a lot for financing educational programme. We are holding the fifth place in the EU, and cover almost 10% of the cost of schooling of children in elementary schools," Meden explains.
The differences between schools in expenses for workbooks is substantial: e.g. in one of the schools parents must pay EUR 40 for a set of workbooks for the 8th year, while in another school the amount parents pay for the same set of workbooks is four times higher. Workbooks are the most expensive for parents living in the north east of the country.