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CROATIA
HISTORY & BACKGROUNDThe Republic of Croatia (in Croatian, Republika Hrvatska or Hrvatska for short) is a constitutional parliamentary democracy in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe. Bordered by the Adriatic Sea to the west, Slovenia and Hungary to the north, and Serbia to the east, Croatia forms the northern and western borders of Bosnia and Herzegovina. At its extreme southern-most tip, Croatia is contiguous with Montenegro for 25 kilometers. Croatia measures 56,538 square kilometers and is slightly smaller than the U.S. state of West Virginia. The country has a diverse terrain, with flat plains along its northern border with Hungary and low mountains and highlands forming its western coastline and islands in the Adriatic. Croatia also has a varied climate, ranging from continental, with hot summers and dry winters in the inland portions of the country, to Mediterranean, with mild winters and dry summers along the coast. Croatia had a population of about 4.3 million people in July 2000. Croatia's ethnic composition was 78.1 percent Croat, 12.2 percent Serb, 0.9 percent Muslim, 0.5 percent Hungarian, and 0.5 percent Slovene, and less than half a percent Czech, Albanian, Montenegrin, and Roma each in 1991 (the last year estimates were taken before the war that enveloped Croatia from 1991 until 1995). About 6.6 percent of the population in 1991 belonged to other ethnic groups, considered themselves "Yugoslavs," or were of unidentified ethnicity. Croatia's population was 76.5 percent Roman Catholic, 11.1 percent Orthodox, 1.2 percent Muslim, and 0.4 percent Protestant. The religious affiliation of 10.8 percent of the population was other, none, or unidentified. Approximately 57 percent of Croats lived in urban areas in 1999. The rural population density was 132.9 persons per square kilometer in 1998. In 1999, approximately 99 percent of adult men 15 years of age or older and approximately 97 percent of adult women were literate (i.e., able to read and write). The population of Croatia was growing at a rate of only 0.93 percent in the year 2000. The total fertility rate was 1.94 in 2000, with approximately 18 percent of Croatia's population was 14 years old or younger, two-thirds of the population was between 15 and 64 years of age, and about 15 percent was 65 or older. In 2000 Croatia had an infant-mortality rate of 7.35 per 1000 live births, significantly lower than the rate for the European/Central Asian region as a whole; the under five years child mortality rate was 9 per 1000. The life expectancy at birth for Croatians in 2000 was 73.67 years (70.04 years for men and 77.51 years for women—a considerable gender disparity in favor of women). Croatia's GDP was US$20.4 million in 1999 with a real growth rate of zero percent. For the first half of 2000, the economic growth rate was more promising, with the rate of growth estimated as 2.5 percent of the GDP. Croatia's annual per capita income that year was about US$4,490, which was more than twice the per-capita income for the European/Central Asian region and just a few hundred dollars lower than the upper middle income average. However, unemployment in Croatia was measured at 22.4 percent at the end of 2000. Croatia required an infusion of US$87 million in international development disbursements from the World Bank in 1999 to help the country recover from four years of war (1991-1995) and to assist in transforming Croatia's state-controlled, centralized economy of preindependence days to a liberal market-based economy. In the 1990s the World Bank committed US$762 million to Croatia for at least 15 development and reconstruction projects. During the 1990s Croatia received US$99 million from the United States through SEED Act funding, not including significant amounts of humanitarian assistance provided through other programs and nearly US__BODY__,566 million from the European Union. The economic situation of the late 1990s stood in stark contrast to Croatia's previous economic prosperity before the Balkans wars of the 1990s. Just before its independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on June 25, 1991, Croatia was the second richest country in the former Yugoslavia. It was second only to Slovenia, which declared independence from Yugoslavia at the same time. One of the six republics that together constituted Yugoslavia for most of the twentieth century, Croatia held a referendum in May 1991 during which 94 percent of the voters opted for independence. The official separation from Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991 was quickly followed by Serb aggression to attempt to bring the country back under Serbian control. This resulted in four years of brutal war from 1991 until 1995, during which ethnic Serbs, and to a lesser extent Croats and Bosnian Muslims (Bosniacs), waged genocidal war on each other. Early into the war Croatia formed a pact with Bosnia-Herzegovina to try to halt the crushing blows of the Serb army as Serbia, the most-powerful state in the former Yugoslavia, attempted to subdue Croatia and in the process wiped out thousands of ethnic Croats and created enormous refugee flows. CONSTITUTIONAL & LEGAL FOUNDATIONSThe Republic of Croatia is a parliamentary democracy with a strong presidency. The Croatian government's basic purposes and structures were established by the Constitution of December 22, 1990. The Croatian legal system is a civil law system. All Croatians, women and men alike, are eligible to vote at age 18; 16- and 17-year-olds are also eligible to vote if they are employed. Croatia's democratically elected chief executive and head of state, the president, is elected to a five year term of office. The executive branch of the Croatian government also includes the prime minister, who is appointed by the president and must be confirmed by the House of Representatives. The prime minister also recommends other ministers to the president for appointment to the executive branch. Early in the year 2000, Ivica Racan was chosen as Prime Minister. Since February 2000 the President of the Republic of Croatia has been Stjepan Mesic, a member of the Croatian People's party (HNS). At the national level the Croatian legislative branch consists of a bicameral Assembly, or Sabor, composed of the House of Counties (Zupanijski Dom) with 68 members (63 elected by popular vote and 5 appointed by the president) who serve 4 year terms and the House of Representatives (Zastupnicki Dom) with 151 members also elected to 4 year terms. The third branch of Croatia's national government is the judicial branch, consisting of the Supreme Court whose judges are appointed to eight year terms by the Judicial Council of the Republic and the Constitutional Court with eight judges similarly appointed. The Judicial Council of the Republic is elected by Croatia's House of Representatives. Croatian regional affairs are administered through a system involving 20 counties (Zupanijski), though the national government continued to operate in a fairly centralized fashion and to exert significant control over administrative affairs throughout the country in the year 2000. International human rights organizations and agencies such as Human Rights Watch and the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the U.S. Department of State praised many of the steps Croatia took in 2000 to promote human rights and further democratize the country. For example, in February 2000 at the start of the new national administration under President Mesic and Prime Minister Racan, the government announced its intentions to make US$55 million available to assist in the resettlement and reintegration of 16,500 Croatian Serb refugees who had fled their homes in 1995 when Croatian government troops attacked rebel Serbs—an operation later subjected to consideration by the International War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Hague. Croatia also announced its support of the ICTY in 2000 and made significant legislative reforms to strengthen the country's protection of minorities and the privacy and free expression of its citizens. A new government body was appointed in 2000 to oversee the return of refugees, replacing the previous problematic Commission on Return, to enable the more effective return of Croatian Serbs who had taken refuge in Republika Srpska. However, continuing problems in Croatia during the year 2000 of discrimination against ethnic Serbs, particularly regarding property rights, had not yet been effectively addressed by the end of the year; crimes of ethnic violence against Serbs also occurred in 2000. Croatia's Roma population of 30,000 to 40,000 people also faced continuing problems with the general population and Croatian authorities. Many Roma lacked access to education and employment opportunities, unfairly prevented from receiving state assistance and housing, met obstacles as they sought Croatian citizenship, and found themselves the targets of racist abuse with inadequate government protection. Discrimination and violence against women continued to be prevalent in Croatia in 2000. Concerning its participation in regional and international organizations and conferences, Croatia has a better record. Croatia became a member of the World Bank and the International Development Association in 1993 but received no loans until 1995 when the security situation in the country had improved. Croatia is well linked to many international bodies and activities such as those associated with the United Nations, the European Union, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Council of Europe, and NATO's Partnershipfor-Peace program and has received development aid and post-war recovery assistance from numerous nongovernmental, international organizations. Croatia's chief trading partners are Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Austria. The legal basis for Croatia's education system rests in the Constitution of 1990 and various laws and measures passed since the country declared independence in 1991. Higher education is organized according to the principles laid out in the Higher Education Act of 1996 and through the recommendations of the Council of Europe's Legislative Reform Program. The transformation of the general education system in Croatia has been The reform efforts begun in the year 2000 to accomplish the above evaluation of the entire school system and to propose a new, comprehensive package of recommendations in line with European standards was both nationally essential and strategically wise from an international perspective. Croatia was well aware that reforming its education system would bring better economic, political, and social relations with other European states and simultaneously facilitate transfers of students, professors, researchers, and funds between Croatia and the wealthier countries of Europe. European educational standards have become ever more important to the transitional countries in Eastern and Central Europe as they sought to improve their antiquated, often overly bureaucratic systems inherited from political predecessors of the socialist era. Not only would reforms in Croatia bring the education system up to the par with the European countries with which Croatia was doing business, but the reforms would also improve the likelihood that Croatia one day could be integrated into the European Union or at least made a more-valuable trading partner whose educated citizens would be welcomed as qualified employees for European jobs. The essence of Croatia's official stance toward education is captured in a simple statement included in the government's program for 2000-2004 and cited by Minister of Education and Sports Vladimir Strugar in his presentation to the public of a Ministry proposal to fully transform the country's educational system: "Upbringing and education are development priorities of strategic importance for the overall development of Croatian society. . . ." Croatia's underlying philosophy of education is reflected in a speech presented by Bozidan Pugelnik, Minister of Education and Sports in 1998, at a UN-sponsored conference for government ministers in charge of youth-related issues held in August 1998. As Pugelnik remarked: We believe that for the development of policy for young people, the active participation of young people is a condition sine qua non, based upon the following:
in order to begin the attempt to provide young people with an opportunity for a better future. EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM—OVERVIEWThe educational experience of most students in Croatia was severely disrupted by war in the early 1990s. As of 2001, thousands of refugees who had left Croatia during the warfare of the 1990s had yet to be resettled, and those who had returned often were housed in temporary quarters away from their original home communities. Regular school attendance was thus especially hard for Nonetheless, in June 2000 a number of solid recommendations were being advanced to reform the education system in Croatia. However, they had not yet been acted upon, due to the need for public debate in the policy-formulation process. In the proposal drafted by the Government Ministry's Council of Education, the Council had identified several major flaws in the education system, the remedy of which could vastly improve the country's schools. The partial catalogue of deficiencies included the following: 1) a lack of democratic relations and procedures in the schools; 2) an atmosphere predominantly authoritarian and conservative; 3) overly rigid scheduling of the school day; 4) inflexible rules for placing and promoting students; 5) dualistic secondary education uncharacteristic of European systems; 6) denying opportunities to higher education to about half the secondary-school population; 7) an inconsistent and formalistic grading system; 8) over-centralization in educational administration; 9) lack of recognition of parents' rights and obligations; 10) poor-quality and inadequate physical facilities and equipment; 11) few private schooling alternatives; 12) little entrepreneurial activity supporting education; 13) fragmentation among the parts of the education system; 14) arts schools poorly coordinated with other schools; 15) formalistic and unmotivating methods of evaluating teachers; 16) a lack of professional teaching publications and pedagogical literature understandable by or useful to most teachers; 17) and poor management of the education system, schools, and classes. Interestingly, the evaluation contained in the June 2000 proposal underscored that the above problems had little to do with the fault of the teachers in the system. The Education Council carefully noted that teachers in Croatia "for some incomprehensible reason, have been systematically belittled, financially discriminated against and professionally thwarted and restricted, while the entire education system was run in a manner totally out of synch with European tradition and experience" (Council 7). The rampant problems in Croatia's education system were especially surprising considering that Croatian schools and culture are centuries old, including at the university level. The first university in the country was established by Dominican priests in Zadar in 1396 as the Universitas Jadertina, the General University. According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, the government arm formally in charge of higher education in Croatia in 2001, Universitas Jadertina had conferred the "degrees of Master of Science and Doctor of Science and was thus equal in status to the other eminent European universities of the time." In 1991, approximately 29 percent of Croatia's population was of school age or between the ages of 3 and 24. The gross enrollment rate for basic education, the first 8 years of free, compulsory schooling for students generally between the ages of 6 and 14, was 89 percent in 1996. Twelve years of public schooling was the expected norm in Croatia in 1995, although attendance was compulsory for only eight years. Croat was the first language of instruction used in Croatian public schools in the year 2000. In June 2000 the Education Council of the Ministry of Education and Sports made several recommendations to bring the country's education system into better alignment with European and UNESCO-approved international standards. The Council suggested adding a year of compulsory preschool education for all children between the ages of five and six beginning in 2010. Additionally, the Council recommended making nine years of basic education compulsory and divided into three phases: a Junior phase where students would be taught in forms (classes); an Intermediary phase where students would be taught in a combination of forms and subjects; and a Senior phase where students would be taught subjects by specialized teachers. Two, three, four, or five years of secondary schooling, depending on the course of study chosen by the student, would follow this nine-year pattern of elementary schooling. The overall goal of the reforms recommended by the Council was to make schools in Croatia capable of delivering education that would fulfill one basic requirement: making high-quality education available to all. As the Council noted, "A fundamental human right and a democratic prerequisite for equality among the young generation is the same educational (pedagogic) standard and quality of upbringing as the most important condition for social promotion and professional success" (Council 40). The need to develop new textbooks, teaching approaches, educational programs, and course curricula sensitive to the needs of all of Croatia's people, including ethnic minorities, was highlighted in the Education Council's proposal for school reforms in June 2000. Similarly, providing students with the means to develop knowledge and skills in information and communications technology (ICT) has been a goal of education reformers in recent years. With the strengthening of the economy in the first few years of the 2000 decade and the improvement of education likely to come about through reforms Croatia's government clearly recognizes the important role education plays in the country's socioeconomic and political development. In the June 2000 education reforms proposal, the Education Council pointed out, "Any country in today's day and age desirous of achieving high economic growth must ensure that a high percentage of its population acquires secondary education." Two key international donors collaborating with the Croatian government and Croatian educators from the mid-1990s on were the European Training Foundation of the European Union, which supported vocational education and training, including staff development, organizational strengthening, and curricular reform, and the Soros funded Open Society Institute, which implemented the Network Step by Step Program to encourage more child-centered teaching in preprimary and primary schools, ensure greater cooperation among parents, teachers, and educational faculty, and promote the equitable integration of Roma children and children with disabilities in the schools. PREPRIMARY & PRIMARY EDUCATIONAlthough kindergarten in Croatia was still optional at the turn of the millennium, approximately 31 percent of children of preschool age in Croatia were enrolled in preschool education programs in 1996. In the year 2000 primary school gross enrollment rates were 94 percent for boys and 97 percent for girls; the corresponding net enrollment rates were 93 percent for boys and 96 percent for girls. Girls had represented 49 percent of total enrollments in primary education in 1995. That same year, only 1 percent of primary students were enrolled in private education programs. In the mid-1990s about 98 percent of primary students (measured as percent of cohort) reached grade 5. SECONDARY EDUCATIONIn 1995, approximately 51 percent of students enrolled at the secondary level were girls. The student to teacher ratio was 15:1 for secondary level education in 1995. Only 1 percent of secondary enrollments that year were in private schools. In 1996 only 18.7 percent of Croatia's 15- to 18-year-olds were enrolled in general upper secondary education; 57.1 percent of that age group was enrolled in vocational and technical upper secondary education. Consequently, the overall upper secondary enrollment rate in 1996 was 75.8 percent. Thus, three-fourths of all upper secondary students were taking vocational and technical courses of study while one-fourth were enrolled in general education programming. Gross enrollment ratios at the secondary level were 81 percent for boys and 83 percent for girls at the end of the millennium. HIGHER EDUCATIONIn 2001 Croatia had four universities—the Universities of Zagreb, Rijeka, Split, and Osijek—which together encompassed 55 faculties, four arts academies, three university departments, and one additional universityoperated course of study. Professional education was provided through seven polytechnics, six independent schools of professional higher education, one teachers' academy, and eight teachers' schools of professional higher education. Higher education institutions in the 2000-2001 academic year employed 1,133 full professors and 801 associate professors. The Zagreb area had the highest number of students in tertiary education in 2001: 33,889 students in university programs and 14,640 students in professional studies, which was 58 percent of all tertiary students in Croatia. In the mid-1990s about 28 percent of the age-relevant population in Croatia was enrolled in higher education. Just 8 percent of Croatia's population over age 25 held a higher education diploma in 1995, but by 1996 approximately 17 percent of 18- to 22-year-olds were enrolled in tertiary studies. Of the 84,088 students enrolled in higher education institutions in the country in the 2000-2001 academic year, 59,230 were following university courses of study at least 4 years in length that led to a Bachelor's degree while 24,858 students were enrolled in professional studies programs of at least 2 years that led to an Associate's degree. Of the students enrolled in Croatian universities in 1997, approximately 25 percent concentrated in the humanities, approximately 42 percent in the social and behavioral sciences, a little more than 2 percent in the natural sciences, about 9 percent in medicine, approximately 47 percent in engineering, and more than 10 percent in other fields. The Ministry of Science and Technology, whose responsibilities have included administrative oversight of the universities and professional training in Croatia, anticipated implementing the European credit transfer system early in the 2000 decade to facilitate ADMINISTRATION, FINANCE, & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCHAs already noted, the Ministry of Education and Sports has had primary responsibility for making and implementing educational policy in Croatia's preschools, primary, and secondary schools, with the Ministry of Science and Technology administering Croatia's higher education system. Attached to these ministries are a number of councils and commissions charged with specific tasks in administrative oversight, policy direction, or program implementation and management. For example, the National Council for Higher Education is an independent body of 18 members nominated by the Rectors' Conference and higher education institutions and appointed by the national parliament to carry out quality assessments and evaluations of the higher education system. The National Scientific Research Council also is an independent body whose tasks include preparing the National Scientific Research Program for Croatia. The country's educational system was still highly centralized in the year 2000, though proposals were under discussion to bring administrative authority closer to the local level. In 1997 Croatia's total public expenditures on education amounted to about 3 percent of the GDP. Besides the government ministries and other formal bodies charged with planning, implementing, and evaluating educational policy in Croatia, nongovernmental associations, community organizations, and private individuals became increasingly involved in the development of educational policy and the provision of learning opportunities to students in the years after the Balkans wars. The National Federation of the Young People in Croatia, for example, was an umbrella organization of 20 associations in 1998 and had observer status in the European Youth Forum. Teachers' associations also provided their input. Likewise, local community organizations and more informal groupings of parents and community members became more involved in developing and implementing school programs in Croatia from the mid-1990s on. For example, the Step by Step Program, begun by the international nongovernmental Open Society Institute in 1994 with funding from the Soros Foundation, has encouraged individuals and groups in local communities to come together to plan programs fostering the development of children's problem-solving skills, more democratic decision-making in schools, and greater respect for ethnic minorities. As Croatians continue to decentralize their government and participate more in public decisionmaking, additional opportunities undoubtedly will emerge where students and their parents, along with educators and other interested members of local communities, will work more closely together to develop the education programs that suit them best. NONFORMAL EDUCATIONA well-developed system of adult education appeared to be lacking in Croatia in the year 2000. At the same time, recommendations were being considered to tie professional training, including training at the secondary level, more closely to the labor market. Reforming secondary schools so that a full range of education and training programs, including continuing education, could be provided for students was one practical solution suggested by the Council on Education. The possibility of using distance education as a means of teaching more of Croatia's young learners, university students, and adults also was indicated in the Council's June 2000 proposal, which included the suggestion that "correspondence courses through the Internet" could be a viable option for training skilled professionals. Croatia had 4 Internet service providers in 1999 and approximately 26 Internet hosts for every 10,000 people. In 1997 there were 1.2 million televisions and 1.5 million radios, all of which also could be used for educational purposes. SUMMARYThe people of the Republic of Croatia have faced many challenges in the years since the Dayton Accords of 1995 brought the war involving Croatia to a halt. Significant progress had been made by the year 2000 in planning for the thorough transformation of an educational
BIBLIOGRAPHYBerryman, Sue E. Hidden Challenges to Education Systems in Transition Economies. Washington, DC: The World Bank, Europe and Central Asia Region, Human Development Sector, 2000. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices—2000. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of State, February 2001. Available from http://www.state.gov/. CARNet. Croatian Homepage. Available from http://www.hr/. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The World Fact-book 2000. Directorate of Intelligence, 1 January 2001. Available from http://www.cia.gov/. Council of Education, Ministry of Education and Sports. The Basis for the Education System in the Republic of Croatia (Proposal for discussion). Zagreb: Ministry of Education and Sports, June 2000. Available from http://www.mips.hr/ European Training Foundation. Croatia. European Union. Available from http://www.etf.eu.int/. Government of the Republic of Croatia. Available from http://www.vlada.hr/. Human Rights Watch. World Report 2001. Available from http://www.hrw.org/. Independent Task Force with Steven Rattner and Michael B.G. Froman. Promoting Sustainable Economies in the Balkans. New York: Council on Foreign Relations, Inc., 2000. Jeffries, Ian, ed. Problems of Economic and Political Transformation in the Balkans. New York: Pinter, 1996. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Croatia. About Croatia. Available from http://www.mvp.hr/. Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of the Republic of Croatia. Higher Education. Available from http://www.mzt.hr/. Pugelnik, Bozidar. "Address by the Minister of Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia, His Excellency Bozidar Pugelnik." Speech presented at UN-sponsored World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth, 10 August 1998. Available from http://www.un.org/. Ramet, Sabrina Petra, and Ljubiša S. Adamovich. Beyond Yugoslavia: Politics, Economics, and Culture in a Shattered Community. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995. South East European Educational Cooperation Network. Step by Step in Croatia. Available from http://www.seeeducoop.net/. UNICEF. Croatia. Available from http://www. unicef.org/. World Bank, Human Development Network. Education Sector Strategy. Washington, DC: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank, 1999. World Bank Group. Country Brief: Croatia. Available from http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/. ——. Croatia. Available from http://wbln0018. worldbank.org/. ——. Croatia at a Glance. Available from http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/. ——. Croatia Data Profile. World Development Indicators database. Available from http://devdata.worldbank.org/. —Barbara Lakeberg Dridi |
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