Simona Kustec

Ljubljana – Former Culture Minister Dejan Prešiček from the opposition Social Democrats (SD) announced on Friday that a motion to oust Culture Minister Vasko Simoniti would be filed before 8 February, Culture Day. He said this would probably be one of the biggest presents to Slovenian culture for the holiday.

Ljubljana – The opposition Left is working on a motion to dismiss Education Minister Simona Kustec because the government has decided to close schools in two regions next week after only four days of in-person education.

Education and children’s needs have never been the government’s priority, the party said in a written statement on Thursday.

Ljubljana – The Ministry of Education has notified schools in Zasavje and Obalno-Kraška regions that schools and kindergartens will have to close once again on Monday. The decision comes only two days after pupils of the first three grades and kindergartners were allowed back in nine of Slovenia’s 12 administrative regions after more than three months.

Ljubljana – Slovenia recorded another 1,652 new coronavirus infections on Monday, when more than 35,000 tests were conducted amid mass testing of teachers ahead of partial school reopening.

Currently, 1,157 people are in hospital, 16 fewer than the day before, and 43 fewer than a week ago. The number of patients needing intensive care remained level at 192 compared to the day before.

Ljubljana – Education Minister Simona Kustec has started her official presentations of the programme of Slovenia’s EU presidency in education, science, sport and youth policies to the European Commission and European Parliament, expressing among other things the intention for decisions on remote learning to be adopted.

Ljubljana – Education Minister Simona Kustec presented on Thursday detailed rules for next week’s reopening of kindergartens and schools for the first three grades in nine out of the 12 Slovenian regions. She said teachers would have to wear masks at all times, children will have to mask up only outside their classrooms or their bubbles.

Ljubljana – PM Janez Janša and medical experts are not in favour of schools and kindergartens reopening soon, arguing the epidemiological situation has worsened after Christmas holidays, when some socialising and business restrictions were briefly relaxed.

Ljubljana – Since they are not capable of planning, the Slovenian authorities had been inspiring the one quarter of the Slovenian population involved in the education system with false hope that things would start to normalise as of new year, Delo says in its front-page commentary on Monday.

Ljubljana – The Constitutional Court has stayed the implementation of the decree prohibiting gatherings in institutions implementing programmes for children with special needs, and ordered that the government enable such programmes to resume in-person as of 4 January.

Ljubljana – School will continue remotely at least until the end of the year given the demanding epidemiological situation. This is to protect the health of teachers as well as children, Education Minister Simona Kustec said on Monday.