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๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡ท Croatia /Culture & Society

More than 4,000 children will delay starting first grade as school-readiness concerns grow

From Veฤernji List · () Croatian

Translated from Croatian and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • More than 4,000 Croatian children have received a one-year delay before entering first grade, while more than 36,000 others are due to start school.
  • Reported reasons include developmental or health difficulties, emotional immaturity, attention problems, speech and language challenges, and underdeveloped fine-motor skills.
  • Education specialists say children do not need to read or write before school, and encourage parents to build skills through play and everyday activities.

More than 4,000 children in Croatia will wait another year before starting first grade, even as more than 36,000 children prepare to enter school for the first time. Delays have been granted for reasons ranging from developmental and health difficulties to emotional immaturity and problems with attention and concentration.

Speech and language difficulties and underdeveloped fine-motor skills are also among the common concerns raised during school-readiness assessments. The largest number of delays has been recorded in Zagreb and Zagreb County, as well as Osijek-Baranja County.

The biggest reason for postponements is parents asking for them, we have to admit that. I think we should also work more with the panels that decide on postponements to really see whether those postponements are necessary or not.

· Antonija Mirosavljeviฤ‡The president of Croatia's Association of Primary School Principals discussed the growing role of parental requests in delayed school enrollment.

Antonija Mirosavljeviฤ‡, president of the Association of Primary School Principals, said parents themselves are increasingly requesting postponements. โ€œThe biggest reason for postponements is parents asking for them, we have to admit that,โ€ she told Dnevnik Nova TV. She said assessment panels should carefully determine whether each delay is necessary.

We look at pre-skills, whether a child can follow a rhythm, recognize rhyme, and identify the first and last sound.

· Irena Mlinariฤ‡ TrabalkoA speech therapist explained which abilities specialists assess instead of requiring children to read and write before first grade.

Specialists also sought to ease parents' concerns about whether children must already know how to read and write. Those skills are not a condition for entering first grade. Speech therapists instead assess abilities such as following a rhythm, recognizing rhyme, identifying the first or last sound in a word, and connecting sounds.

Irena Mlinariฤ‡ Trabalko of the Croatian Association of Speech and Language Therapists said, โ€œWe look at pre-skills, whether a child can follow a rhythm, recognize rhyme, and identify the first and last sound.โ€ Mirosavljeviฤ‡ also urged parents to avoid excessive protection and to encourage children through play, drawing, cutting and gluing paper, word games, shared reading, and ordinary activities.

I think we all need to relax a little more, and we need to let children be children.

· Antonija Mirosavljeviฤ‡She urged parents to avoid excessive protection and pressure before school begins.
About this summary

Originally published by Veฤernji List in Croatian. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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