In the present-day Slovenian territory the Catholic Church was the prevailing organiser of education in the Middle Ages. Under Austro-Hungarian rule Catholic schools became private and they functioned in parallel with the state public schools. The priests and religious orders that established private schools in Austro-Hungary were the first to also be aware of the need to establish schools for special groups of children, such as the deaf, and also of the need for education of girls. At the time of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia the situation remained more or less the same as under Austro-Hungary. After WWII, however, private schools were abolished. Only two religious schools were allowed, namely those for the education of priests-to-be, whose certificates, however, were not publicly acknowledged. The independence of Slovenia also meant an opportunity for the reopening of private Catholic and alternative schools. Insight into the views of teachers based on a questionnaire filled in by 296 teachers, mainly those working in basic schools, indicates that a good third of the surveyees (33.8 %) support founding of private schools, a much larger proportion (50.3 %) support the founding of alternative private schools, while with just 14.5 % the share of the surveyees who support the founding of Catholic private schools is much smaller.
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