Presentation of publications and film, and announcement of themes for 2025
Ljubljana, 6 February 2025: With the new permanent exhibition School Rules!, launched three years ago, we have set ourselves new challenges for the future, which, however, stem from the past. With a long-standing commitment to raising public awareness of the school cultural heritage, the Slovenian School Museum has managed to produce 16 publications in 2024 that appeal to a wide range of audiences. These include a guide to the permanent exhibition, a colouring book, a workbook for primary school children aged 9-11 and an easy-to-read guide to the exhibition. We have also produced a presentation film for the museum covering our diverse activities. We are already planning new projects for 2025, such as the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the matura exam, an exhibition and a symposium on border, language and school, and we will also focus on reading literacy.
The new permanent exhibition School Rules!, which was opened in 2022 and traces the development of education from its beginnings to the present day, is the culmination of many years of work by generations of museum workers at the Slovenian School Museum. In order to make the school cultural heritage accessible to as wide a public as possible, we published 16 publications for different target groups and made a presentation film in 2024.
LOOKING BACK TO 2024
At the event, museum curators and staff presented the publications and the film produced in 2024.
Presentation film of the Slovenian School Museum
The film presents our mission – to preserve the cultural heritage of Slovenian education in the Republic of Slovenia and over the state borders – in a comprehensive and interesting way. In the film, Zofi the Owl introduces our various museum activities and takes the narrator to all the hidden corners of the museum. But this is not just a film; it is an informative experience of education through time; it is a reflection of the atmosphere of the Slovenian School Museum, its staff and visitors.
Curator Mag Marjetka Balkovec Debevec presented the Guide to the Permanent Exhibition, the Colouring Book with Pictures of Everyday Life Throughout History, the Little Notebook as a Guide Through the Permanent Exhibition in Slovenian and English, and the notebooks that are indispensable in our museum.
The museum is full of excitement and joy when children come to visit us, which is why we devote much of our work to educational activities. The publications related to pedagogical activities were presented by Mateja Pušnik and Klara Marija Keršič, and they include the Pedagogical programmes for the School Year 2024/25, the handwriting exercises, the Workbook for Primary School Children Aged 9-11, the Easy Read Guide to the Permanent Exhibition and the internal handbook Guide for Guides.
Since 1992, the Slovenian School Museum has been publishing the annual journal School Chronicle, which discusses various aspects of the history of education and pedagogy. Dr Simon Malmenvall presented it and summarised last year’s events commemorating the 250th anniversary of Maria Theresa’s General School Ordinance, as well as the exhibition catalogue and the proceedings.
A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE PUBLICATIONS PRESENTED
School Rules! – Guide to the Permanent Exhibition
This guide offers informative, interesting and enticing content that reflects the cultural development of Slovenians. We named the permanent exhibition School Rules! to emphasise that education has been based on legislation at least since Empress Maria Theresa nationalised it and issued the first national primary education law in 1774. At the same time, school is also an interweaving of many personal, unforgettable experiences and therefore, in the lingo of young people, it really rules!
School Rules! – A Colouring Book with Pictures of Everyday Life Throughout History
We have prepared a series of snapshots of people’s lives in different historical periods. For each period, we selected two interesting and characteristic themes related to the acquisition of new knowledge. The stories are briefly described and brought to life with line drawings. The colouring book encourages visual learning and helps to better remember historical facts.
School Rules! A Little Notebook as a Guide Through the Permanent Exhibition in Slovenian and English
This little notebook is a collection of short insights into the exhibition, presented in an interesting way by our museum stars Ana and Blaž. They are occasionally joined by Zofi the Owl, who is full of wisdom.
Young Curator’s Notes – A Workbook for Primary School Children Aged 9-11
The playful and neatly illustrated workbook can be used to enrich the visit to the permanent exhibition. Pupils become explorers: they compare school in the past and today, find writing utensils and explore their favourite exhibit. The workbook can be used in an evaluation after a visit to the museum or as a stimulus for further research into the school’s past.
School Rules! – An Easy Read Guide to the Permanent Exhibition
In recent years, the Slovenian School Museum has increasingly focused on the accessibility of the museum. A step forward in this regard is the production of an easy read guide to the permanent exhibition. The guide is aimed primarily at visitors with intellectual disabilities and others who need easy-to-understand information. We worked on the project with Živa Jakšić Ivačič, a teacher and special education teacher, and test readers from the Day Centre of the Sožitje Association.
Guide for Guides – internal material for creating guided tours of the exhibition
This publication is an in-house resource for training guides and helping them to create guided tours of the permanent exhibition School Rules!.
Slovenian School Museum notebooks
By publishing the notebooks with a meaningful note inside, we wanted to present the history of notebooks to the public.
Slovenian School Museum calendar 2025
The Slovenian School Museum has been creating its calendar since 2009 to highlight various topics related to education. This year’s calendar, the 17th in a row, is dedicated to the 250th anniversary of compulsory education in Slovenia. The images in the calendar are taken from books and related works from the second half of the 18th century.
School Chronicle
Since 1992, we have been publishing the annual journal School Chronicle, which discusses various aspects of the history of education and pedagogy. The School Chronicle 2024, which was published in two volumes and three numbers, is freely available.
Publications commemorating the 250th anniversary of the General School Ordinance
The year 2024 was a jubilee year for education, marking 250 years since the publication of Maria Theresa’s General School Ordinance, which brought about the beginning of state education. For this purpose, an exhibition on 250 years of compulsory education in Slovenia was prepared, and an exhibition catalogue was published. The proceedings of the scientific symposium were also published.
PLANS FOR 2025
In addition to the museum activities in the field of school heritage, the Slovenian School Museum carries out a number of other professional and research tasks related to the history of education. We have been developing programmes of further education for teachers and of scientific research into the school’s past. Within the framework of the expanded museum activities, the following programme highlights are planned:
- Publication of the permanent exhibition catalogue
The importance of the permanent exhibition catalogue exceeds all other work in the field of museum activity. It will complete the image of the museum and the permanent exhibition, which will thus also be subject to critical professional scrutiny.
- Border, Language and School scientific symposium and exhibition
Scientific research is at the heart of the museum’s work. Through research in the field of education, we aim to convey the fundamental values that are reflected in the phenomena studied in the history of education and that are also of value in the present.
- Mobile exhibition: 30 years of the reintroduction of the matura exam
The RIC National Examination Centre is the institution in charge of commemorating the reintroduction of the matura exam 30 years ago. With a mobile exhibition that will mainly tour grammar schools, the museum will be the source and disseminator of historical knowledge about the development and role of the matura exam since its emergence in the mid-19th century. With this exhibition, we aim to widen the space of discourse on the role of the matura exam in the school system. We will also include more recent findings on the effects of the matura exam in the Republic of Slovenia.
- Classroom in the cloud
The Classroom in the cloud is the final stage in the development of the permanent exhibition on the school’s past with a view to the future. The guiding principle in the design of the classroom is to show the interrelationship between a distinctly information- and technology-oriented age and the underlying value that is consistently reflected in the relationship and communication between teacher and student in the transmission of knowledge.
- Reading literacy and strengthening competences between the museum and schools
The proposed special task is aimed at promoting reading literacy and strengthening the competences of those who can play a role in this process. On the basis of studies of past lessons, we will identify examples of good practice that have been implemented in museum programmes and reinforce them with pupils, while also supporting teachers and parents in this process.