A total of 7581 students from the academic-oriented gimnazija schools sat the school-leaving exams in June. The number was down by 399 on last year.

A total of 31 gimnazija students achieved 100% scoring (34 points) on their exams, which is ten more than last year. The number of top-flight students, which achieved an excellent grade with a score of 30 points or more, stood at 347.

In addition, 9,000 students from vocational high schools sat vocational school-leaving exams this year, which is down by almost 3,000 from last year. The 100% scoring was achieved by 37 students, while the number of top-flight students was 164.

Minister for Education, Science, Culture and Sport Žiga Turk expressed concern over the drop in the number of students taking the exam in recent years.

He noted that universities had more vacancies than there were secondary school graduates. The drop in the number of students from vocational high schools could even lead to certain courses being scrapped, he said.

According to him, this shows that the government-proposed merging of certain secondary schools is a good solution, as it would enable the preservation of training for those professions that the country lacks.

Turk also expressed doubt whether Matura results were a good indicator of knowledge and urged universities to introduce their own tests.

Three gimnazija schools, from Maribor, Ljubljana and Kranj, also organised an international Matura examination, which was attended by 85 students, including 29 foreigners. The number of top-flight students stood at 25.