Enrolment in primary school

If your child will be six years old by 1 April of the current year, you are obliged to enrol them in a primary school, since primary education is compulsory in the Republic of Croatia

Enrolment in primary school is carried out pursuant to the school enrolment area, i.e. your place of permanent residence. The expert committee of the school in which the child is enrolling establishes the child’s previously acquired competencies and determines the grade in which the child will start or continue their education, while the school physician determines the child’s health condition.

In Croatia, the recognition of foreign education qualifications of your child for the purpose of continuing primary education is managed by the school to which you are also applying for enrolment or continuation of education. For this reason, we strongly recommend that you first make an appointment to obtain all of the necessary information and instructions.

The following documentation is usually required for enrolment:

• A translated and certified report card(s) of the previous primary education for a child continuing primary education in the Republic of Croatia
• A certificate of permanent residence or temporary stay or a certificate of temporary residence for the child and the parent.

For the purpose of faster and easier integration into the education system of those students who do not know Croatian or do not know it sufficiently well, preparatory or supplementary Croatian language classes are taught, and when a student enrols in school, their level of Croatian is checked.
Schools teach preparatory or supplementary Croatian language classes pursuant to a decision of the county administrative department or the City Office for Education of the City of Zagreb, with prior consent of the Ministry of Science and Education.

For further information, please read the article Primary education.