Croatia

Although kindergarten in Croatia was still optional at the turn of the millennium, approximately 31 percent of children of preschool age in Croatia were enrolled in preschool education programs in 1996. In the year 2000 primary school gross enrollment rates were 94 percent for boys and 97 percent for girls; the corresponding net enrollment rates were 93 percent for boys and 96 percent for girls. Girls had represented 49 percent of total enrollments in primary education in 1995. That same year, only 1 percent of primary students were enrolled in private education programs. In the mid-1990s about 98 percent of primary students (measured as percent of cohort) reached grade 5.