In Slovenia post-compulsory education begins with upper secondary education. It is divided into general upper-secondary education, technical upper-secondary education and vocational upper-secondary education.

Secondary education is provided in upper-secondary schools. The schools can specialise with the provision of a single type of education, e.g. general upper-secondary schools (gimnazije). Alternatively they can provide several types of education courses by becoming a school centre which combines various types of upper secondary schools.

Following the completion of compulsory education, approximately 98 % of students continue their education at upper-secondary level.  40 % of students enrol onto general courses, more than 30 % of students enrol onto technical courses, while others (approx. 30 %) enrol onto short vocational upper-secondary courses. A small percentage of students (less than 2 %), who do not enrol onto secondary education courses after the completion  of their compulsory schooling, choose either to enrol onto vocational training courses, to enter the labour market, or to repeat  the grade 9 of elementary school in order to improve their  grade for the overall success. 

The main objectives of secondary education in Slovenia are:

• to provide all residents with opportunities to acquire upper-secondary level of education;
• to enable all residents to acquire the highest level of education possible while maintaining high   standards of knowledge;
• to increase the level of creativity of the highest number of residents possible and to foster the development of society;
• to enable students' involvement in the European integration processes.

Much of the organisation of the upper-secondary education system in Slovenia is centralised. The most important decisions concerning upper secondary education (e.g. the content and structure of programmes, staffing requirements and salaries, etc) are taken at the national level. However schools do have a certain level of autonomy in the implementation of the core national curricula, choice of teaching methods, staffing and employment matters and admission procedures.