Centre for Education Policy

“ARISE: Action for Reducing Inequalities in Education” is a regional project implemented in Albania, Bosna and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey and funded by the European Commission. The aim of the project is to support inclusion of students with low socio-economic status (SES) by building national and regional partnerships of civil society organisations from six beneficiaries to engage in advocacy and constructive policy dialogue with governments, raise awareness among education stakeholders and pilot interventions targeting low SES students at school level. CEP, together with partner organisation from Turkey (ERI), is responsible for the policy analysis in the area of education, social care and health care and the research component of the project and will develop research methodology which will be applied in all beneficiaries. National researchers will conduct desk review and field data collection through focus group interviews with relevant stakeholders from systems of education, social care and health care. As main outputs of this component, national reports and policy briefs in the area of education, social care and health care will be produced, while CEP and ERI will develop a comparative report providing a clear picture of existing policies and current trends. CEP is also responsible for all project activities taking place in Serbia and will take part in activities related to policy outreach and advocacy on the national level, and in learning activities dedicated to partner organisations. In addition, CEP will be providing support to grassroots organisations and mentor support to selected schools in Serbia in implementation of school development programme.

This project presents the second phase of the project “Together in transition - Support to Children from Vulnerable Groups in Transition to Secondary Education” (2017-2019), which was implemented in 10 primary schools with the aim to increase the number of students from vulnerable groups who continue their education at the secondary level. Therefore, the project is based on experiences of 10 primary schools and the evaluation results of the first phase, which showcased that the project achieved significant results, and that there is a need to involve secondary schools and other local actors in order to ensure successful transition to secondary education and its completion. That is why the second project phase included those secondary schools which primary schools the from the first project phase cooperate the most with, as well as the local actors from their communities. The project includes implementation of three components - strengthening capacities of 10 primary schools for quality teaching and learning of students from vulnerable groups in transition to secondary education, strengthening capacities of 10 secondary schools for students’ dropout prevention, as well as strengthening capacities of local actors to understand, identify and support students from vulnerable groups in overcoming challenges they face in their educational paths. Project is being implemented in schools from Becej, Bor, Brestovac, Djurdjevo, Zitkovac, Knjazevac, Leskovac, Nis, Niska Banja, Novi Sad, Surdulica, and Cuprija.

Within the programme “Quality Education for All (Quality Ed – Serbia)”, Council of Europe is implementing project that is built upon on the results of the project “Fostering a democratic school culture in schools in Serbia” (2017-2019). New project objective is to foster quality education by supporting schools and local communities in their efforts to fight prejudges and discrimination towards vulnerable groups, as well as violence in schools. Centre for Education Policy (CEP) provides team of local experts who deliver support to Council of Europe in local implementation of the mentioned project, i.e. in schools. Network of 20 pilot schools established within the previous project will serve as a base for sharing good practices and providing mentorship for new schools. CEP will continue to support 20 pilot schools from the previous project in designing and implementation of schools’ action plans as well as in building capacities of employees. In addition, CEP will support mentors, teachers and professional associates from 20 pilot schools, in sharing their practices towards new 40 schools. This project will, same as previous, utilise the CoE Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture in order to provide systematic support on two levels – school level, including their local communities and the level od education policy.

The project ‘Support in development and establishment of the National Model of Dual Education’ has objective to support Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development and Commission for the development and implementation of dual education in the development of different reform related documents (e.g. bylaws, guidebooks  for different stakeholders such as schools, parents, students, companies, etc.), the development of dual education monitoring and evaluation framework including accompanying instruments and in implementation of different research (e.g. research on stakeholders’ attitudes, challenges and good practices in implementation of the National Model of Dual Education, cost-benefit analyses for companies, etc.) in order to secure feasible implementation of the National Model of Dual Education in Serbia. Throughout all the project’s activities focus will be on the National Model of Dual Education aspects that are related to equity, access to education and relevance.

Within the project, Master plan for establishment and implementation of the National Model of Dual Education will be developed as a system tool for planning of complex reform processes, while one of the activities’ set will be dedicated to development of Communication strategy in order to secure better understanding on dual education notions by diverge target groups.

Research activities and activities related to Master plan are going to be implemented in cooperation with Swiss Economic Institute (KOF) of the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology (ETH), Zurich.

National Association of Parents and Teachers of Serbia, Fund for an Open Society and Centre for Education Policy are implementing project that has the aim of improving intercultural dimension of education in primary and secondary schools (strengthening openness towards cultural differences and intercultural values such as tolerance, solidarity and antidiscrimination) through activities conducted by the educational institutions and parents-teachers clubs in different municipalities/cities in Serbia. During the project, selected schools and parents-teachers clubs will unite and build their capacities for implementation of joint activities that aim at introduction of and enhancing intercultural activities into the education practice (through teaching and extracurricular activities). In order to achieve so, pairs of schools and parents-teachers clubs have been defined, which gained support in terms of grants for realisation of project ideas and mentorship. Good practice examples that foster intercultural learning, understanding and joint activities of different schools, families and local communities will be collected and promoted during the project.

The project is built on the results of the UNICEF project “Towards the prevention of child marriages” (2018-2019) and UNICEF and CEP joint efforts centered on reducing school drop-out. Namely, UNICEF and CEP developed Dropout prevention model (DPM), that was firstly piloted and then upgraded within the projects “Combating Early School Leaving in Serbia through effective drop-out prevention and intervention measures at the school level” (2014-2016) and “Establishing foundation for integrative approach to combating school dropout” (2017-2018).Project “Educational support in prevention of child marriages and dropout” involves stakeholders that were identified as crucial for project implementation i.e. Republic Institute for Social Protection. Project is implemented in schools from Pirot and Novi Becej, which continue to implement DPM with focus on prevention of child marriages, in cooperation with Roma NGOs, while in Belgrade a new target group has been established and it comprises 30 young girls who already dropped out from school. In cooperation with Bibija Roma Women Center, CEP will support to this target group in terms of providing training on developing job-finding skills and attritional professional orientation activities. Roma Women Center Bibija activists will also provide mentor support to girls who already dropped out from school.

The project aims at increasing the number of students from vulnerable groups who continue their education at the secondary level. This project will strengthen the schools' and teachers' capacities to collaboratively plan and provide support to students from vulnerable groups in transition to secondary education, and respectively for individualisation of preparation for graduation exam and professional orientation. Schools and teachers will be empowered through accredited seminars, seminars developed for project purposes, regular meetings and support of project associates. In addition, the selected schools will receive grants of 3,600 euros for the implementation of project activities which are mainly dedicated to providing support to students and parents.

The project is being implemented in 10 selected primary schools across Serbia, located in the teritories of the local self-government units in which an increased need for intervention aimed at encouraging students' transition into high school was identified - Aleksinac (Žitkovac), Bečej, Bor, Brestovac, Đurđevo, Knjaževac, Leskovac, Niška Banja, Surdulica i Ćuprija.

This project is being implemented within the broader framework for support to schools and students in improving the quality and enhancing the accessibility of education, which is provided by Center for Interactive Pedagogy and Save the Children organization. In the first phase (from February to November 2018), Centre for Education Policy (CEP) has been engaged to deliver a set of mentorship measures within in 12 primary schools in Serbia. CEP was engaged for delivering an accredited training for teachers on the subject of students’ dropout prevention, as well as for providing support in designing and implementation of schools’ action plans for students’ dropout prevention. Evaluation of the first phase showcased that there is a need for providing continuous mentor support to these schools but also a need for including new schools, bearing in mind that measures that teachers conducted were effective, indicating that those measures should be implemented in other schools. In the second project phase (from June to December 2019), CEP has been engaged to provide support to new schools in the same manner, as well as to continue to provide support to schools from the first project phase, with focus on engagement of local community in overcoming challenges which schools and students face. In the first project phase, project was implemented in schools from Belgrade, Bujanovac, Vlasotince, Leskovac, Surdulica and Trgovište, and respectively in Belgrade, Vlasotince, Krusevac, Leskovac, Nis, Surdulica and Trgoviste, in the second project phase.

The main goal of FINAC project is to contribute to the higher quality of budgeting, finance management, accounting and controlling in Albania's and Serbia's public administration by building its capacities in mentioned areas. This goal will be achieved through: designing and developing three new master degree programmes in Serbia and two new master degree programmes in Albania in the field of financial management, accounting and controlling; provision of trainings for public administration employees in Serbia; modernisation of one master degree programme in the field of public financial management in Serbia. All master degree programmes will be developed on the basis of learning outcomes, flexibility in terms of choice of elective subjects and consequent specialisation, choice of teaching and assessment methods in order to ensure fulfilment of the learning outcomes.

Within the project “Towards the prevention of child marriages” UNICEF has initiated support activities towards boy and girl pupils under the risk of early marriages and dropout, in partnership with Centre for education policy and with support of the Ministry for education, science and technological development. The project unites good practices and the instruments used in the project “Combating Early School Leaving in Serbia through effective drop-out prevention and intervention measures at the school level” which was highly successfully realized in 10 schools in Serbia (2014-2016). Aim of the project is further improvement of education employees’ capacities for dropout prevention as well as development of mechanism for prevention of child marriages on the local level, especially for Roma girls who are the most vulnerable group of children when it comes to child marriages. Local level activities will be implemented in 8 primary and secondary schools in Novi Bečej, Belgrade and Pirot.

The leader of the project is the Centre for Comparative and International Studies (Tirana, Albania) in partnership with Centre for Education Policy (Belgrade, Serbia). This project aims at empowering youth to understand what their rights are, and equipping them with the necessary tools and skills to reach out to institutions on issues of interest to them. The project will work with youth in Albania and Serbia, and it will help young people understand that their peers in other Balkan countries face the same issues, and it will equip them with knowledge and skills to tackle such issues, while also contributing to the systematic lowering of barriers between them. The project will achieve its aim through a continuous learning process and mentoring programme on participation in decision making though digital mobility. The project activities are conducting workshops on developing key competences for active participation and impact on policy processes such as communication, digital competences, social and civic competences, organising study visit on participation and the use of digital tools to enhance participation amongst youth, as well as organising Hackathon as an innovative way of empowering Balkans youth to impact policy making processes.

The overall goal of the project is to improve the quality of education by fostering a democratic culture in the system of formal education through applying anti-discriminatory approaches based on the standards and practices of the Council of Europe. Specific aims are to enhance knowledge and awareness of the teaching and non-teaching staff, students and local communities on the concept, policies, practices and benefits from inclusive education and a democratic school culture, as well as to raise teachers capacities for implementation of activities that aim on developing competencies for democratic culture through teaching, within extracurricular activities and in cooperation with local community.  Main project activities will include applying framework of competencies for democratic culture in school setting, as well as peer learning between participating schools.  A total of 20 primary and secondary schools from the territory of 14 local self-governments across the region have been selected to participate in this project. Another project goal is to use gained experience to develop national level recommendations.

The leader of the project "Our Story" is the Government of Serbia Coordination Body for the Municipalities of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja (CB) while the Centre for Education Policy (CEP) is a partner in the project. In the municipalities of Medvedja, Bujanovac and Presevo classes in elementary schools are realized in either Serbian or Albanian language and there is no form of cooperation within which students would have the opportunity to mutually interact and cooperate. The aim of the project is to establish a link between students and teachers of the two elementary schools in Presevo through the organization of extracurricular activities for students belonging to different national communities, as well as to increase the capacities of teachers from Presevo to strengthen intercultural practices through teaching and extracurricular activities.

The project will attempt to contribute to the building of mutual trust and respect among students from different national communities present in Presevo and will document a process that can serve as a model of good practice, potentially useful for other multicultural environments where decades of segregated education is present.

The aim of the project is to contribute to an integrative approach and to enhance cooperation between the education sector and social protection sector in preventing the dropout from the education system of the Republic of Serbia at elementary and secondary school level. Respectively, aim of the project is to utilse the capacities of the both systems (education and social protection) in best possible way in providing support to students which are in risk of dropout and usually belong to vulnerable social groups (e.g. students coming from a family with a low socio-economic status, or from non-stimulating environments, etc.). Within the project, a plan for integrating measures of these two systems will be developed for students who are identified as those at risk of dropout, and methods for supporting pupils will be proposed and improved. Capacity building for teachers and social workers in the application of the integrative approach is also planned.

The project is implemented by the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation, in partnership with the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund Deutschland, Novi Sad Humanitarian Centre and Macedonian Helsinki Committee. The overall objective of the project is to protect the human rights of migrants through activities of civil society organizations in different fields. The specific objectives of this project are to empower civil society organizations supporting migrants through networking and capacity building, as well as creating a more favourable environment for the prevention and eradication of all forms of violations of human rights through advocacy of public policies aiming to ensure the protection of migrants' and asylum seekers rights. Within the framework of this project, the Centre for Education Policy supports the realization of the rights to education of the migrants and refugees’ children through the analysis of the capacities of organizations working in collective centres for support in ensuring the right to education for all children, training of employees in collective centres, developing of advocacy and information materials, as well as monitoring the realization of the right to education.

The aim of the project is to examine the intercultural skills of pupils and teachers in multicultural communities in Serbia, as well as their connection with indicators of intergroup relations (e.g. social distance). This research is based upon the results of the previous project that was determining the link between students' intercultural skills and their attitudes towards different ethnic groups in 6 local self-government units in Sandžak region (project "Youth in multicultural community 1" 2016/2017). This project seeks to examine factors that can shape the relationship between intercultural skills and intergroup relations. The research will involve 10 schools that are attended by pupils of different cultural backgrounds and mother tongues, and the instruments that are most often used for academic purposes will be applied. Schools from Subotica, Novi Sad, Bor, Preševo and Bujanovac are participating in the project. 

General objective of the project is to promote the ePortfolio use in VET system in Serbia, while the specific objectives of the project are raising policymakers’ awareness of the ePortfolio’s potentials in fostering teachers’ continuous professional development (CPD), improvement of teaching practice and development of 21st century skills, building capacities of VET teachers to use ePortfolio as a method for enhancing self-learning and self-reflection skills, as well as strengthening school management capacities to institutionally use its ePortfolio, to plan, guide ePortfolio integration at the school level and select appropriate ePortfolio tools e.g. (Mahara, Google Drive).

The Education Reform Initiative of South Eastern Europe (ERI SEE) is a regional platform for countries’ cooperation in the field of education and training. Members of the ERI SEE are signatories to the Memorandum of Understanding on the Role and Organisation of ERI SEE: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro and Serbia. The aim of the ERI SEE is to contribute to enhancement and implementation of national reforms in education and training in the region, bearing in mind the specific needs and conditions in every member county, as well as the broader context and trends.

In 2010, the ERI SEE Governing Board designated CEP too be the host of the ERI SEE Secretariat until the registration of the ERI SEE Secretariat in the Republic of Serbia. In the period 2010-2017, CEP has been successfully realizing numerous ERI SEE activities (regional thematic seminars, training events, project development workshops, study visits, international conferences etc.) aimed to support information exchange between member countries, building regional institutional networks (South East Europe Vocational Education and Training Network - SEEVET-Net), and development of the regional projects as well as coordination of development and implementation of Education and Competences dimension within the South East Europe 2020 Strategy. CEP was also actively involved in the transformation process and the founding of the ERI SEE Secretariat in Serbia.

The goal of this project is to implement several indicators from the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (CDC) related to the media and social networks. The pilot project consists of following activities: literature and curriculum review, assessment of how competencies are currently reflected in the education systems in partner countries. Project also included research on teachers’ opinions and needs related to the CDC and its implementation in the digital space, development of a common approach and support to teachers for using new didactical approaches in teaching, as well as preparation of the strategic document with recommendations and best practice toolkit. Beside Serbia, this project is being implemented in Romania, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Armenia and Croatia. Centre for Education Policy is in charge for project implementation in Serbia.

This project is based on the Work Plan for the implementation of the Cooperation Programme between UNICEF and the Government of the Republic of Serbia in the field of education in the period 2016-2017. The project goal is to enable successful integration of migrant/refugees children into the education system, starting from preschool education to the end of high school. It would be achieved through the development of training programs for educational institutions and school administration, as well as for the associations that implement programmes of informal education in refugee centres, thorough providing mentoring support and small grants to educational institutions, as well as by providing linguistic and professional support to schools and preschool institutions which would enroll these students. In the first phase of the project, targeted were those institutions in the municipalities/cities where the refugee centres are located (Belgrade, Lajkovac).

The second phase of the project is based on the results of the first phase, which involves the implementation of the National School Welcome programme for migrant/refugee children and support of the school for its implementation. Local coordinators were involved in the project in order to assist educational institutions in organizing daily activities for children and students. Schools also received small grants and tailor-made materials which will help them support migrant/refugee students. The second phase of the project included schools from Belgrade, Subotica, Sombor, Vranje, Sid, Sjenica, Pirot and Kikinda. Within the project a Handbook for schools on realisation of Professional instruction for education integration of migrant students has been designed.

The goal of this project is strengthening of teachers, principals and professional associates of participating schools for the realisation of intercultural education. It foresees planning and implementing intercultural educational activities in five primary and secondary schools that are attended by large percentage of students belonging to national minorities from different regions of Serbia, strengthening of school teams for the implementation of intercultural school practices, testing of intercultural school activities on a selected sample and providing recommendations for further strengthening of intercultural practices in schools in Serbia, taking into account the capacities of institutions and possible support of the civil sector. Project is being implemented in schools in Belgrade, Valjevo, Novi Pazar, Kovačica and Subotica. 

Building upon the project "Teachers - Reflexive Researchers of Inclusive Educational Practice" (NARIP), when local teachers teams conducted research in the fields of inclusive and intercultural education and based on the data obtained proposed adequate interventions for improvements in local communities, project “Teachers’ Interventions based on Research Findings” deals with the last phase of the action research - implementation of proposed interventions. More precisely, the goal of the project is to support five teams of teachers researchers in planning, implementation and monitoring of interventions, affirming in that way the role of teachers as leaders of positive changes in their local communities.

In order to improve transport and road safety, the World Bank Transport and ICT Global Practice (in the Europe and Central Asia region) received a grant for an analytical project "Road safety through a gender lens making roads safer using a gender targeted approach". Within this engagement, local partner organisation Union of Persons with Paraplegia and Quadriplegia of Serbia (SPIKS) will deliver a road safety awareness campaign through focused intervention to high-school students in selected schools, while Centre for Education Policy will conduct preformative and impact evaluation od the campaign.

The goal of this project is to examine the intercultural sensitivity of young people, their parents and teachers in the region of Sandžak, as well as their attitudes towards intercultural education, in order to gain insight into their competencies for participation in democratic culture and life in culturally diverse society. Upon the realisation of the research, the research results will be publicly presented, firstly in Sandžak region, followed by other relevant conferences and events. The project is realised in partnership with the organisation Urban In, in the following cities: Novi Pazar, Sjenica, Tutin, Prijepolje, Priboj and Nova Varos. 

The overall objective is to contribute to the promotion of inclusive education and training policies and practices in Western Balkan countries (Albania, BiH, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia) in contexts of social and cultural diversity. The specific objectives are (a) to analyse policies and practices regarding teachers’ pre-service training and in-service professional development schemes at the country level, to identify issues, challenges and good practice in the 7 participating countries with regard to the skills and competences required for inclusive education practices by teachers from primary and secondary education; (b) to identify in a cross country report the key findings from the country analyses in regard to major issues, challenges and good policies and practices for preparing teachers for inclusive education.

As part of a wider research project dedicated to the analysis of poverty in Serbia, two analyses were conducted by CEP: (1) an analysis of reproduction of social inequalities through education transitions and (2) an analysis of efficiency and equity of the student welfare system in Serbia. The first study focused on issues related to the reproduction of social inequalities through the education system in Serbia, with special attention to the system solutions about the rules of registration in high school and colleges, and to the transfer points where social reproduction becomes evident. The second study was dealing primarily with a system of scholarships and student loans in Serbia. The aim of the research was the assessment of equity and efficiency of the distribution of such assistance to students taking into account socioeconomic status of students.

Publication about the National Qualifications Framework primarily serves as a key reference text for the implementation of the National Qualifications Framework in Serbia (and possible other countries in the region). The publication contains basic information about NQF relevant for the implementation of NQF in Serbia and examples of implementation of NQF in other countries.