Foreword

Serbia has made improvements in access to education and international assessments show that learning outcomes have remained generally stable in recent years, with slight improvements among the highest-achieving students. This signals widening educational inequities. Moreover, a large share of students in Serbia continue to leave school without mastering basic competencies and efforts to achieve educational excellence are jeopardised by limited institutional capacity and low levels of public spending on education. Serbia needs to strengthen school leadership, modernise the teaching profession and provide schools with the support they need to prepare their students for success in a creative and knowledge-based economy. This is crucial to the country’s economic development, social prosperity and European integration.

This review was undertaken in partnership by the OECD and UNICEF at the request of, and in close collaboration with, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development in Serbia.

Focused on the country’s educational assessment and evaluation systems, this review offers recommendations to help Serbia capitalise on promising policies and practices that support student learning. The proposals put teaching and learning at the heart of assessment and evaluation, meaning that student assessments, teacher appraisals and both school and system evaluations all contribute to the ultimate goal of helping students learn.

The review builds on the collaboration between the OECD Directorate for Education and Skills and UNICEF. It has benefitted from our organisations’ complementary experience and expertise to provide an analysis that is grounded in the context of evaluation and assessment in Serbia’s education system while drawing on international research and best practice from around the world.

Above all, we hope that this review will be a useful reference for Serbia as it reforms its educational evaluation and assessment systems. As the country develops its next mid-term education strategy and introduces a new national assessment and examinations system, this review provides guidance that can be used to inform decision-making. We hope that the review’s recommendations contribute to the development of an education system that provides excellence for all.

Andreas Schleicher

Director for Education and Skills and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the OECD Secretary-General

Regina De Dominicis

UNICEF Representative to Serbia