1. 2007 - 2010 Strategy for Civic Education in Elementary Schools and Comprehensive High Schools
Following the two-year implementation of civic education in elementary schools and its availability as an elective course in comprehensive high schools since 2006, a need was identified to provide systematic approach to this course, and development of a 2007-2010 Strategy began. The working team will be in chrage of developing the Strategy at the workshops organized by the Bureau for Educational Services. The Foundation will provide funding for the workshops in January and March/April 2007. In addition, the Foundation secured the participation of Tomislav Reskovac as project consultant. Publication: Strategy for Civic Education in Primary and Secondary Schools in Montenegro 2007-2010
1. Development of the Civic Education Strategy for Elementary Schools and Comprehensive High Schools (2007 – 2010)/ Engagement of Tomislav Reskovac as Project Consultant
Civic education has been implemented in elementary school for two years and the is being implemented as an optional course in comprehensive high schools as of 2006, and the acquired experience indicates the necessity to develop a comprehensive strategy for the purpose of further quality implementation. The project encompasses the engagement of Tomislav Reskovac as consultant in the development of the strategy. He will monitor the development of the situation analysis prepared by the working team of the Bureau for Educational Services. Based on this analysis, representatives of the Bureau and the partners will, at a meeting in December 2006, design a workshop that will take place in January 2007. At this workshop, partners, donors, teachers, representatives of the Bureau and other stakeholders should develop a Draft Strategy. Mr. Reskovac will assist the preparations and run the workshop.
2. Research on Media and Education
The project encompasses a research on the role of media in education, to be performed by the Montenegro Media Institute. Within the research, MMI will conduct a poll among media users, teachers working at all levels of education system, editors of the influential media in Montenegro, and students. The project includes analysis of TV and radio programs, aimed to determine the share of educational programs in the program schedules of relevant electronic media in Montenegro. The research will also show to what extent the public could learn about education reform from the media. Research results will serve as basis for the discussion at the conference on Education and Media, to be organized by the Montenegrin Academy of Arts and Sciences in December 2006, aimed to highlight the role of media in the education process.
1. Study Visit to the Examination Center of Slovenia
The Examination Center is assigned with preparing and implementing the testings in the reformed elementary school and the secondary school graduation exam, as well as with the database development. The Slovenian Examination Center has existed since 1993 and its experts will present relevant experience to their Montenegrin counterparts. The complete team of the Center will take part in the study visit (eleven staff members): coordinators for elementary school and the graduation exam, advisors for subject areas (mother tongue, mathematics, foreign languages, sciences and humanities), Assistant Center Director in charge of IT, psychometrician, secretary/legal advisor and the Examination Center Director. The project aims to provide major assistance to strengthening of the Examination Center capacity to implement its upcoming tasks.
2. Conference on Transparency, Ethics, and Anti-Corruption Measures in Education
In partnership with the Ministry of Education and Science of Montenegro, the Foundation organized the Regional Conference on Transparency, Ethics and Anti-corruption Measures in Education, held in Milocer, 22-25 October 2006. Education system reforms are well underway in Western Balkan countries, and it is important that the official educational institutions make efforts to promote ethical values, enhance transparency and prevent corruption in education. Conference presenters were Muriel Poisson and Jacques Hallak of the International Institute for Educational Planning - IIEP, Paris, while Constantine Palicarsky presented the Bulgarian experience in this field. The Conference was attended by representatives of official educational institutions from Albania, Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. The project was funded by the Education Support Program, OSI Budapest.
1. Development of a brochure and a leaflet on external testing in nine-year elementary school
As of this year the Public institution Examination Centre has been in operation with the main task of measuring the quality of the education system itself and individual achievements. The Examination Centre conducts examinations for 3 and 4-graders, exit examination at the end of primary education and the most significant external examination – graduation examination. This project provides better information on examinations for pupils, parents, teachers and the wider public. The brochure is intended for the educators, while the leaflet provides information on objectives, tasks, schedules and the testing procedure, the level of externality and the impact of test results on assessment to pupils and parents. Within the project, the Foundation also supports setting up a website of the Examination Centre with the pages on tasks and activities of the EC, legislative provisions, examinations and national research conducted by EC, the information on regional and national competitions (rankings, tests).
1. Parents on Education Reform - Monitoring and Evaluation of the Education Reform from Parents' Standpoint
Through this project, the Parents Association of Montenegro researches the opinions, observations, attitudes and views of parents on the changes in education and assesses the quality of the process, surveying of the outcomes of the reform in this field. The implementation of the project involves a team of trainers of the Association, the network of parents - officers in charge of all the towns in Montenegro and the network of parents' councils in 100 schools. The public and the key educational institutions will be informed about the findings of the research, and these are to serve as the basis for further reform work. The project is based on natural partnership of parents and other participants in the education reform process.
1. Support to the campaign of inclusion of Roma children in the education system
Within the regional project of "Save the Children" entitled "Inclusive Education and Antidiscrimination in the Western Balkan countries: Equal Opportunities for Roma Children", a campaign has been developed aimed at drawing attention to the importance of education and inadequate inclusion of Roma children in regular schooling in Montenegro. In Montenegro the campaign gathers the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Montenegro, Save the Children, Foundation Open Society Institute - Representative Office Montenegro and the Roma Scholarship Foundation. FOSI participates by funding the development and printing of 500 posters and paying for the billboard space (one in Niksic and one in Podgorica) in April 2006.
1. Implementation of the PISA project in Montenegro in 2006
The project relates to the implementation of the main testing of 5,500 15-year-olds from 48 secondary schools in Montenegro in accordance with the internationally standardised assessment of skills and knowledge (OECD/PISA). The study will give comparable data on the success of the education system in relation to other participating countries and point towards its possible improvements. It will also make possible to compare these results with student achievements in subsequent testing, in the new education system. The support provided to this project is in line with the strategic orientation of the Foundation to assist in the application of monitoring and evaluation tools for the quality of education reform. Last year we had a successful trial testing in Montenegro supported by the Foundation.
2. Development of syllabuses for elective subjects in general secondary school
The system of elective subjects enables general secondary school students to choose own educational and professional field as of the school year 2006/07. The aim of the project is to have developed and published the syllabuses for 14 electives by the beginning of the new school year. Each syllabus is developed by a commission having on board three to five members, and the work of all commissions is coordinated by the Bureau for Education It is intended for the syllabuses for first grade electives to be available to teachers before the beginning of the school year 2006/07.
3. Development and publication of brochures (with CDs) on obligatory elective subjects (OES)
Brochures with forms and guidance for organization and implementation of Obligatory Elective Subjects (OES) will provide several hundreds of pages of thorough information on this novelty in our schools to students, parents, teachers and managements of elementary and general secondary schools. The brochure will also be published in Albanian, and the project envisages the issuance of the electronic version as well. It is intended that this reference material needed for successful introduction of electives in the school year 2006/7 will be made ready and distributed to all the stakeholders before the beginning of the new school year.
4. Professional publications of the Bureau for Education
The Bureau for Education is developing the "Information Bulletin on General Secondary Schools" (in the local and Albanian language) and the "Enhancing Teaching" brochure. The "Information Bulletin on General Secondary Schools" should prepare and inform students, parents, general public and the teaching staff on the amendments planned for the new general secondary school starting with the school year 2006/7. The "Enhancing Teaching" brochure is intended for teachers as a contribution to their on-going professional development to encourage the application of modern teaching and learning methodologies. These professional publications will be completed by the end of June and distributed in mid August. The Information Bulletin will be provided for all students of the first grade of general secondary school and pupils of eight grade of elementary school.
5. Development, maintenance, and updating of the Bureau for Education website and database
The project implies updating and maintenance of the Bureau’s website, its redesign, processing and insertion of video recordings illustrating the activities of the Bureau, as well as the preparation and translation of texts for the site. The Bureau for Education has the leading role in monitoring, analysing and evaluating the education process in Montenegro and the information on all the above activities is available at the website. The project also includes the maintenance and development of a database for the needs of the Bureau. The data available here are the basic inputs for strategic and analytic planning, target orientation of research projects and transparent general and professional public information. The Foundation has also supported the development, setting up and updating the Bureau’s website in 2005.
6. Teacher training for reformed school - RWCT Program
Through seminars held so far, subject teachers have been familiarised with the new curricula, and now the RWCT program seminar (RWCT - Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking) will offer specific methodologies to encourage students participation and make teaching dynamic and interesting. The total of 320 subject teachers from the first 20 reformed schools in Montenegro teaching 6th- and 7th-graders will be the participants at four-day seminars to be held in Niksic, Tivat, Bijelo Polje and Bar. They will be provided with the RWCT implementation guide, containing examples of creative and innovative teaching. Teacher training is performed by the expert team of trainers from the Pedagogical Centre of Montenegro, certified for the RWCT Program.
7. Expert education of the Bureau for Education personnel regarding evaluation and assessment
The aim of the project is to enhance the competences of advisors at the Bureau for Education regarding assessment and evaluation in the teaching process. Being familiar with the concepts and methods of assessment/evaluation in teaching is of particular importance for advisors since they monitor the teaching process and give practical recommendations and suggestions. The seminar should assist them harmonise their methods for teacher appraisal. The consultant Tomislav Reskovac, whose expenses are to be covered by Zavod IRC from Ljubljana, while the Foundation is to cover the local expenses, will be working with a group of some twenty participants.
1. Seminar on the assessment of civil education teachers in primary schools
Through this project, the Foundation continues to support the introduction of civil education in the reformed primary schools. The seminar on the assessment of knowledge, skills and attitudes acquired by studying this subject will be attended by forty teachers from twenty schools in Montenegro which have introduced this subject since the school year 2005/06. The training will be organized in two groups: January 27-29 and February 10-12. On the basis of previous research of attitudes and experience of the teachers, the seminar program was developed, in cooperation with The Bureau for Education, by Tomislav Reskovac, who also prepared an evaluation manual for teachers. Within the same project, in 2005 the Foundation also supported: the training of civil education teachers in using debate method in teaching this subject, the training in political philosophy basics and Montenegrin political system basics and the preparation and printing of the teachers' manual.
2. Training for the Trainers of the Pedagogical Center of Montenegro as part of the "Step by Step and Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking" programs
The project aims to create a team of trainers who will train the teaching staff required by the reformed school, and is a follow-up to the previous activities of the Foundation in the successful implementation of the Step by Step (program for lower grades of primary school) and RWCT (Critical Thinking) in the Montenegrin educational system. In the period from February to April 2006, the Montenegro Pedagogical Center will organize the training for about twenty new trainers, who are currently employed at the University of Montenegro or in educational institutions. The training will be conducted through the basic five-day program and two additional one-day workshops. Further education of this group of trainers is planned for the next year. The Foundation will cover all expenses of the basic seminar and the workshops.
As part of the educational reform, the project encourages the work of student communities in all 48 secondary schools in Montenegro – the students will be informed about the possible ways of organizing themselves, methods for school democratization and how to advocate their interests. The three seminars (in Budva, Kolasin and Berane), in the period March - May 2006, will assemble a hundred of secondary school students from: Cetinje, Budva, Bar, Ulcinj, Berane, Andrijevica, Plav, Rozaje, Bijelo Polje, Kolasin, Mojkovac, Pljevlja and two schools from Podgorica. The seminars will be led by lecturers from NGOs and Ministry of Education and Science. Thanks to the support from the Ministry and the Foundation, the representatives of other secondary schools have undergone such education during 2005.
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