A series of professional training sessions on standards of educational achievement was successfully completed in four cities – Nis, Kraljevo, Belgrade, and Novi Sad. In interactive sessions and practical exercises, more than 170 educational advisers, Ministry of Education external advisers, external evaluators as well as advisers from the Institute for Education Quality and Evaluation, and the Institute for Improvement of Education, participated.
Through interactive sessions – practical exercises, group discussions, and presentations – participants significantly deepened their competencies for implementing the new standards in everyday school practice.
The first training, held at the Centre for Professional Development in Nis on 25-26 August, included 42 participants. On 22 September, the sesion in Kraljevo, hosted at the Agricultural-Chemical School “Dr Đorđe Radić,” gathered 23 participants. The trainings in Belgrade, conducted at the Institute for Education Quality and Evaluation on 23-24 September, were the most attended, with 85 participants. The final session in Novi Sad, held at Matica Srpska on 26 September, included 26 participants.
The objective of the training was to deepen participants’ understanding of the structure of the new achievement standards, including both subject-specific and cross-curricular competencies. Participants discussed implementation challenges and potential solutions, with emphasis on practical application in the teaching process.
“The key question is how the new achievement standards can enter schools and become functional, achieving the desired effects. It is essential to identify the challenges and obstacles that will inevitably arise, and to define possible solutions,” said Professor Dragica Pavlović Babić, project expert, during the opening session in Belgrade.
“These trainings represent an important step in supporting teachers, educational associates and all other stakeholders who will implement the new achievement standards in our schools. The training itself was designed around a competence-based approach, just as the new standards aim to shift the emphasis from traditional content to development of students’ competencies and functional knowledge,” added Vladeta Milin, project expert, following the final training.
Participants emphasised the importance of developing students’ competencies and applying them in real-life contexts, noting that this approach particularly motivates young people by demonstrating where and how newly acquired knowledge can be used in daily life.
The training series were carried out in cooperation with the Institute for Education Quality and Evaluation (IEQE), within the EU-funded project Support to Education Policies in the Republic of Serbia, and implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.
