One of the objectives of the ECEC Project is the enhancement of the self-evaluation process.

In order to improve the self-evaluation methodology and practice as a basis for future planning, it was necessary to investigate the existing self-evaluation practice as well as the use of its results in the enhancement of practice and the development of competencies of employees in preschool institutions.

The sample consisted of 6 preschool institutions from Belgrade, from the central urban area, the outskirts and the suburban municipalities, of different size and numbers of facilities and groups. The evaluation was conducted between June and November 2019.

Different techniques were used for the evaluation purposes: focus groups with the employees in kindergartens, some of which were members of self-evaluation teams, interviews with PIs’ principles, reviews and analyses of documents of the PI that have to do with self-evaluation, reporting and planning.

The basic purpose of this activity was the assessment of self-evaluation practice in PIs and giving recommendations for the improvement of such practice. The following aspects were evaluated: understanding of the self-evaluation purpose; methodology of the self-evaluation process; improvement of the self-evaluation practice from the perspective of PIs; horizontal learning and reflective practice in PIs.

The Report on the Assessment of the Preschool Institutions’ Self-Evaluation Practice includes: the results of the assessment analysis, the recommendations for the improvement of self-evaluation practice, and the annexes: questions for the focus groups with the practitioners, questions with the interviews with PI principles, workshop for children themed ”The Kindergarten I want”.

The Report in Serbian is available here.

One of the key novelties in our education system is the introduction of the New Preschool Curriculum Framework (NPCF), symbolically themed “Years of Ascent”. Since the implementation of the new concept presents a significant challenge but also a stimulus in the development of practice in kindergartens, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, in cooperation with the Institute for Pedagogy and Andragogy from the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, commenced the full programme of support to preschool institutions in the implementation of the “Years of Ascent”, as part of the activities under the Component 2 of the ”Inclusive Early Childhood Education and Care” Project, financed from the IBRD loan. The programme of support includes trainings, mentorship, peer learning and horizontal exchange between the preschool institutions professionals.

For the purpose of implementing the programme of support, 90 professionals (practitioners: nursery and kindergarten teachers, preschool expert associates and faculty and vocational college professors) were hired in the open competition and trained for trainers and mentors. So far 1,890 professionals from eleven preschool institutions are in the support programme. Also, some additional mechanisms of the support programme monitoring and evaluation are envisaged, with the view to continually improving and adjusting to the practical needs.

By the end of 2022, all the preschool institutions will be included in the support programme and will start implementing the new PCF.

One of the key ”Inclusive Early Childhood Education and Care” Project objectives is to improve monitoring and evaluation of the preschool education quality in order to secure informed decision-making and enhance learning conditions and well-being of children.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, in close cooperation with the Institute for the Education Quality and Evaluation and the European Policy Centre, has initiated the activities that would contribute to the improvement of external evaluation through supporting the implementation of the revised Preschools Quality Work Standards.

In recent period, the Consultative Group has been formed (comprising twenty professionals – education advisors and preschool practitioners) and education quality evaluation experts hired, who jointly developed descriptors for different levels of achievement of quality standard indicators (at the levels 2 and 4), as well as corresponding tools for gathering data on the quality of work in preschool institutions. The developed tools were successfully piloted and their metric characteristics tested.

Another result of this fruitful cooperation was the development of methodology for monitoring the project development objective (PDO) in the area of preschool quality that would serve as a base for the preparation of baseline and endline studies dealing with project activities affecting prechool education quality (the studies will be available by the end of 2019 and in 2022 respectively). In the forthcoming month all education advisors from school directorates will receive a two-day training on new Prechool Curriculum Framework, and attend a one-day conference on the apllication of tools for evaluation of the quality of work in preschool institutions.

The media campaign called Acceptance, which is a part of Inclusive Early Childhood Education and Care project who’s goal is raising public awareness about the importance of accepting differences in the earliest age and development of the inclusive society, is now running.

The media campaign started on October 31st, 2019. With the airing of TV and radio commercial and billboard instalment all across Serbia.

The TV video Acceptance, as well as other videos that will be broadcast in the later stages of the communication campaign, were filmed in kindergartens Sanjalica and Ježurak in the municipalities of Palilula and Čukarica. These institutions are the recipients of grants awarded to cities and municipalities across the country to support programs to improve accessibility, equity, capacity increase and support for families to develop parenting competencies. In addition to representatives of pre-school institutions, support to the process of creating and producing video clips was provided by the Institute for Sport and Sports Medicine of the Republic of Serbia.

The media campaign “Acceptance” is also implemented through social networks and PR activities. The TV commercial can be seen below:

As part of the second round of the ECEC Project Grant Scheme, under which grants are awarded to LSGs for the implementation of the early childhood education and care activities, the ECEC Project Management Unit organised trainings for the representatives of LSGs on the preparation of project proposals.

The three one-day training sessions were held on October 29th–31st, 2019 in the “Radojka Lakić“ Student Resort on the Mount Avala, Belgrade.

The sessions were attended by 80 representatives from 22 local self-government units. Apart from the LSGs representatives, the trainings were attended by the representatives of inter-sectoral committees and the LSGs partner organisations:

• preschool institutions;
• social care centres;
• health care centres;
• Red Cross;
• NGOs.

As a follow-up to the successfully held trainings on preparing project proposals, as of November 2019 the ECEC Project Management Unit will announce the Second invitation for submitting project proposals to be financed from the ECEC Project Grant Scheme proceeds.