OECD Reviews of Evaluation and Assessment in Education: Serbia
How can assessment and evaluation policies work together more effectively to improve student outcomes in primary and secondary schools? The country reports in this series analyse major issues facing evaluation and assessment policy to identify improvements that can be made to enhance the quality, equity and efficiency of school education. Serbia’s education system performs well compared to other countries in the Western Balkans. In recent years, there have been improvements in access to education and Serbia has undertaken major institutional reforms to improve teaching and learning. However, a large share of students in Serbia continue to leave school without mastering basic competencies and efforts to achieve educational excellence continue to be jeopardised by limited institutional capacity and low levels of public spending on education. This review, developed in co-operation with UNICEF, provides Serbia with recommendations to help strengthen its evaluation and assessment system to focus on support for student learning. It will be of interest to Serbia, as well as other countries looking to make more effective use of their evaluation and assessment system to improve quality and equity, and result in better outcomes for all students.
Promoting and supporting good teaching
This chapter looks at how Serbia evaluates teaching practice and supports teachers’ improvement through its teacher appraisal system. While Serbia has a merit-based career structure for teachers, the use of appraisal to inform promotion and other teacher policies remains underdeveloped. Revising teacher standards and ensuring those who appraise teachers are well-trained professionals can help enhance the formative function of teacher appraisal. Moreover, offering a competitive and progressive salary that recognises professional growth can help incentivise teachers to develop and take on new responsibilities. Finally, Serbia should improve the selection and initial preparation of new teachers to help promote and support good teaching.