Financing inclusive education in Serbia

1. Financing inclusive education in Serbia Tünde Kovács-Cerović MoES, Serbia

2. Overview: • Preliminary remarks: systemic barriers • Inherited challenges • New solutions • Development of new financial solutions • Lessons learned

3. ?... All children have the right to education. This has to be ensured in as many as possible preschool, primary and secondary schools. Teachers and schools need to adjust their work in order to meet the needs of students. Some children, due to disability or learning difficulty, need additional help.

4. WHY IS THIS NOT EASIER?IS IT TEACHERS/PARENTS’ ATTITUDES?LACK OF COMPETENCIES?ARE THERE SYSTEMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF EDUCATION WHICH POSE BARRIERS?

5. Basic characteristics of education systems which create barriers to inclusion • Huge system - covers about 20% of the population in the country, but is fragmented into small and dispersed units Calls for both bottom-up and top down processes example of country of 6mil

6. Basic characteristics of education systems which create barriers to inclusion 2. Perceived as major mechanism for social/economic promotion – high motivation, high incentives, low tolerance, high attrition

7. Basic characteristics of education systems which create barriers to inclusion • 3. Huge system of human interactions: interests, negotiations, conflicts, clans – all aspects of human nature present

8. Basic characteristics of education systems which create barriers to inclusion 4. Asymmetric relationships in its core: student-teacher, child-parent, parent-teacher (lack of voice, hidden discrimination)

9. Basic characteristics of education systems which create barriers to inclusion 5. Main activity is hidden in the “black box” and should stay there – cannot be regulated in straightforward ways Place of intimate experience: • Learning • Deep understanding • Creativity • Respect • Values • Place of humaninteraction: • Teacher/student • Student/student • Teacher/teacher • Teacher/parent • Parent/parent • Place of development of the Self-concept: • Self-regulation • Self-efficacy • Self-esteem • Self-description/attribution • All depend on the • quality of IA in school

10. Inclusive education in Serbia

11. Inherited challenges and legislative innovations

12. 1. Inherited system– basic numbers Source: National Statistics Office and State treasury

13. 1. Inherited system – financing • Combination of centralised input based system of funding and school based class formation and employment policy • Key allocation instrument – number of classes • Lack of incentives for optimization at the local and school level - 85% of overal current investment into primary education covered by the central government (staff salaries) • 15 % of overal current investment in primary education covered by municipalities (running costs, equipment, repairs etc.) • Private investment mostly through purchase of textbooks and other materials, snacks and private tutoring (no exact figures, difficult to estimate)

14. 1. Inherited system – level of investment Public expenditure on education and % of GDP in 2007 ( State Treasury data for Serbia, EUROSTAT for other countries)

15. 1. Inherited system– high percentage of early shool leavers • Low participation rate (especially of Roma childeren) • Drop out in primary education • Drop out between primary and secondary education • Drop out within secondary education Data source: EUROSTAT (2008) and National Statistic Office for Serbia (drop out rates) Data for Serbia underestimated due to the data shortages High percentage of early school leavers

16. 1. Inherited system – uneven distribution of public investment Primary education 2009 (Source: State Treasury)

17. 1. Inherited system – Special educational needs children and special schools Education of SEN childeren organised in three forms: • Inclusive education (SEN childeren in regular classes in schools) – growing towards 10 % due to new policy • Special classes in regular schools – cca 0,8% of all students in primary education • Special schools – cca 1 % of all student in primary education Source: Institute for improvement of education (based on data from covering 68% of students)

18. 1. Inherited cost ratios Current ratio of expenditure per student in special classes and schools (2010): * Based on the case studies on expenditure done in 10 municipalities in Serbia

19. 2. Legislative innovations for ensuring equal access to quality education • Law on Foundations of the Education System (2009) • Key education policy focus – Inclusive education • New student enrollment procedures, Individual Education Plans, additional educational support • Introduction of per capita system of funding

20. 2. Strategic solutions – implementation • Inter-sector assessment of educational needs of children • Inter-sector cooperation in providing different support measures needed for ensuring full development of child potentials • Training of teachers and school teams for inclusive education and implementation of IEP • School grants targeting inclusive education • Awareness raising campaigns (targeting parents, local communities) • Introduction of new staff category – pedagogical assistant • Improvement of the Education Information System • Monitoring measures • Reform of the funding system – shifting from per class to per capita funding

21. 2. Strategic solutions – per capita system of funding Development of state formula which allocates transfers to all municipalities according to objective factors: • Student numbers weighted by cost per categories of student (grade, course profile & minority language, low population density, special educational needs, social disadvantage). • All students funded to a minimum national cost standard. Government contributes x% and municipality required to contribute (1-x)%. • Differences in municipal wealth taken into account: x% larger for poorer municipalities.

22. 2. Strategic solutions – per capita system of funding Development of municipal funding formula: • According to the same criteria in all municipal schools. Encourages inclusion: extra weighting per student for: • special needs (disability, learning difficulties, socio-economic disadvantages – similar to OECD categories) • minority language • isolated rural location • Incentives for schools to recruit and retain students as paid per weighted student

23. 2. Strategic solutions – per capita system of funding Greater role for local communities in decisions about schooling and hence in developing civil society institutions. Through: • Municipalities taking on more responsibility for the quality of schools in their territory • School principals developing as education leaders and managers of their schools • School Boards (with majority parent and community representation) having an important role in decision making – agree and monitor school budget

24. 3. Financing inclusive education – costing of inclusive education • A UNICEF project targeting development of local per capita formulae in 10 municipalities • Based on the costing of education, health and social welfare support measures prescribed in the newly adopted Rulebook • Defining minimum packages of support measures per different type of special need (disability, difficulty, disadvantage and combined needs)

25. 3. Financing inclusive education – minimum packages of services

26. 3. Financing inclusive education – minimum packages of services

27. 3. Financing inclusive education – minimum packages of services

28. 3. Financing inclusive education – minimum packages of services

29. 3. Financing inclusive education – special education needs coefficients Coefficients per different type of minimum package of services calculated based on: Cost of Providing Minimal Standards Package for 1 student in a SEN group Inclusive Education Weight = Per capita cost of regular student in the municipality

30. 3. Financing inclusive education – case studies for different municipalities Weights for Inclusive Education (Minimum Standards Package)—Examples for a Low Investment and a Medium Investment Municipality: The weights are additive. For example, for a G1 student in Valjevo with physical disability, the adjustment coefficient would be calculated as follows: Basic package + G1 weight (disability) + additional weight for physical disability = 1 + 2, 73 + 0,83 = 4,54 (adjustment coefficient)

31. 3.Financing inclusive education – minimum packages of services Adjustment Coefficients for Inclusive Education (Minimum Standards Packages) Examples for a Low Investment and a Medium Investment Municipality) Conclusion: Provision of additional inclusion support to SEN children requires additional financial resources (depending on type of service package from 14% more to 4 times more in medium investment level municipality

32. 3. How to cover the additional cost for additional educational support measures • Redistribution of current human resources • Reallocation of resources from inadequate school network maintenance into inclusive education • Better use of human resources through partnership between regular and special schools

33. Concluding remarks • The goal of inclusive education and per capita funding is not to decrease the cost of education, but to use the current investment in more effective way (e.g. to increase the participation in education) • Inclusive models are not inherently more expensive, but do provide children with more access to regular education curriculum. • Increase of cost is inevitable because the increase in participation in education is to be expected and additional support measures require additional financial resources • Inclusive models create benefit for all. For example, student aids and special teachers are assigned to students with special needs, but also may serve other children (not identified as having special needs in schools) • Benefits from these reforms are visible on the long run through returns of education

34. Lessons learned 1: time 10+ years Piloting takes long, several phases, SEVERAL CONCEPTS Legislation is not a final but intermediary step Implementation needs preparation and support schemes

35. Lessons learned 2: networks crucial MoE needs external “pushers”: parents’ associations, NGOs, students with disability, other sectors Pilots create new human resources, who can support all further steps

36. Lessons learned 3: Cooperation among MinistryDirectorates Curriculum, School network, Teacher training, Assessment, Inspection, Information system, Finances, Media Synergy with other bylaws needed (licensing, teacher professional development, assessment, workload and teaching time, enrolment to secondary education, salary coefficients etc.)

37. Lessons learned 4: Cooperation with other sectors and LSG • Connection to social and health sector – very complicated due to different dynamics • Network of bylaws needed • Assessment of educational, social and health needs • Individual Educational Plans • Pedagogical Assistants • Synergy with other bylaws needed (licensing, teacher professional development, assessment, teaching time)

38. Why not easier? Inclusion refers to the entire education system, and its connections to social protection, health, human rights and labor market, both at national and local levels – incentive mechanisms need to be set at all levels

39. Education inclusion needs a conducive and rich context…and strong anchors Multisectoral legal and implementation instruments Parents Teachers NGOs Students Education Developmental priorities (social inclusion) Rich, timely, committed professional support

40. U N I V E R S I T Y S E C O N D A R Y SCHOOL Pre school Personal benefits Social & economic benefits teachers textbooks curriculum equitable ? financing management assessment evaluation open ? participatory ? efficient ? measurable? accountable ?

41. Thank you! tkovacs@mpn.gov.rs