**Project Enhancement of Quality Assurance in General Education**

1. Ministry od Education of MontenegroTAIEX application – External evaluation of knowledgeBelgrade, October 26th, 2018 Branka Kankaraš

2. Project title: Enhancement of quality assurance aspects in general education in SouthEastern Europe with a particular focus on external evaluation Suggested activities within the project:multiple events (workshop, expert mission and study visit). TAIEX approved only the expert mission (engagement of a EU expert) for the training of our experts; groups should agree upon the content of the training. Beneficiary: Ministry of Education of Montenegro (Additional explanation: The ERI SEE Secretarijat, after the second meeting of the Group of Experts for Quality Assurance in General Education (October 2017), addressed the Ministry of Education of Montenegro with the idea to submit a TAIEX application (for which only Ministries can apply, but also for the activities of improving the work of state agencies) on behalf of the whole group . ERI SEE prepared the application based on the discussions we had in October 2017 during the second meeting. The process of evaluating the TAIEX application is time-consuming, and that is why it is only discussed now.

3. Other beneficiaries included in this Project: • Ministries of education of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Macedonia, Moldova and Serbia; competent institutions of the quality assurance system at the level of policy making and aspects at the implementation level. (For Croatia, the cost will be borne directly by ERI SEE, for others the TAIEX office) * This name is without prejudice to status attitudes and is consistent with UNSCR 1244 (1999) and the International Court of Justice's Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence. • Institutions under the responsibility of ministries in charge of implementing various aspects of quality assurance in general education, such as institutions, agencies, etc. for assessment of education, knowledge assessment agencies, teacher training agencies, inspectorates, etc., depending on the national context

4. Focus of the training /workshop (expert mission) is planned on the experinces of the EU countries from which the region can learn, on the following topics: • Legal framework and regulations relating to quality assurance in general education, with a special focus on external evaluation of institutions, emphasizing the roles and responsibilities of different actors • Set up and organize various external evaluation systems • Methodologies used when establishing an external evaluation system • Methodologies used in implementing an external evaluation system • Using the external evaluation results to further improve the education system • Support system for the external evaluation process (guidelines for educational institutions, guidelines for external assessors, peer support, field visits, etc.) • Existing models of external assessors - standards, training, licenses, monitoring, reporting • How the system works in practice and the challenges ofimplementation

5. Another workshop was also planned to define: • Challenges in external evaluation processes which are common in the region; • Action plan how to solve them and how to proceed (define steps to increase the quality of practices that currently exist in the region); • Area of regional cooperation in favor of national practices; • How to design high-quality trainings (potentially develop a regional standard for the training of external assessors); • How to monitor their work; • How to use the results of an external evaluation to create a policy based on evidence; • How to license external assessors; This will be addressed: or by another TAIEX application, as a continuation of this workshop. (ERI SEE would prepare a new project proposal on these topics); or suggest this as the main topic of the approved workshop.

6. Todays topic: • Develop the concept of the 1st workshop: • Duration: 1 day • Expected number of participants: up to 30 (representatives of institutions from the region responsible for quality assurance in general education) • Suggested date: begining of 2019 • Place: Montenegro

7. DISCUSSION: • Ask for an expert of which country (the project apllication suggested the Netherlands) • Topic: The system of external evaluation in EU countries (the Netherlands?) • Develop the agenda and specific topics which the workshop wants to deal with, for example: • Legal framework, the establishment of systems and methodologies used in the Netherlands, using the external evaluation results to improve the system, how to train external assessors, how to license them, control their work, etc. • ....or to focus on something else? (perhaps focus on the topics planned for the second workshop?) - How to make the most of the assistance of the EU experts available to us through training on the topic of external evaluation of institutions?

8. Thank you for your attention! Branka Kankaraš Ministry of Education of Montenegro branka.kankaras@mps.gov.me