Joint Programme

Horizontal Facility

Supporting Resource Centres for democratic school culture, strengthening monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, emphasising the importance of continued support to quality education in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as boosting the visibility of good practice examples were among the key priorities agreed by authorities and education stakeholders in Bosnia and Herzegovina. These conclusions were reached at the sixth Advisory Board meeting of the joint European Union and Council of Europe action "Quality education for all" held in Sarajevo on 4 November.

The meeting was attended by the representatives of beneficiary institutions including the Ministry of Civil Affairs of BiH, the Ministry of Education and Culture of Republika Srpska, the FBiH Ministry of Education and Science, Cantonal Ministries of Education, representatives from the EU Delegation/European Union Special Representative Office in BiH, the Department for Education of Brčko District,  as well as the BiH Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Institution of Human Rights Ombudsman and the Directorate for European Integration as observers.

In her opening remarks, Vesna Atanasova, Head of Unit at the Education Department of the Council of Europe, welcomed participants and introduced the new Council of Europe project team, further elaborating on the main highlights from the past six months, including the recently held third Beneficiary Steering Committee meeting of the joint programme Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye. Lejla Omić, Expert Advisor for European integration at the BiH Ministry of Civil Affairs, recalled the Information on the implementation of the Policy Recommendations with the Roadmap for the Improvement of Inclusive Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina for 2024, adopted by the BiH Council of Ministers in September this year, and underlined the importance of continuing the effective implementation of the Policy recommendations with a Roadmap for improving inclusive education and the monitoring of the process on a regular basis. Fermin Cordoba, Policy Officer at the EU Delegation in BiH reaffirmed the EU’s commitment to improving the education system in BiH and underlined the importance of this project’s unique approach of  working directly with schools, noting that this approach is of utmost importance for achieving sustainable results.

Members of the Advisory Board were briefed on the activities carried out over the past six months. Looking ahead, the focus will be on deepening systemic change by further developing robust monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to support the implementation of the Roadmap, further strengthening the Resource centres for democratic school culture, and raising awareness on quality education as a basic human right and public good.

During the meeting, two trainers from the first opened resource centre in the Vocational High School Fojnica in Kiseljak, who recently underwent the Training of Trainers on competences for democratic culture, gave an inspiring presentation on how the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture is being embedded in their school culture through projects and workshops that go beyond the classroom and bring positive change in their wider community. 

Representative of ministries expressed their support and proposals on how to support the resource centres in their work, as well as regional exchanges on best practices. They further highlighted the importance of visibility of good practice examples.

The overall vision remains clear - to build a sustainable, inclusive, and high-quality education system aligned with European standards.

The action “Quality education for all” is implemented as part of the joint European Union and Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye”.