2025

Amendments to the Rulebook on norms and standards for the acquisition of funds from public revenues for institutions implementing publicly valid educational programs were adopted. Increasing the number of psychologists, pedagogues in educational institutions, as well as defectologists and speech therapists in resource centers, is the most significant measure provided for in this Rulebook, in order to provide psychosocial support and prevent violence and preserve mental health. In addition to the number of psychologists and pedagogues, schools will also be strengthened with social workers, in accordance with the estimated needs of the institution. Norms are a necessary change that creates prerequisites for fostering a stimulating and pleasant environment for all students, as well as conditions for quality prevention of all forms of violence, which is one of the priorities of the work of this department.

At the session held on 19 September 2024, the Government of Montenegro adopted the Program for the Development of General Secondary Education in Montenegro (2024-2026). The Action plan of the general secondary education development program in Montenegro 2024-2026 with estimated costs consist of four strategic goals: Strategic goal 1 - Improving regulations related to general secondary education; Strategic goal 2 - Improving the quality of teaching and learning; Strategic goal 3 - Improving the professional development of teachers; Strategic goal 4 - Improving curricula and educational offer. 

The Government has prepared amendments to the Law on Gymnasium and Law on General Education. The Law proposal have been submitted to the Parliament, but the amendments to the Law have not been yet adopted. The amendments to the Law on Gymnasium introduce the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. 

The provisions of the General Law on Education have been harmonized with the Law on Vocational Education and the Law on Gymnasium also (classification periods, number of students in class, remedial exams etc). The General Law on Education defines the role of the Organizer of practical education.

Ministry in cooperation with UNICEF is implementing the program "Development - inclusive and integrated support", which has the general goal of strengthening the general inclusive environment that respects inclusive principles, the rights of the child, relies on its preserved potential, examines its current needs, developmental status and develops and applies quality and effective response measures.

The target groups are children with disabilities as well as children, members of the Roma and Egyptian communities. The direct target group are educators in schools and kindergartens, practitioners and employees in institutions at the local community level, as well as parents and guardians, while the indirect target group is the general public, as well as the media and the academic community.

2024

On September 5th The Parliament adopted the Law on Amendments to the General Law on Education ("Official Gazette of Montenegro, No. 84/2024), which includes changes to the organization of educational work and the appointment of school directors in order to provide conditions for more efficient functioning of school and administrative boards, as well as achieving better management of the work of educational institutions. Therefore, educational work (school year) now includes two classification periods (semesters) instead of four. Furthermore, the director of a public institution is elected and dismissed by the minister, in accordance with this law. The institution submits to the Ministry the application of candidates for the selection of director with documentation within seven days from the end of the competition. The Ministry reviews the applications and documents of the candidates and compiles a list of candidates who meet the conditions of the competition. The candidate from the list is subject to a test of competence, knowledge and abilities. 

A Working Group was formed for the development of the Education Reform Strategy (2025 – 2035). At the end of April, the first meeting of the working group was organized in order to agree on the steps of developing, monitoring, implementing the Strategy, determining action plans for the implementation of the Strategy, monitoring their implementation, evaluating the results achieved based on the monitoring of established performance indicators, proposing changes and submitting information for the purpose of drafting annual reports on the implementation of the Strategy.

The Programme for the Development of General Secondary Education in Montenegro 2024 - 2026 was adopted. Operational goals defined by the Programme are: Improvement of regulations related to general secondary education; Improving the quality of teaching and learning; Improving the professional development of teachers and Improving educational programmes and educational offers

With the Institute for textbooks and teaching aids, a Manual "Early intervention" for teachers and parents was prepared and approved by the National Council and is in the printing phase. A Manual for teachers "Working with students with intellectual disabilities" was created as well, and the material was selected at the competition and prepared for the National Council. 

A reform project "Quality education for every child in Montenegro" in cooperation with UNICEF and the Delegation of EU has began. The goal of this reform initiative is the development of a comprehensive Strategy for Education Reform (2025-2035), which will define the vision of education, the main goals and the activities that need to be implemented in order to achieve them. The strategy will cover all levels of education and define the financial framework for its sustainable and long-term realization. The project also includes a series of interventions aimed at improving the quality and fairness of education, as well as ensuring a broad consultative process and mobilization of all actors in the preparation of the new Strategy. The goals planned by the project are fully based on the findings and strategic recommendations of the comprehensive Analysis of the education sector, which was carried out in cooperation with UNICEF.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation has implemented a series of activities related to the prevention of violence in educational institutions. Consultations were held at which the Instruction for Schools on the Division of Responsibilities and Actions for Prevention and in Cases of Violence was presented, and the importance of timely and accurate data entry into the Education Information System (MEIS) on cases of peer violence, as well as the actions of institutions, were highlighted. 

The Ministry adopted and entered into force the Rulebook on Amendments to the Rulebook on Norms and Standards for the Acquisition of Funds from Public Revenues for Institutions Implementing Publicly Valid Educational Programs, on which the National Council for Education gave a positive opinion. It is estimated that the amended norms will affect the increase in the number of professional associates in educational institutions by 60 persons, that is, by about 28%. For the first time, the possibility of hiring three professional associates in institutions with over 1,400 children/pupils was determined.
Also, with the amendments to the Rulebook, for the first time, the conditions that the institution must fulfill in order to be able to hire an assistant in the prevention of violence and vandalism in the school are prescribed, and that is, an institution with more than 700 pupils can be approved for one person in the position of an assistant in preventing violence and vandalism, in accordance with the needs of the institution.

The Examination center implemented a Public Call for inclusion in the Training Program for a licensed examiner in the process of obtaining the professional qualification of Assistant in the prevention of violence and vandalism at school. JU Higher Vocational School Police Academy implements the Education Program for obtaining the professional qualification of Assistant in preventing violence and vandalism in schools.

During 2023, constant work was done on enriching the content of "Digionica", an online platform for self-learning. Emphasis is placed on the creation and systematization of digital content that will be placed on the platform, as well as on the education of teaching staff on the use of this platform. In 2023, about 1,000 teachers were educated, and the platform for online self-learning contains 1,116 courses, 12,231 lessons and 562 quizzes, in 58 categories. The total number of platform users (teachers, children and parents) is 32,294. The Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation presented the "Digital School" concept and the "Digionica" platform at the International Book and Education Fair in Podgorica and won an award for the improvement of electronic publishing.

In the context of career guidance and counseling, the 2024-2026 Career Guidance and Counseling Development Program is being drafted, planned for adoption in the 2nd quarter of 2024. 

In accordance with the National Gender Equality Strategy, an analysis of the subject programs and textbooks is underway, and the media presentation of the results will follow. This activity is implemented in cooperation with OECD and UNICEF.

2023

With regards to the Strategy of digitalization of the education system 2022-2027, with the Action Plan for 2022 and 2023, the implementation is ongoing. The focus is on the improvement of teachers and pupils' digital competences, as well as schools equipment and development of a safe environment through the self-care skills of pupils. Workshops have been developed and organized in 5 schools.

A support program for pupils from Ukraine is being implemented, focusing on socio-emotional competences and support through the engagement of Ukrainian pedagogical workers as supportive associates, from the engagement of a special teacher. The Ministry of Education approved the increase in the number of classes in schools where a larger number of foreign students were enrolled. Support for learning the Montenegrin language as a non-native language according to the publicly valid subject program was implemented with two additional lessons per week financed from the Budget of the Ministry of Education was implemented. In cooperation with UNICEF, textbooks are provided for the Montenegrin language as a non-native subject. Bureau for Educational Services developed Guidelines for the inclusion of students from other speaking areas in educational institutions in Montenegro, as well as Guidelines for the evaluation and assessment of students from other speaking areas in educational institutions in Montenegro.

In December 2022, the Bureau for Educational Services and the Examination Center launched the PISA 2025 - Science in Focus program, which was supported by the Ministry of Education. The expert team of the Bureau for Educational Services compared the national curriculum in natural sciences and the PISA 2025 Science Framework. The general conclusion is that there are no significant differences in terms of content, but that there is a difference in the approach to science and the factors that affect it have been identified.

Based on that, a program was created with a focus on two aspects of teaching natural sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Geography and Physics):
1. developing scientific competences through experiments 
2. changing attitudes towards science by encouraging a growth mindset.

In the first phase of the program, which lasted from March to June 2023, 95% of all elementary schools (students in grades 6-9) and secondary schools (grades 1-3) were included. Published PISA items which check the understanding and application of knowledge from the natural group of subjects were translated into the Montenegrin and Albanian languages and made available to schools. Most of the activities are devoted to knowing the stages of scientific research and interpreting data based on experiments performed at home (due to unequal conditions for conducting experiments in the classroom) with the use of teaching materials from the Digital Classroom. Schools organized Science Days and posted the reports on their website. It is planned to train teachers to write tasks in which scientific knowledge is applied to solve problems from everyday life, as well as to involve schools in environmental actions.