2023

Activities of the Bureau for Development of Education

The Bureau for Development of Education accredited a program for teachers on the subject of Professional Development and Career Counseling for students (mentoring, monitoring, approaches for detection of affinities and interests, motivation and development, etc.) and a program for professional associates on the topic: Professional orientation of students: strengthening students through self-knowledge and career development counseling.

The Bureau for development of Education started implementing accredited training programs on bullying. Training on "Cooperation between the family and the school in the prevention of peer violence, cyberviolence, etc." was completed by 261 professional associates. Training on the topic "Development of social skills and self-confidence among students, dealing with problematic behavior and creating a positive socio-emotional climate in class" was completed by 3 professional associates.

Implementation of the model for career development of teachers and professional associates (mentors and advisors) 

The Law on Primary Education is under procedure to be amended in order to adjust the procedure for the career development of professional associates. Also public procurement procedure is finished to provide company for maintenance and upgrading of the e-system for career advancement. 

A Memorandum of Cooperation was concluded with the British Council for the professional development and training of 500 English language teachers from primary and secondary schools in the country.

Improvement of the self-evaluation system and preparation of Development Program and annual program by schools 

There will be pilot evaluations. 11 elementary schools are selected in which the self-evaluation and the integral evaluation will be piloted, and discussions were held with representatives of the schools. In addition, four focus groups with inspectors were held in the direction of defining domains for the creation of new indicators. A Guide proposal for the preparation, implementation and monitoring of the school's development program and an Operational Manual for the implementation of a grant program for improving the quality of the work of primary schools have been prepared.

A draft self-evaluation guidelines has been prepared, which should serve schools in conducting the self-evaluation and writing the self-evaluation report.

Revision of the network and implementation of the new formula for financing primary schools (strengthening the capacities of municipalities) 

The Government is reviewing a new proposed methodology for the distribution of block grants by municipalities for the financing of primary education to start from September 2023. An excel calculator has been developed, and the development of an advanced version of the calculator is in progress, which will be an integral part of the new EMIS in order to automatically use part of the data for the calculation of subsidies and to be available to the Ministry of Education and the municipalities. An IT expert hired by UNICEF created a technical specification for fitting the calculator into EMIS with 3 components: 1) Block grant calculator, 2) Module for loading and processing data from the F1 form, 3) Optimization monitoring module (calculation of indices for optimization). In terms of optimization, a procedure has been started with 10 pilot municipalities, for which preliminary plans for the optimization of the school network have been drawn up. Consultation meetings between the Ministry of Education and the municipalities with field visits are ongoing.

Measures against bullying and violence 

The Ministry of Education and Science conducted consultations on creating measures and supplementing the existing mechanisms for detecting and preventing peer violence, changing the approach to working with children with antisocial behavior, working with their families, etc. Coordination meetings were held with all relevant stakeholders (academic professors, experts in the field of pedagogy, psychology, sociology, security sciences, young people, civil society organizations and international organizations such as UNICEF) based on which recommendations and guidelines were drawn up for the municipalities, the professional services of schools and teachers, to prevent peer violence, bullying and limit the use of social networks in schools. The recommendations were adopted by the Government in may 2023.
The Ministry launched a campaign: Let's put an end to school violence together addressed to all citizens, if any form of violent behavior is observed in schools, to report it to the specially opened e-mail address zavelinasilstvo@mon.gov.mk i.e. pasatdhune@mon.gov.mk, or to the professional services in schools, in order to react promptly and prevent more serious incidents and consequences.
Professional services from the Ministry of Education and Science started visiting schools,  teachers, professional services and students, with whom the security situation is analyzed together.
Development of a rulebook intended for schools for prevention and action in the event of violence started, as well as thinking about limiting the use of social networks in the school environment.
Program for counseling students in primary schools and their parents/guardians was adopted.

2022

Primary Education Improvement Project (PEIP)

The Primary Education Improvement Project (PEIP) project is continually supporting the reform activities of the Ministry for Education and Science. https://mon.gov.mk/category/?id=2072

Concept of Primary Education

The Bureau for Development in Education performed detailed research on teachers opinion and experience on the realization of the Concept during teaching time and its benefits and challenges.

The establishment, organisation and management of the primary education is regulated with the Law on Primary Education (2019) and supported with the Concept Note on Primary Education (2021) and National Standards for Students Achievements (2021).  

Secondary education

Activities are undertaken to develop new Concept on secondary education and new Law on secondary education.

2021

Concept of Primary Education

The new Concept of primary education was adopted in march 2021 to be implemented in school year 2021/2022.

Primary Education Improvement Project (PEIP)

The Primary Education Improvement Project (PEIP) development objective is to improve conditions for learning in primary education in North Macedonia.

The Project would support the Government of North Macedonia’s initiatives geared to:

• Improve learning environment at the primary level;

• Increase number of primary education teachers with proven professional practice in two core teacher professional competencies i.e., teaching and learning and creating a stimulating learning environment;

• Improve quality of teaching practices; and

• Implement school improvement plans that use performance data and monitoring tools for improving student learning.

The project will be organized around three main elements that need to be aligned in order to be complementary to each other.

Component 1 focuses on school-level interventions, which are closest to students and most likely to impact learning while also mitigating and recovering learning losses generated by COVID-19.  Two enabling elements are system-level reforms that would create the necessary enabling conditions so the school teachers are empowered with data on learning and up-to-date training. 

Component 2 would develop a comprehensive national assessment program to inform both school improvement planning and professional development programs, serving to link the school and system levels. 

Component 3 would put into practice professional competences for educators. Together, these elements will provide adequate information, tools, training and support to create effective and improved conditions for learning and ultimately increase student achievement.

Component 4 would strengthen sector management, project management and monitoring and evaluation. The legal framework for implementation of above-mentioned reform interventions was recently adopted and there is an adequate institutional set up to embed them and eventually further enhance. The project activities are targeted toward building the foundation of a modern and efficient primary education system that is orienting all parts of the system toward learning.

The Ministry of Education and Science (MOES) is the main implementing agency of the Project in close cooperation with the National Examination Center (NEC), Bureau for Development of Education (BDE) and State Educational Inspectorate (SEI). Projects direct beneficiaries will include primary education students, but focused support will be given those who are vulnerable (Roma, girls, students coming from economically vulnerable families with risk to abandon studies, students disproportionally affected by the closure of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic) which are expected to benefit from improved learning and physical environment in the schools as well as from better-trained teachers. Primary education teachers, school principals, and MPSTs will benefit from more efficient professional development and career advancement, digital teaching aids, teaching material that can be updated/corrected and improved fast based on the feedback received and grant program to implement their school improvement plans. The project activities are targeted toward building the foundation of a modern and efficient primary education system that is orienting all parts of the system toward learning.