Serbia has made improvements in access to education and international assessments show that learning outcomes have remained generally stable in recent years, with slight improvements among the highest-achieving students. This signals widening educational inequities. Moreover, a large share of students in Serbia continue to leave school without mastering basic competencies and efforts to achieve educational excellence are jeopardised by limited institutional capacity and low levels of public spending on education. Serbia needs to strengthen school leadership, modernise the teaching profession and provide schools with the support they need to prepare their students for success in a creative and knowledge-based economy. This is crucial to the country’s economic development, social prosperity and European integration.

Serbia’s education system performs well compared to other countries in the Western Balkans. There have been improvements in access to education and Serbia has undertaken major institutional reforms in recent years, such as the introduction of achievement standards at the end of compulsory education, teacher standards and a school evaluation framework. However, progress has not benefitted all population groups equitably and a large share of students in Serbia continue to leave school without mastering the basic competencies needed for further education and life. Addressing these educational challenges is crucial to the country’s economic development, social prosperity and European integration.

Serbia’s education system performs well compared to other countries in the Western Balkans. There have been improvements in access to education and Serbia has undertaken major institutional reforms in recent years, such as the introduction of achievement standards at the end of compulsory education, teacher standards and a school evaluation framework. However, progress has not benefitted all population groups equitably and a large share of students in Serbia continue to leave school without mastering the basic competencies needed for further education and life. Addressing these educational challenges is crucial to the country’s economic development, social prosperity and European integration.

Serbia has seen improvements in access to education and international assessments show that learning outcomes have remained generally stable in recent years, with slight improvements among the highest-achieving students. This signals widening educational inequities and a large share of students in Serbia continue to leave school without mastering basic competencies. These issues reflect chronic underfunding for education and a limited capacity to drive changes in teaching and learning across the system. This chapter reviews some of the contextual features of Serbia’s education system and highlights how evaluation and assessment can help the country achieve higher learning standards for all students.

This chapter looks at how the assessment system of Serbia measures and shapes student learning. Classroom assessments in Serbia are often summative and have high stakes for students. Developing the assessment literacy of teachers and ensuring a better balance between school-based formative and summative assessment can help shift attention from grades towards student learning. There is also a need to review the design of a new final examination (Matura) at the end of upper secondary education, especially the new system for admission into higher education. Finally, Serbia should strengthen the technical quality of the central examination at the end of basic education (Grade 8). These are essential to improving the quality of Serbia’s exam system, creating a fairer basis for student selection and encouraging broader learning across the curriculum.

This chapter looks at how Serbia evaluates teaching practice and supports teachers’ improvement through its teacher appraisal system. While Serbia has a merit-based career structure for teachers, the use of appraisal to inform promotion and other teacher policies remains underdeveloped. Revising teacher standards and ensuring those who appraise teachers are well-trained professionals can help enhance the formative function of teacher appraisal. Moreover, offering a competitive and progressive salary that recognises professional growth can help incentivise teachers to develop and take on new responsibilities. Finally, Serbia should improve the selection and initial preparation of new teachers to help promote and support good teaching.

This chapter looks at how Serbia can align school evaluation with its core purposes of accountability and improvement. Serbia has one of the most advanced external school evaluation systems in the Western Balkans and school self-evaluation is required on an annual basis. However, major gaps in these processes prevent the country from making the most of school evaluation to improve teaching and learning. In particular, schools receive a limited amount of technical follow-up and evaluation reports are commonly perceived as summative rather than formative. These gaps are exacerbated because school leaders often lack the capacity to use evaluation exercises to develop and implement improvement efforts on their own. Serbia needs to strengthen external and self-evaluation processes and embed these in a larger framework for school improvement.

Serbia has established some of the basic components of system evaluation. However, the lack of a national assessment of student learning and a fully functioning education management information system (EMIS) system leaves Serbia without an adequate evidence base to guide and monitor policy reforms, making it difficult to understand the main issues stalling educational improvement. This chapter recommends that Serbia focus its new post-2020 education strategy on key national priorities that can improve teaching and learning. In particular, the country should carefully design and implement the new national assessment and encourage policymakers to access and interpret administrative and assessment data when developing education policies. This can help Serbia address systemic issues and lead to a better understanding of where and why students are falling behind in their learning, despite high levels of school participation.