The Agency for Pre-primary, Primary and Secondary Education of BiH has presented the PISA 2018 survey results and recommendations for Bosnia and Herzegovina at the event attended by representatives of the relevant ministries of education, state institutions, international partners, and media and professional public, with live broadcast by state television.
Student achievements in our country are far below OECD international average and rank low in a regional context.
Namely, Bosnia and Herzegovina participated in PISA 2018 survey for the first time with the sample of 6 480 fifteen-years-old students (3 148 girls and 3 332 boys) from 213, public and private, primary and secondary schools.
Respondents from BiH showed very low levels in reading, mathematics and science literacy. The difference between our average achievement and OECD average is estimated as 3 years of schooling, which, metaphorically speaking means the BiH fifteen-year-olds were at the level of 12-year-olds of OECD average at the time they took the test.
The minimum level of achievement is not reached by 58% students in mathematics, 54% in reading and 57% in science, and, at the same time, less than 1% of our examinees achieved maximum results.
Many comments were sparked by the claim that every other student in BiH is functionally illiterate. In other words, students do not have the ability to read, understand and interpret different types of texts, which indicates that in the future these students will have more difficulties to cope with the modern world.
The purpose of PISA is not to start a competition between countries, but to monitor trends over time and collect comparable data at international level, allowing countries, economies and education systems to learn from each other. Accordingly, based on the results, the Agency for Pre-Primary, Primary and Secondary Education (APOSO) in cooperation with the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) has developed the following recommendations:
- Developing reading literacy as basic literacy at all levels of education, starting from an early age, with the implementation of the common core curricula defined on learning outcomes;
- Overcoming difficulties in teaching and learning environment by strengthening teaching competencies and meeting student needs in learning and acquiring knowledge and skills; and
- Developing new basics for education strategies at national and lower levels in order to strengthen the process of evaluating and monitoring learning outcomes.
The Agency plans to disseminate the recommendations across the professional community and cooperate with all those who can directly contribute to the implementation of the recommendations. In this view, scheduled is the expert conference and workshops on 16 December 2019, where the first steps will be actualized.
The foundation of any successful society is investing in young people, therefore – students, parents, educators and general public in Bosnia and Herzegovina have the right to demand the quality and appropriate education.
The Agency will keep advocating on BiH participation in PISA 2021survey, in order to reach the continuity of participation that brings long-term benefits. In this sense, the Agency urges the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina to instantly approve the signing of the participation agreement, so the Agency can comply with the very strict OECD procedures and deadlines.
The obtained results cannot be altered, but anyone in their domain can do their best to initiate the necessary reforms. Let’s improve the education together!
- PISA infographics ; PISA infographics-1; PISA infographics-2; PISA infographics-3; PISA infographics-4; PISA infographics-5 ;
- PISA 2018 izvjesce za BiH-ravnateljica engl
- PISA 2018 izvjestaj za BiH I part Zaneta
- PISA 2018 izvjestaj za BiH part II Zaneta
- PISA 2018 izvjestaj za BiH Dženana engl
- PISA 2018 izvjestaj za BiH Ivana engl
- PISA 2018 izvjestaj za BiH Anita engl
