Standards-based education

Education for students who will be attending school for the first time or transferring to a higher level started today as part of the "adaptation programs," a week earlier than the regular academic year, while the Education Ministry has also implemented new regulations to reduce students' screen time on their digital devices.

The assessment of 4,500 newly appointed school teachers, one of the flagship policies of the government's reform agenda, will begin this coming week, the Education Ministry said Thursday.

Given the ubiquitousness of remote learning, many teachers are opting not to evaluate their students using grades for the first four months of the school year, choosing instead to give a descriptive assessment of their progress. 

The reason cited is the lack of necessary data that would allow them to draw the necessary conclusions.

He told the morning program of TV Prva that the medical part of the Crisis Staff would certainly present its position on that, and that the Ministry of Education would act in accordance with their recommendations.

At the same time, younger elementary school students, from the first to the fourth grade, continue to attend classes at school.
By the decision of the Government of Serbia, on the recommendation of the Crisis Staff, distance learning for older elementary and high school students will be applied until the beginning of the winter break on December 21.

Minister Sarcevic told TV Prva that the recordings of lectures in schools were successful, but that for safety reasons, at one point they switched to recording classes from home, which also went great.
"On this occasion, the teachers learned how to question the students in some other way", the minister said.

For often antiquated education systems and frequently IT-shy teachers in the Balkans, the COVID-19 pandemic has meant a sharp, sometimes impossible learning curve as schools embark almost overnight on an e-learning experiment that has exposed huge disparities between and within countries, between private and public schools and cities and villages in terms in knowledge and resources.

To assess the basic physical qualities they will perform five exercises, reported NOVA TV. 

The petition has been launched by a parents' association called the Parent Council, whose chairman Nataša Šram says that "generations before us have been warning something is amiss with our education system".