Impact
As a result of UNICEF’s work in education policy sector, the following documents have been developed: “Strategy for Preschool Education in BIH”, “Framework Law for Preschool Education”, and the “Action Plan for Inclusion of Children with Special Needs into the regular classrooms”, “Strategy and Operational Guidelines for Professional development of teachers”. Preparatory actions for development of standards for early childhood education and the child-friendly school standards are currently underway Every school in BIH has been reached with the principles of child-centered teaching and learning approach that promotes child participation, but so far only one third have embraced them. More than 33,000 children and their families are currently benefiting from UNICEF-supported child-centered teaching and learning approaches. Education ministers, pedagogical institutes and academies have adopted the principles of child-friendly school management, child-centered teaching and learning approaches. The series of trainings has been supported to secure the sustainability of the child-friendly education development.
Life skills education has been introduced in all secondary schools in BIH. Currently, the project is being expanded to strengthen the life skills education training mechanisms within secondary schools. As the life skills education is being introduced into elementary schools, standards for life skills education and certification as well as development of informal educational contents addressing children's vulnerabilities are being developed. In order to address the needs of children with disabilities, UNICEF has supported the development of training modules for teachers in elementary schools. The initial training of teachers, mobile teams of teachers, special education teachers and experts was created to support the needs of elementary schools to ensure inclusion of children with disabilities into the mainstream education process within the education reform. The baseline strategy paper for National Policy on Preschool Education in BIH including Young Child Development has been developed, as well as the State level Framework Law for Preschool Education. In order to set the standards and procedures for licensing and certifying teachers in preschool, primary and secondary schools, UNICEF participated in the task force developing a Strategy paper and Operational guidelines on professional development of teachers. The Action Plan for inclusion of children with special needs into the regular classroom has been developed; and is presently awaiting adoption by all ministries of education.
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