E-schools in Croatia

By the time the world went into lockdown in March 2020, Croatia had been working on bringing its school system into the digital age for seven years. The initiative began in 2013 with piloting the approach to 10% of its primary and secondary schools.

JASPERS experts have been advising the authorities both through the pilot phase and the major project which involves the roll-out of digitalized education to the entire country.

The pilot project was made possible by EUR 6 million from the national budget and EUR 34 million of grants from EU Structural Funds, whilst a further EUR 27 million of national funds and EUR 153 m from the EU budget was invested in the full undertaking. 

That is how in the spring of 2020, half a million Croatian pupils were able to continue their education from home from one day to the next, in 50 835 virtual classrooms working at full capacity.

The project, given its quality and impact, won the European Commission’s “Skills & education for a digital Europe” REGIOSTARS Award, which reward the best Cohesion policy projects in the European Union.

There were three broad components to the initial pilot phase of the project: equipment and infrastructure, learning materials and applications and finally education and support to teaching and administration staff.

First, each of the 151 schools was provided with a technology room containing laptops and a digital whiteboard. Every maths and science teacher also received a laptop and teachers of other subjects, a tablet. All schools then had to be connected to high-speed internet and the whole network, including data centres, had to be made wireless. In total, EUR 21.6 m euros were invested in equipment and infrastructure.

Of course, equipment is only as good as what one makes of it. That is the reason why Croatia also spent time and money reflecting upon and creating educational content tailored to today's needs – the second component of the pilot project.

The monolithic lessons of the last century need to be rethought or at least adapted. They taught memory and discipline, notable qualities which now need to go hand in hand with curiosity and self-confidence too. Learning is becoming more experimental and teaching more creative.

The Croatian authorities created e-Schools Learning Scenarios - descriptions of teaching activities intended for teachers, containing innovative and creative ideas on how to use contemporary pedagogical methods and ICT. They aim to provide support to teachers for implementation of various digital technology in their teaching, such as free digital educational tools, as well as to get pupils actively involved and in the centre of learning process.

Also, digital educational content (DEC) which accompanies the subject curriculum was created. DEC is developed in a modular form to enable easy use, contains multimedia and interactive elements, practical and project activities, assessments of learning outcomes, correlations with other subjects etc. They are envisioned to be used by pupils, but can be used also by teachers. Both DEC and Learning Scenarios enable purposeful ICT usage in the classroom that is especially in line with the application of contemporary teaching and learning methods, and can contribute to reaching learning outcomes.

The country further conducted a reform of all its school syllabuses, as part of the same global approach.  

As the third component of the pilot project, Croatia has placed an emphasis on providing education and support to people working in the education sector.

To begin with, head teachers and administrative staff are gradually being trained in new online services: enrolment, attendance management, pupil reports, information to parents – many processes are gradually computerised. This is ultimately expected to make school management more cost-effective, but this will take time and require training.

Last but certainly not least, providing support to teachers is vital. Good command of new technologies is one element of change. Teachers must now encourage pupils to challenge them, they need to detect talent and help pupils grow. In other words, they now need to be teaching life skills too. The shift is particularly demanding and the Croatian Government appreciates the personal investment that it represents for the current generation of teachers.

JASPERS experts provided assistance to both the pilot and major project and worked with a committed and competent promoter, CARNET. From the development of the feasibility study to the official application for EU grants, there was close cooperation on the project and the project documentation, sometimes chapter by chapter.

This project fulfils several EU priorities at once: education, the knowledge economy, employment and of course, narrowing the gap between regions to strengthen cohesion in the European Union.  JASPERS embarked on this project with enthusiasm knowing the impact that such a project may have.

JASPERS built a conceptual framework to inform its thinking on the project’s impact, all along the project development from the micro level affecting students, teachers and schools, to the wider macro level impact of such a project. This fed into the project’s cost-benefit analysis. Its results gave solid justification for the use of public funds for this project

It was further suggested to use a multi-criteria analysis when carrying out the options analysis. This exercise required the active involvement of the Croatian stakeholders. If the relevant teams are participating in the planning process, their buy-in is stronger.   

The emphasis in all JASPERS’s recommendations was put on the need to ensure that the educational outcome - not the technology - is the ultimate objective of introducing the ICT tools into teaching and learning. 

Croatia, the youngest member of the European family, took the digital leap in a timely manner. For the quarantines linked to the corona virus pandemic, for the economic and social challenges ahead.

The importance of education was highlighted in an international workshop organised by the EU Commission and the Croatian Authorities, with JASPERS’ participation, to disseminate the results of the specific e-schools project as a best practice example.The project can be applied to all areas of education in a country. It can further be replicated in other countries, and JASPERS as well as the European Investment Bank are available to support other Member States in preparation of such important projects.  

And yet the main lesson to be drawn from this recent journey is that evolution in education is not about laptops or connectivity, it’s about much more than that.  It's about the whole education system. It is, as always, about human evolution.