Keepin touch

Whether you have a question, comment, suggestion or any problem in the purview of the government, send us your message and we will try to respond as soon as possible. If your problem is not in our purview, we will forward your message to the relevant institution.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

PISA as an opportunity for development of Serbian education system

Belgrade, 26 February 2009

Serbian Minister of Education Zarko Obradovic today announced that the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) will start in April and last six weeks, during which around 6,000 students from 150 schools will be tested.

Bozidar Djelic and Zarko Obradovic

Author: Tanjug

At the opening of the conference concerning PISA’s contribution to the quality of Serbian education, Obradovic said that the assessment will comprise students aged 15.

This is an opportunity to estimate the position of Serbian education compared to European and world standards and prepare ourselves for the next PISA, to be held in 2012, said the Minister, adding that the Ministry of Education’s main goal is to provide an efficient education, which will not be too expensive for parents.

He stressed that it is of major importance to motivate students and teachers and provide a safe environment for studying, adding that legislative activities will also contribute to the development of the education system in Serbia. The government is soon to draft new laws on school books, kindergartens and student standards.

Obradovic recalled that PISA is an international survey intended to show to what degree education provides an environment for students suitable for them to develop functional literacy.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and Technological Development Bozidar Djelic recalled that Serbian students achieved poor results at the PISA 2006 assessment, due to which Serbia took the 41st position on a list of 57 countries.

The fact that Serbian students’ functional literacy is two times lower than that of their peers in Europe and the world Djelic deemed extremely devastating.

He said PISA assessment includes reading, comprehension and mathematical and scientific literacy, adding that Serbian students had below average scores in all three assessments in 2006.

The conference was organised by the Ministry of Education, the Office for Assessing the Quality of Education, the Institute of Psychology at the Belgrade Faculty of Philosophy and the OSCE.