Reimagining Education For Marginalized Girls And Boys During And Post Covid-19 In Bosnia And Herzegovina

The overall goal of the joint programme, REIMAGINING EDUCATION FOR MARGINALIZED GIRLS AND BOYS DURING AND POST COVID-19 IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA is to improve public sector education in three administrative units, strengthening the system that can prevent, mitigate impacts and respond quickly to emergencies, particularly when addressing the needs of the vulnerable population ensuring the principle of leaving no one behind. The project was launched on 10 March 2021.

It is jointly implemented by UNICEF, UNESCO, ILO and UNV, in close partnership with the BiH Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Education and Culture of Republika Srpska, the Ministry of science and technology, higher education and information society of Republika Srpska, the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of West Herzegovina Canton and the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Una-Sana Canton.

Additionally, these interventions aim to improve the blended learning approaches to ensure required resilience of education systems and the overall improvement of the quality of learning. Gender equality and women’s empowerment is a significant objective of this project. Therefore, the UN Joint Programme:

• focuses on gender responsive approaches that are addressing learning losses and preventing dropouts, particularly of marginalized groups
• offers skills for employability programmes
• supports the teaching profession and teachers’ readiness
• expands the definition of the right to education to include connectivity
• removes barriers to connectivity
• strengthens data and monitoring of learning
• strengthens the articulation and flexibility across levels and types of education and training.

The project’s outputs will create an opportunity to build an education system that is more resilient, adaptable to students’ needs, equitable, and inclusive, with a strong emphasis on the role of technology in teachers’ training at scale and ensuring learning continuity between the school and the home.

4,250  Number of teachers who have completed trainings on a) quality learning and blended learning, b) the usage of Assistive Technologies, c) Digital Learning and Media and Information Literacy, d) participation in decision-making.

17,000 Number of children attending schools who benefit from provided ICT resources, including Assistive Technology, and TV and other media content which supports home-based learning

6,000 Number of children and adults provided with COVID-19 prevention hygiene and information materials

20 Number of education government officials trained in how to actively use Education Management System (IMS) and Distance Learning Platform (DLP), both effective education management.

60 Number of teachers and instructors of selected TVET providers in the pilot occupations have been trained in the development of multimedia training materials and in the implementation of e-learning.

HOW?

The programme will support the Ministries of Education with delivering quality e-learning, through assessing quality of e-learning delivery of primary, secondary (including Technical and Vocational) and higher education and mapping professional development needs of teachers; IM (Information Management) system in Education for Una-Sana canton; Developing a platform for standards for quality inclusive blended learning; Establishing mechanisms to prevent harm for all related to their participation in online learning, and address safety risks for girls; Providing analysis on teachers to better understand and address the impact on female teachers’ health and well-being during school closure, with particularly consideration to the impacts of additional caregiving responsibilities.

The programme will provide students with hygiene materials for ‘back to school’ use; ICT equipment and internet access for selected marginalized students; Assistive technologies for students with disabilities; Media/Educational content for pre-school children.

The programme will support teachers with training programmes to improve capacities of teachers for quality inclusive blended learning in line with European Key Competences Framework; Development of Digital Learning and Media and Information Literacy skills; Ensuring female teachers are particularly supported with continued professional development opportunities; Implementation of trainings for empowerment and decision making for female teachers; Conducting skills needs assessment in STEM occupations for the labour market; Transforming curricula into E-learning and blended learning pedagogical design for online TVET courses.

The project is funded by the UN COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund, as part of the UN Multi-trust Partner Fund (MPTF).