OECD reviews of evaluation and assessment in education: Bosnia and Herzegovina

How can assessment and evaluation policies work together more effectively to improve student outcomes in primary and secondary schools? The country reports in this series analyse major issues facing evaluation and assessment policy to identify improvements that can be made to enhance the quality, equity and efficiency of school education. Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has high levels of educational attainment and performs similar to other Western Balkan economies in international assessments of student learning, like the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). However, large shares of students in BiH continue to leave school without mastering basic competencies and there are signs of inequities in the learning outcomes. BiH also has limited comparable data on teaching and learning and faces considerable capacity and resource constraints. Considering collaboration across the country’s different levels of government is limited, these factors prevent the development and implementation of sustainable education reforms. This review explores some of the contextual features of education systems in BiH and highlights how a stronger evaluation and assessment frameworks can help achieve higher learning standards for all students.