Croatia: Towards Sustainable, Equitable and Efficient Education Project

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The development objective of the Towards Sustainable, Equitable and Efficient Education Project for Croatia is to improve the learning environment in select schools under the whole day school (WDS) system and to strengthen the capacity of the Ministry of Science and Education (MSE) to scale up the WDS system and implement sector reforms. The project comprises of three components. The first component, ensure that more hours translate into more student learning will support the MSE to design, implement, and monitor the WDS system while learning from its rollout to inform the MSE’s future scale up of the reform. It consists of following sub-components: (i) develop the WDS system and refine the system following experience during the initial years of reform; and (ii) help utilize administrative and student performance data to improve student learning. The second component, design and demonstrate infrastructure solutions for WDS will support the design of new infrastructure standards for Croatian schools, which will address climate vulnerabilities, incorporate seismic resilience into building upgrades, and encompass best Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development- European Union (OECD-EU) climate, environment, and energy-efficient standards, significantly contributing to the European green deal agenda. It consists of following sub-components: (i) prepare new infrastructure standards for schools; and (ii) creating demonstration schools. The third component strengthen MSE’s capacity to implement reforms will strengthen the MSE’s capacity and provide direct support to key aspects of implementing the reform, such as establishing a working group within the ministry, project management, monitoring and evaluation, and communications. It consists of following sub-components: (i) support establishment of the working group; (ii) update the costing of the WDS, revise national regulations, and prepare local school network plans; (iii) support the design of other educational strategic reform initiatives; and (iv) fund a research program to document results.