ZAGREB, April 16, 2018 – Science and Education Minister Blaženka Divjak and the prime minister’s special adviser for curricular reform Radovan Fuchs met on Monday to discuss the schedule of obligations for the experimental “School for Life” programme and expressed their satisfaction with the talks and readiness to accelerate preparations.
We had a constructive meeting and I informed Fuchs how far we have come with preparations for the experimental “School for Life” programme. I also informed him of the plans about where, how and in what way the Expert Task Force can be included, in accordance with the Action Plan, Minister Divjak said after the meeting, adding that they had come to an agreement in that regard. Divjak said the Expert Task Force would be convened at the first available date.
Divjak said that they had spoken about other aspects regarding 150 million kuna received from the EU social fund and from the budget earmarked for the education reform. She explained that the process of preparing experimental textbooks was proceeding according to schedule, that they would be ready on time and that training for about one hundred mentors for subject teachers was starting today. Divjak said this too was unfolding in due course.
Fuchs too said that they had discussed organisational matters and that the most important thing was to accelerate the entire process. I will endeavour to ensure that all the steps that need to be taken are in accordance with the Education, Science and Technology Strategy and the Action Plan, said Fuchs and added that everything would be done in accordance with what has been written in those documents.
Divjak denied that the experimental reform was going too fast and that teachers would not be prepared on time. “We are going at a pace that ensures that everything is ready in classrooms at the start of September. It was said that we wouldn’t be ready with textbooks and today we denied that with the great interest shown by publishing houses,” she said and added that at the moment there are 2,400 teachers, principals and associates networked on line including subject and grade teachers in experimental schools.
The minister and the prime minister’s adviser did not provide a clear answer to the most important question: which one of them is the head of the curricular reform?
