This project aims at improving the effectiveness of the system for external evaluation of the quality of work in schools and developing horizontal learning between schools. It has been officially launched in April 2015 and it will be implemented until December 2016.

System of external evaluation has been introduced in Serbia in 2012 and the first results indicated insufficient quality of education in Serbia. During two school years, 2012/2013 and 2013/2014, external evaluation covered 552 primary schools and 151 secondary schools in Serbia. The results of the external evaluation show that around 36% of the covered schools had not achieved the minimum quality standards of school work. The presented results indicated the need for development of programs for improving the quality of work in those schools that do not achieve the minimum quality standards. In addition to these results, schools in Serbia are often isolated within their local context and do not cooperate sufficiently with other educational, cultural and scientific institutions and local self-government. On the other hand, horizontal learning, as a concept that promotes active professional communities of teachers, has proven to be successful in many studies as well as countries, both for providing an acceptable environment for advancement of learning in schools, and also with regard to acceptance of changes in schools.

Due to everything mentioned, an initiative came from UNICEF, Institute for Education Quality and Evaluation (IEQE) and Centre for Education Policy (CEP) to improve quality of education in Serbia by empowering schools to exchange experiences – between schools that received the lowest grades in external evaluation and the schools that had been previously identified within the project “Spreading high quality education in Serbia” and are examples of good, quality schools in Serbia.

The overall SHARE project consists of 2 intertwining projects:

1. Project 1 that is implemented by IEQE and is focused on development and verification of support mechanisms based on networking of the teachers and horizontal learning in order to improve the quality of specific areas of schools’ work and life
2. Project 2 is implemented by CEP and is focused on strengthening mentorship support and capacities of good schools for providing support for schools with poor performance in the external evaluation.

So far, several activities have been implemented, such as desk analysis of international documents and research reports concerning support to schools based on the results of external evaluation with special emphasis on horizontal learning between schools, realization of trainings for selected mentors for support and monitoring of the implementation of the program of horizontal learning between schools, and preparation and realization of trainings of employees from 10 goods schools, who will be providing support in the horizontal learning program in following period.