On the eve of the 7th edition of the conference Better Education, Better Croatia, which will be held on April 5 at the Zagreb Innovation Center, the director of CARNET, Hrvoje Puljiz, answers questions about the digitalization of the education system in Croatia.
24sata: CARNET is one of the leaders in the digital transformation of the education system. With which projects has CARNET contributed to the improvement of educational processes?
CARNET has been working on the introduction and application of information and communication technology in education for more than 30 years. During that period, we successfully implemented a large number of projects, so I will only look at current projects.
Our most significant and largest project is e-Schools, which represent an investment of 1.6 billion kuna in primary and secondary schools financed from the state budget for the purpose of creating digitally mature schools. The project is 85 percent financed from the European Structural and Investment Funds, while 15 percent of the funds are provided from the state budget.
At the same time, we are a partner in the e-Enrollment project, which completes the digital transformation of the educational system by enabling electronic enrollment in the desired educational institution, starting with kindergarten, access to information on educational status and monitoring students throughout the educational process.
In order to provide equal opportunities for education for all children, we recently launched the project “Support to equal opportunities in education for students with disabilities”, abbreviated ATTEND. The project is aimed at increasing the quality of education of students with disabilities, and includes equipping centers for the education of students with disabilities and educating staff of centers for the use of assistive technology.
24sata: For the pilot project of the e-School, CARNET received the RegioStars award from the European Commission. What makes the e-School project unique?
The goal of all our activities in the e-School project is to prepare students for the labor market, further education and lifelong learning. To achieve this goal, schools need to be equipped with modern computer networks, classrooms and school staff with modern equipment and e-services and e-content. The key segments are continuous education and support for school staff in order to apply technology, e-services and e-content purposefully.
Proving the importance of a holistic approach to the application of technology in education, the European Commission awarded CARNET the 2020 RegioStars Award in the category of Inclusive Growth – Skills and Education for Digital Europe. Every year, the European Commission awards the RegioStars Prize to EU-funded projects to promote excellence and new approaches in the field of regional development, focusing on areas crucial for the future of EU regional policy.
24sata: What is the response of educators and schools in general to the education program you offer as part of the e-School project? Which one has proven to be the most useful for teachers and professors so far and what is the feedback after teachers start applying newly acquired knowledge in their work with students?
Interest in education is extremely high and we are very pleased with the response of school staff. As part of the education program, workshops for teachers, professional associates and principals have been launched in almost 700 schools so far. More than 1,200 workshops were held, attended by over 23,000 educators. In addition, about 4,000 school staff attended online training. The numbers will continue to grow because we are still developing the contents of the trainings, and as part of the e-School project, about 60 different topics of live workshops, virtual workshops, webinars and e-courses will be available.
Workshop participants emphasize the benefits and applicability of acquired knowledge in teaching and everyday work. They believe that it is extremely important to keep up with the tools that make it easier for students to master the teaching material and are satisfied with the exercises and getting to know the tools.
24sata: Can you give us examples of services and content that will be available to principals and teachers, which will improve teaching and business processes in schools? Will some services be available to students and parents?
In the e-School project, we create a number of services and content, so I will single out just a few.
The CARNET data service will include learning analytics and educational data mining, and is designed as a central application of the education system. By analyzing data from the education system, CARNET data will enable students and teachers to monitor their work, principals insight into the work of teachers, and depersonalized data from the system will enable the preparation of detailed reports that will serve as a basis for strategies to improve education as a whole.
CARNET sigma is a service intended for schools and represents a centralized, unique and standardized system for computerization of business and monitoring of business processes in schools. It enables efficient and transparent management of the school because each school can choose the modules of the system it wants to use, such as registration records, travel orders, cash registers, time records and payroll, and so far it has been introduced by more than 150 schools.
Numerous digital educational contents are available to students and teachers for subjects from the 5th grade of primary to the 4th grade of secondary school and for interdisciplinary topics. Teaching scenarios are also available to teachers that provide innovative and imaginative ideas for the purposeful application of digital tools and content and modern pedagogical approaches in teaching.
24sata: Your most famous service is e-Dnevnik. Can we expect any news here?
We are constantly developing the e-Diary service in accordance with the needs and proposals of users and according to the requirements of our competent Ministry of Science and Education.
Last year, we introduced the e-Diary mobile application for students and parents, which allows users to view grades, notes and other data that teachers have entered in the e-Diary on their mobile devices. The application provides insight into enrolled absences, behavior, pedagogical measures, class notes, class schedule and exam schedule during the school year. Today, the mobile application is used by more than 50,000 students and their parents.
We are currently working on the development of an e-Diary for teachers on the Symfony platform, and as part of this, a significant number of new functionalities will be developed in the new environment.
For the e-Diary application for students and parents, the development of functionality is planned, which will enable users to receive more notifications about news, such as new written assignments, schedule changes and the like. A new feature that will allow the generation of school certificates will be available in May in an app for students and parents.
24sata: Where would you place Croatia in relation to other EU countries according to the level of digitalization of the education system?
According to the Index of Economic and Social Digitization published by the European Commission every year, Croatia was ranked 19th in 2021, which is an improvement over the previous year. Croatia’s performance has improved thanks to better results in categories such as digital skills at a higher than basic level, where Croatia is above the EU average.
A significant contribution to this was made by our e-School project, as a large number of teachers received computer equipment through the project and acquired digital competencies that enabled them to successfully transition to distance learning. In just three weeks, CARNET, in cooperation with the Ministry of Science and Education, prepared the entire education system for the transition to distance learning, which was one of the most successful among all EU member states.
It should also be mentioned that, according to the latest Eurostat report, Croatia is the first in the European Union in terms of basic or above-average digital skills of young people aged 16 to 24, with a share in this age group of as much as 97 percent.
24sata: What is the goal you want to achieve by the end of 2023?
Since the goal of the second phase of the e-School project is to increase the level of digital maturity of schools, we are working to raise all digital and state-funded primary and secondary schools by at least one level and take advantage of information and communication technology by the end of 2023. in teaching school management.
Our goal is to enable teachers to improve their teaching, develop their own digital content and provide support for independent learning and the development of critical skills in students, after attending organized trainings for them. Thus, students actively participate in teaching with increased motivation to learn and continue their education and become more competitive in the labor market.
Join us on April 5 at ZICER at the Zagreb Fair from 9 am and on our digital platforms. Register at www.boljeobrazovanje.hr.
The project partners are the European Commission, the Croatian Academic and Research Network – NOTEBOOKFINA, Erste, KONČAR, Stega tisak and Leapwise, and the project is supported by ZICER, FOI and FER.