The quality of the preschool education process in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Dženeta Camović, Jasmina Bećirović-Karabegović and Hašima Ćurak

Summary:  This paper deals with the quality of preschool education in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) with a special emphasis on the process dimension. The analysis is approached through key areas that include defined goals and standards of quality, curriculum development and its implementation, individualisation and observation, professional training of employees, as well as monitoring and evaluation. The main goal is to point out the key systematic solutions and research results that refer to the analysis of the preschool education process quality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Due to a lack of significant empirical data in this domain, a survey was conducted with the principals of public and private preschool institutions. The results of the research point to an inconsistent legislation that regulates the activities of institutional preschool education, resulting in the occurrence of deviations in the practical implementation of the Common Core of Integral Development Programs for Preschool Institutions. In preschool institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the dominant approach is the one in which the educator is in the centre and, therefore, the emphasis is placed on the need to empower the educational professionals to develop a child-centred curriculum. It is evident that there is an inconsistent approach to internal monitoring and quality evaluation of the educational practice in preschool institutions. A requirement that is necessary for achieving of the process quality is the development of continual professional improvement of the educators by encouraging and motivating the openness, research and critical reflection of one’s own practice.

Journal of Contemporary Educational Studies is
published with support of Slovenian Research Agency.