QUALITY ASSURANCE IN BASIC EDUCATION IN SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE: What Works in Our Region?

Within the framework of the global research project “Varieties
of Governance: Effective Public Service Delivery”, undertaken
under the umbrella of the Global Development Network,
ten researchers in South-Eastern Europe examined the
governance setup of educational systems in the region
with the final purpose of trying to explain why educational
outcomes have remained persistently low, and how they can
be improved. More precisely, we described, analyzed and
assessed the aims, objectives, functioning and effectiveness,
in a cross-country comparative study, of existing Quality
Assurance Systems (QASs) for basic education (grades 1-8/9)
in Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania,
Serbia and Slovenia.