Average scores
Bosnia and Herzegovina performs around the regional average in reading, maths, and science.
Socio-economically advantaged students and
girls perform better than boys and
disadvantaged students.
Policies are needed to help all students
succeed.
79% of upper secondary students attend a
vocational programme.
Roughly 61% of these students cannot read
proficiently.
Selection into upper secondary programmes is
not equitable:
Boys are 2x more likely than girls
to attend vocational training
programmes
Disadvantaged students are 4x more
likely than advantaged students to
attend vocational training programmes
Accounting for gender and socio-economic
status in Bosnia and Herzegovina results in a
decline in the performance gap between
general educational and vocational
programmes.
This suggests that student background, in
addition to ability, can largely shape whether
they attend general education or vocational
programmes.
More spending could contribute to higher results.
Principals in Bosnia and Herzegovina reported
greater concerns about resource shortages in
vocational schools.
This trend is also seen across Western
Balkans economies and OECD countries.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Western Balkans
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Compared to the average across OECD
countries:
Bosnia and Herzegovina tends to use more
teacher-directed instruction.
And less adaptive methods that focus on
meeting students’ individual needs.
More teacher-directed instruction is associated
with lower reading performance and more
adaptive instruction is associated with higher
reading performance in
Bosnia and Herzegovina
and throughout Western Balkans 5* and
OECD countries.
*No data for North Macedonia
Traditional practices such as teacher-directed instruction are more frequently used in schools with more disadvantaged students and vocational programmes.
Adaptive instructional approaches associated with higher outcomes more frequently occur in schools with more advantaged students and general education programmes.
This is likely to further exacerbate existing performance disparities.