Education and VET System in Bosnia and Herzegovina

BiH consists of two entities (Republika Srpska and Federation of BiH) and Brcko district of BiH.

The education sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina reflects the state constitution. It is defined by the BiH Constitution, the constitutions of the entities, cantons, and the Statute of Brčko District of BiH, which govern legal competencies in education.

In accordance with that there are twelve responsable institutions of education in BiH:

• The Ministry of Education and Culture of Republika Srpska (Ministarstvo prosvjete i kulture Republike Srpske),
• Ten cantonal ministries of education in the Federation of BiH and
• The Department for Education of the Brčko District Government (Odjeljenje za obrazovanje u Vladi Brčko Distrikta BiH)

There are also two others ministries with coordinating role:

• The Federal Ministry of Education and Science (Federalno ministarstvo obrazovanja i nauke) coordinates, among other things, activities within the Federation of BiH, between ten cantons.
• On a state level, there is The Ministry of Civil Affairs of BiH –MoCA (Ministarstvo civilnih poslova BiH), established with a role to coordinates activities within all education institutions in BiH. In accordance to the law, MoCA is responsible for carrying out activities and tasks within the jurisdiction of BiH related to defining basic principles of coordination of activities, harmonization of plans of entity bodies and defining strategy at the international level, including, among others, education.

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