e-Schools: Establishing a system for developing digitally mature schools (pilot project)

Project Holder «e-Schools: Establishing a System for Developing Digitally Mature Schools (Pilot Project)» It was the Croatian Academic and Research Network – CARNET. The authoritative body responsible for CARNET is the Ministry of Science and Education, which is overseen by the Government of the Republic of Croatia.

The e-Schools project is part of the broader e-Schools program. Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish the program from the e-Schools project. The e-Schools program is implemented through several projects to computerize the school system in the period from 2015 to 2023. The e-Schools program consists of a pilot project, implemented from 2015 to 2018, and a large project, planned to be implemented from 2018 to 2023 based on the results of the pilot project.

The full name of the entire program is “e-Schools: Comprehensive informatization of school business processes and teaching processes for the purpose of creating digitally mature schools for the 21st century.”.

In digitally mature schools, adequate use of information and communication technology (ICT) contributes to:

• effective and transparent school management (direct objective);
• the development of digitally competent teachers who are better prepared to implement innovations in their own pedagogical practices (direct objective);
• development of digitally competent students who are more prepared for further education and more competitive in the labor market. (indirect goal, contributes to it).

The general goal of the e-Schools program is to strengthen the capacity of the elementary and secondary education system in order to prepare students for the job market, further education, and lifelong learning.
 The purpose of the e-Schools pilot project was to establish a system for developing digitally mature schools by piloting and evaluating the application of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) in educational and business processes in 10% schools in the Republic of Croatia. 

The specific goal of the e-Schools pilot project was to pilot organizational, technological, and educational concepts for the integration of ICT into educational and business processes in selected schools over two school years, and based on the pilot experience, to develop a strategy for implementing a system of digitally mature schools throughout the entire primary and secondary education system in the Republic of Croatia, i.e. for application in a large-scale project (2018-2023).

Experiences from similar European digitalization projects for business and teaching processes necessitate aligned implementation of both the infrastructural and service-educational parts of the project, with the awareness that the foundation of education is the teacher, and the primary focus is the student. Therefore, it is essential that the support and education of teachers and school staff precede other project activities, then run concurrently, and finally, outlast other activities within the project. Without empowered teachers and school staff, capable and ready for new technologies, services, and teaching approaches, the infrastructure will remain unused, and the services and content developed within the project will be discarded.

Both phases of the project were largely (85%) financed by the European Union's structural funds. Given the specific nature of the e-Schools project's objective, its implementation was, for operational reasons, split into two strategic projects, which were financed and carried out through two different operational programs:

• Project A: funded by Competitiveness and Cohesion Operational Programme (OP CC), European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
• Project B: funded from Operational Programme Efficient Human Resources (OP HR), European Social Fund (ESF)

The total value of the e-Schools pilot project was 306,851,518 kuna, of which EU funding amounted to 85% – 193,688,730 kuna from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and 67,135,060 kuna from the European Social Fund (ESF). National co-financing was provided in the amount of 46,027,727 kuna.

The pilot project was carried out from March 1, 2015 to August 31, 2018.

More information about the project can be found at project website.

The project is co-financed by the European Union from the European Structural and Investment Funds.