The action “Quality education for all – Bosnia and Herzegovina” proposes a series of complementary measures at policy, grass roots and regional levels to further improve the quality of education in Bosnia and Herzegovina by fostering a culture of democracy and inclusion and combatting all forms of discrimination in the formal education system, in line with the Council of Europe standards and tools and developed in consultation with key stakeholders and final beneficiaries.

The action is implemented within the joint programme of the European Union and the Council of Europe “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye” running from 2023 until 2026.


What is the goal and objective of the action?

  • To enhance the quality of education by fostering a democratic culture in the formal education system and addressing discrimination by applying European standards; 
  • to support policy makers to further improve and align practices and policies with EU acquis, European Union and the Council of Europe standards;
  • to ensure that a democratic culture is promoted as a key element for a quality education by raising awareness in society. 


Who benefits from the action?

  • The Ministries of Education at entities and cantonal level, and the pedagogical institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina;
  • primary and secondary schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina including teachers and school management, students, parents and their communities;


How does the action work?

  • Through both grassroots and policy-level interventions;
  • with education policy-making and targeted capacity building, awareness-raising, joint school activities, working group meetings, conferences and peer exchanges;
  • it builds upon the results of co-operation under previous two phases of the programme: action “Quality education in multi-ethnic societies” (2016 – 2019) and action “Quality education for all” (2019 – 2022) and it supports effective implementation of the Policy Recommendations with a Roadmap for Improving Inclusive Education, adopted by the Bosnia and Herzegovina Council of Ministers on 2 September 2020.


What do we expect to achieve?

  • Education policy makers continue to implement the Policy Roadmap and include Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture into the education system;
  • teachers, school directors and other school staff improve their competences to implement the Roadmap objectives and enable students to develop appropriate competences, self-confidence and critical thinking to help them become responsible citizens;
  • promote education as a social value by raising awareness of the society on quality education as a public good and a basic human right. 


What is the budget of the action?

The total budget of the action is 750 000 EUR.

The budget allocated to the overall Horizontal Facility programme amounts to ca. 41 Million EUR (85% funded by the European Union, 15% by the Council of Europe).


How to get more information?

Council of Europe Office in Sarajevo 
Horizontal Facility website and e-mail address


About Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye

The “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye” is a joint initiative of the European Union and the Council of Europe that enables the Western Balkans Beneficiaries and Türkiye to meet their reform agendas in the fields of human rights, rule of law and democracy and to comply with the European standards, which is also a priority for the EU enlargement process.