Komadina (Regional Development Forum): Education and Training Must Be Strategic and Development Priorities of Society

The application of new technological tools in the education system, the improvement and adaptation of the entire system to new circumstances such as digitalization and artificial intelligence that permeate all areas of activity, including education, are the focus of this year’s Regional Development Forum organized by the Croatian Association of Counties in partnership with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and Lider.

Conference participants, including county prefects and heads of county departments responsible for education, representatives of schools and educational institutions, and specialists in this field, gathered to discuss, among other things, the impact of technology on the essence of education, modeling educational policies at the county level, the use of artificial intelligence in the classroom, and how digitalization and artificial intelligence can enhance education. The question of whether today’s education system can respond to the challenges of the future is also on the table.

All attendees were greeted with an opening speech by the prefect of the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County and the first president of the Croatian Association of Counties Zlatko Komadina, who emphasized that education and training must be strategic and developmental priorities for every society.

As he stated, children are an immense potential that needs to be encouraged and developed, and the education system should be adapted in that direction.

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Education in Focus 2024.

photo Ratko Mavar

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– Counties are more concerned with doors, windows, and spaces than with the educational process, but the working conditions of our teachers and other staff in education are extremely important – said Komadina, highlighting that we, as a country, are first and innovative in many areas.

The prefect of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County also stated that education occupies an important place in the development strategy because it is crucial to prepare young people for a competitive market, and he emphasized that the level of knowledge and the need for knowledge among young people has significantly increased, which is important for the development of the region.

Education is not a one-time expense

After the opening speech, the first lecture in a full hall at the Sheraton in Zagreb was delivered by the head of the Department for Education, Culture, and Sports of Varaždin County, Dr. Miroslav Huđek, who spoke about modeling educational policies at the county level.

Huđek relied on the Institute for Business Management Development in his lecture, which measures each country’s ability to build, retain, and attract talent through investment and development factors, attractiveness factors, and readiness factors.

This institute, which also analyzes the overall competitiveness of 64 countries worldwide and the analysis of digital transformation, published the results of its research showing that in 2023, Croatia ranked 46th by these measures.

As Huđek emphasized, when modeling education, it is important to conduct a SWOT analysis of educational policies, i.e., to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of educational policies and then based on that determine what and how to proceed.

What schools focus on are programs in the areas of equality, efficiency, and excellence, all aimed at long-term capability, so a strategic map of goals must be created because without it, it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of educational models, claims Huđek.

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Education in Focus 2024. Miroslav Huđek

photo Ratko Mavar

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– Equality programs must ensure sociological equality, generational equality, and pedagogical equality in order to create an educational system of equal opportunities – emphasized Huđek, adding that by 2025, their entire educational system will operate in one shift.

In addition to equality, they also pay great attention to digital and green initiatives, with as much as 40 percent of the educational system, i.e., schools in Varaždin County, relying on renewable energy sources. Huđek also praised the centers of excellence for which this county has invested more than seven million euros from 2007 to 2023.

The focus is also on modernizing programs, and in this county, it is done according to the Pareto optimum model, which is quite a demanding task, says Huđek, but all of this is done with the aim of providing Varaždin high school students with functional knowledge that they can use in the labor market or in further education.

– Our goal is to create classrooms of the future because we are interested in multifunctional classrooms that will maximize effectiveness – said Huđek, concluding that investment in education can no longer be viewed as a one-time expense.

– These are costs we call lifelong costs. We must give staff the opportunity to educate themselves and for their capabilities to grow – concluded the head of Varaždin County.