Board of Education of Styria (BES) is one of nine federal Austrian authorities for school administration. It is a federal institution, which is in charge of the administration of all federal schools and on behalf of the regional government is also in charge of the pedagogical administration of all schools run by the province of Styria. Based on its legal status and the declaration of school development in the province of Styria BES guides its schools and employees in partnership, promotes/encourages their further development, makes use of the resources in a transparent and economic way and supports self-responsibility. BES executes the Austrian school law. This includes quality assurance, school supervision and education controlling. Beyond the school system, BES contributes to the education system through active communication and cooperation with educational institutions at all levels across national borders to create a common educational development. In addition to the personnel management of the schools, also quality management and controlling by the school quality managers is realised in close cooperation with the assigned schools. The school psychology service and legal advice are also located here. The Austrian school law encourages autonomous creative freedom for staff in the office and schools, but at the same time, it upholds agreed quality standards, which ensure the comparability of performance and educational qualifications at national and international level.

Web page:

Role in the project:

The role of BES is to establish contact between the project-executing organisation and its partners and the Styrian schools and to provide networking activities. The School Board of Education is the distributor of all information concerning the project to the Styrian educational landscape. Furthermore, it is responsible for the dissemination of the results of the project to all Styrian teachers and schools. The large international network of BES will also serve as a field of dissemination for the results of the project.

Project team:

Maria Pichlbauer

Gisela Schneider