29.07.2021. » 08:26
OP-ED: Education in Kosovo - Albert Muja
The issue of education in Kosovo needs serious attention. It is because there is an overall public perception among people and several notable experts that numerous issues in public education aren’t functioning very well to the benefit of students. The current educational infrastructure is putting down the overall public rhetoric for better education due to current practices developed in schools.
The issue of education in Kosovo needs serious attention. It is because there is an overall public perception among people and several notable experts that numerous issues in public education aren’t functioning very well to the benefit of students. The current educational infrastructure is putting down the overall public rhetoric for better education due to current practices developed in schools.
This challenge can be seen simply from the first encounter of children in their primary schools. This does not end with primary schools themselves; it gets more complicated in the secondary schools. In both primary and secondary schools you see students carrying bags full of heavy well-designed books granted for free by the government. There can be more than two books of the same topic or nature a student must learn about. Lack of infrastructure in schools forces students to carry this heavy load every day back and forth affecting possible spine and neural damages in the future. In this respect, you can watch some parents be careful but many are careless. The schools organization calling for investment in bookshelves is neglected; there is always a reason behind this – lack of funds. In 2007, Robert Stevenson from James Cook University observed that there is a large gap between the policy rhetoric of “better education” and actual practice in schools.
The interesting part is the content of literature provided for students to learn. It consists of many books either translated from international literature or mostly belonging to the authors from Albania. The books are very well designed and contain lots of information considered to be a burden for the actual intellectual capacities of children, especially for students of both primary and secondary schools. In this respect, teachers have also protested in the way the literature explains the methods of learning and the language to learn (literature is filled with words, adjectives, norms, metaphors deriving from Tosk-based dialect that is difficult to grasp in a Gheg-dialect community). Moreover, there is also a general perception that literature could be technically improved and narrowed, affecting production costs and the current heavy load children carry every day. Some studies suggest that to have a successful change or reform in education, such a change can never come without the bottom-up approach. In 2004, notable experts such as Schmidt and White noted that involving teachers, students and school administrators in the reform is very important as they are the final beneficiaries in this process. Unfortunately this is not the case for education in Kosovo, the overall 22-year old transitional development was mostly a top-down approach, which resulted in a lack of deep understanding of the work and the intentions of the proposed changes on the side of teachers, who had none or limited involvement in the process.
Consequently, it is the institutions and non-governmental organizations that must bring up this issue, creating a benchmark of the policy being combined from involvement in the process by teachers, students and school administrators as well as from the best practices from different countries.
This of course does not solve the overall problem, just part of it! The other part is to create a more contemporary and learning-centered education shifting from a traditional and content-centered education. This implies that it is not only the literature to be improved or replaced but also the system of organization in schools, work programmes, evaluations, conflicts of interests, etc.
Towns in Kosovo are overloaded with students in current school facilities. This is happening due to migration from villages and town surroundings to the centers of the towns and suburbs. Many schools in villages are almost empty. Teachers complain of inequalities, as their salaries are fixed while responsibility is different from one case to another. Teachers teaching students with little numbers in classrooms of schools in distant suburbs or villages feel more relaxed and less responsible compared to the teachers in overloaded schools. This requires finding solutions tackling these issues, which must include appropriate approaches from municipal and migration authorities as well.
Moreover, the other factors that might add to this sophisticated educational issue are the mechanisms of evaluation and control. Without these mechanisms in place, no process could ever be seen implemented successfully.
Nevertheless, these challenges are still persisting, and there is no initiative for serious attention at all!
Finally, everyone must take into account that the overall objective is to support all students in developing the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes that promote their ability to understand that they are the important key for Kosovo’s sustainable future.
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