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Life in Kosovo Debates the Quality of Kosovo’ High Schools

09 10 2008  This week’s Life in Kosovo show debated the level and quality of secondary education in Kosovo.

This year, the education sector in Kosovo finally received its budget increase but how much has the quality increased?

These questions were raised in this aepisode of “Life in Kosovo” debate, moderated by Jeta Abazi, a BIRN journalist.

The panel invited to discuss these issues were:

Heset Cakolli, deputy serving on the education committee in Kosovo’s Parliament,
Jonuz Salihaj, former head of the directorate for secondary schools in Kosovo,
Nehad Mustafa, counsellor of the pre-university system in the Ministry of Education,
Xhafer Ahmeti, coordinator of Kosovo’s licensing project.

To complement the debate, the audience consisted of high school students, professors and other representatives of Kosovo’s education sector: Rifadije Paloja, communal director for education in Obiliq; Izija Mjekiqi, professor in Obiliq; Ardit Gashi, head of the council of students in Ferizaj; Shefkije Islamaj, science counsellor in the department for the Albanian Language; Alush Kryeziu, head of the primary school ‘Beqir Gashi’ in Rezor, Malisheva Municipality; Ron Gjinovci, a student in the gymnasium ‘Sami Frasheri’ in Prishtina and Kreshnik Ismajli, a student in the gymnasium ‘Xhevdet Doda’ in Prishtina.

The show started with a cultural report, prepared by Arif Muharremi, culture journalist, showing how impolite high schools students were during a theatrical show.

Asked whether the school as an institution should take responsibility for the students it sends to theatrical shows, exhibitions and other cultural events, Salihaj reported that these activities are mandatory, as they appear in the programs of each elementary and secondary school.

Salihaj told how polite and well-mannered Kosovo students were when sent to theatres, movie shows and the like during the 90s, when Kosovo was under Serbian rule.

According to him, teachers and professors were more motivated at that time and took much more responsibility, though they were not being paid.

Talking about the current situation of high school students, Salihaj reported that lack of politeness is the fault of each school’s internal organization and also the fact that class monitors are not paid additionally for such duties.

Students present in the audience reported that they were rarely or never sent to a theatre or exhibition by their school.

Ardit Gashi, one of the students present in the audience, said that most of his peers prefer to have a macchiato in the bar than to go to the theatre.

A report revealed that only 31.97 percent of high school students passed the national exam prior to university enrolment.

The report also showed that a large number of high school students who received excellent grades couldn’t pass the national exam.

Nehad Mustafa said the very low score of high school graduates on the national exam shows that their evaluation in the high schools was not accurate.

Considering whether professors have a tendency to appear successful by giving many students high grades though they do not deserve them, Salihaj reported that this option cannot be ruled out.

He also noted that there were cases where high school students with excellent grades did very well on the national exam. The fault for this issue should be traced to the lack of internal evaluation commissions in local schools, he added.

Kreshniku, a student who failed the national exam who was present in the audience, reported that during the exam there was a lot of noise preventing him from properly concentrating on the test. He added that the exam itself had deficiencies and mistakes.

On the other hand, Mustafa responded that most of the students who were questioned immediately after the exam reported the test was very easy and accurately compiled.

The threshold for high school seniors to pass the exam has been lowered from 50 percent correct to 45 percent correct by the Ministry of Education due to the very poor performance of the students.

Asked whether the Ministry has the right to change a law implemented by the Parliament, deputy Cakolli answered that the laws enacted in the highest institution cannot be abolished or modified.

However, he reported that the decision has its own justification as it enabled more students to enrol in universities, while with the previous results a large part of them would remain outside universities.

Meanwhile, Salihaj stated that if this problem had arisen in one of the EU countries, the measures to tackle the issue would have been enormous.

Cakolli said that, besides the many deficiencies the exam had, there was no preparation period for the exam, and no advice directing the student which fields of study should be focused on more.

Regarding the exam deficiencies, Salihaj responded that there should have been a better compilation of the exam, meaning that there should have been different exams for general gymnasiums and for specialized ones.

Zija Mjekici, a professor in a technical high school in Obiliq, revealed that the Ministry of Education failed with the national exam, especially in specialized schools, because, as he said, most of the curricula implemented by the ministry itself focus the student on specialized fields of study, as opposed to the gymnasiums where students get a general education in all fields.

However, Mjekiqi said that these students should have an exam testing their general knowledge and not the courses they specialized in.

Asked why high schools in Obiliq municipality have the lowest scores, Mjekiqi pointed to the lack of infrastructure and school buildings; an absence of literature for specialized majors and a lack of practical work.

In regard to this, Mustafa reported that most of the problems in high schools should be traced to the schools themselves.

According to him, the technical school in Obiliq recorded twenty eight thousand student absences, which is a clear cause of their bad performance on the national exam.

On the other hand, Mustafa said that specialized majors in high schools have their own internal examinations and they are granted a certificate helping them to compete in the labour market.

He also added that there is no standard according to which students of a technical or agriculture school will enrol in the corresponding fields of study in universities.

“Most of them chose different majors, for which they need to be tested,” said Mustafa.

Mustafa reported that the ministry has hired a person to exclusively deal with specialized majors and schools. This department will be in charge of compiling new curricula and textbooks.

Salihaj reported that prior to the mid 90s, 60 per cent of the students were enrolled in specialized majors while the other 40 per cent were enrolled in gymnasiums.

Today, he revealed the opposite is true, due to a practice whereby all of those who don’t manage to enrol in gymnasiums are transferred into specialized schools.

He also added that Kosovo will face the absence of engineers, geologists and other specialised professionals at the moment its mines and factories start working.

Cakolli is the most dedicated member of the parliament; he doesn’t have any absences at all.

Asked why he hasn’t raised this issue in the legislative institutions, Cakolli revealed that he didn’t have the opportunity to tackle this issue in the parliament due to the vital questions Kosovo is faced with at this time.

On the other hand, the moderator reported that he couldn’t raise this issue because his participation in sessions is only 0.8 percent.

Ahmeti added that the ministry wanted an accurate diagnosis of the problems in the education sector, in order to know what therapy to use.

Meanwhile, talking about professors and their licenses, Ahmeti revealed the ministry will supply each professor with a license, specifically, a document with which a professor can exercise his work in the educational sector.

According to Ahmeti, professors will be evaluated by the students. The teaching process, curricula and the overall result from each school will be taken into account when evaluating the work of each professor.

Talking about the very low scores of high school students, Salihaj alleged the tests should be piloted before having students take the test.

“In the pilot test the easiest and the hardest question should be taken off from the test. This would give us much better results than the first test,” Salihaj said.

On the other hand, Ahmeti said that this was not the first class of students to take the national test, inferring that previous experiences could serve to enhance the quality.

Rroni, a high school student in the gymnasium “Sami Frasheri” in Prishtina, is not optimistic that professors will offer abetter quality of teaching after having received their pay raises.

According to him, there are professors in Sami Frasheri, the best gymnasium in Kosovo, who don’t deserve to be there.

Asked whether the better professors are those with university degrees or those with more experience in teaching, students on the panel reported that these differences cannot be used as a guide to decide who performs his or her job better.

Rroni also reported that younger professors seem to implement the new reforms in the schooling system better.

The head of the Rezor School, Alush Kryeziu, said there are two types of evaluation for the teachers, internal and external evaluation. According to him, the large number of absences in the secondary school in Obiliq reflects a failure of the interim administration of the school.

Discussing why there have been low scores in tests of students’ knowledge of the Albanian language, Shefkije Islamaj said that no TV debates tackle the essential issue our education system faces. She said our current system doesn’t prepare students for contemporary life. The traditional model of teaching has proved to be outdated.

“Reformation of the system in Kosovo should not solely cover its technical part; it should expand to include vision, curricula, the method of schooling, aims and the goals of teaching,” said Islamaj.

According to her, in secondary schools there are math classes which don’t teach math; there are classes on Albanian literature but our students can barely speak and write in their own language.

School texts, added Shefkije Islamaj, do not meet necessary standards from the didactic, methodical and teaching standpoints.

Recognizing the severe deficiency in the two crucial subjects of math and Albanian, Ahmeti said that, in the future, special attention will be given to teaching students in these two subjects – crucial to their future careers.

The students present in the audience revealed they have problems articulating ideas in their own language as they are used to learning by heart without reflecting critically what they are reading, just to get high grades.

Highlight of the week

The highlight of this week, prepared by Jeta Abazi, showed the primary school ‘Beqir Gashi’ in the village of Rezor in Malisheva municipality. 492 students take their lessons in a very small school, some in an improvised classroom in a receptacle.

However, despite very difficult conditions, this school has an updated web site in which one can find information on the school, the students, the professors and anything else related to education.

After a promise given on the Life in Kosovo show on July 3, 2008, the Ministry of Education provided a computer lab with 32 computers for one of the very few schools in remote areas to have an updated website. The ministry also promised to build a new 12-classroom school in 2009.

The head of the primary school ‘Beqir Gashi’, a very old man, reported that before, he needed some 30 minutes to publish information in the website, but now he is able to publish within only 5 minutes.

After the broadcasting of the feature entitled “Kosovo’s son-in-law,” the municipal debate “Life in Kastriot” moderated by Jeta Xharra was broadcast.


Life in Kosovo is a co-production between Kosovo Public Television, RTK and the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN. It is broadcast every Thursday, starting at 20:20.