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12 05 2007 Last Friday's episode of Life in Kosovo featured an exclusive interview with Mehmet Gjevori which was conducted shortly before the death of the well-known author of works on education and linguistics.
Gjevori published his first book in 1945, and his last in 2006 at the age of 96, thus completing a rich 60-year-long career as a successful educator and linguist.
In the interview he gave to Life in Kosovo, this leading educationalist talked about his childhood and parent's house; and his decision to leave Albania, his home country, and come to Kosovo to open Albanian schools at a time when illiteracy amongst the Kosovo Albanian population was as high as 90 per cent.
Gjevori decided to come to work in Kosovo in 1941, when an appeal was made at his school for volunteers to work in Kosovo.
"The first schools in Kosovo were opened after the First World War, because before that Kosovo-Albanians didn't have the right to have their schools," explained Gjevori.
He also talked about the hardships he faced living in Kosovo, mainly caused by the Serb secret service at the time.
"I had it tough during Rankovic's time," said Gjevori. "They didn't treat us, teachers from Albania, right. The Serb secret service was always suspicious towards us; they even prevented us from going home to Albania."
Gjevori said that the Serb secret service accused him of nationalism and of spreading nationalistic ideas among Kosovo pupils.
Among other things, he also explained why the "gheg" dialect was not included in standard Albanian.
"It was then a decision made by Enver Hoxha. People didn't dare to share their opinions or suggestions to include the 'gheg' dialect in standard Albanian," said Gjevori. "No one had the right to disagree with the party."
Gjevori also revealed during the interview interesting details about his personal life, such as his first love and his marriage.
At the beginning of 2010 BIRN network published Digging Deeper - A Guide for Investigative Journalists in the Balkans, written in cooperation with Sheila Coronel, Director of the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism and professor of professional practice at Columbia University, New York.
