Insufficient budgets to Reform Education

The education ministry acknowledges the planned budget for Kosovo's education sector is insufficient.

The director of the Finance Department at the Ministry of Education, Murtez Zekoli, told Radio Kosovo that the education sector is scheduled to allocate about 54m euros, which would have an increase compared to last year's 16 per cent. He said this budget covers only basic education policies in Kosovo, but not all plans dealing with reforms for a better education.

This budget does not cover all needs. Since we also receive donations from donors, we have support, but the future is uncertain, because no one can know how many donors can express interest and willingness to support the budgeting of education in Kosovo”, Zekoli has said.

He said that priority projects of the Ministry of Education, both international and national estimates, can hardly be covered with the shared budget. He also disclosed that one of the main priorities is the establishment of the Agency for Education and Currica, amounting to about 2m euros.

“The Priory for Rating, Standard and Monitoring Division is the foundation of the Centre and it has turned out to be around 800 thousand euros, tools that we don't have. Above all, the STAT priority is the establishment of the Agency for Education and Currica, which totals about 2m euros for operating”, Murtez said.

Even connoisseurs of education issues say this budget is not enough for all reforms under the quality of education.

Youth Kehaja, said this budget does not correspond to the necessity for investments that should be made in education.

The “is on a huge scale with all those strategies and with all that education investment rhetoric made by August itself. I have the impression that we are in a situation where through this budget most of it intended for salaries and operational spending, rather than a capital investment that would bring changes to the system”, Qehaja said.

He added that this budget would have to be doubled to start changes to the education system.

Meanwhile, the director of the Finance Department at the Ministry of Education, Murtez Zecoll, also said that to have development in the education sector, it would take the budget to be around 100m euros.