Kosovo won't send Albanian books to Valley students

Kosovo has not taken any steps towards resolving the problem of students in the Valley regarding textbooks.

This has been acknowledged by the minister of education, who has said that despite all their wishes and desires, he has not been willing to make a decision to send his books to the border.

In his report to the Commission for Education, Science and Technology, Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Fatmir Bytyqi has said they have been able to create opportunities for sending textbooks to the municipality of the Valley but have not succeeded.

After being asked by Vetevendosje deputy Arberia Nagavci about having done something about sending books there, Bytyqi has said she doesn't want to make a show by letting the books stay on the border.

The only hope now for students there, for whom Albanian textbooks are very necessary, is Tirana.

The minister has said he is awaiting an answer from the Albanian capital to see the possibility that books send to the Valley from Albania.

“Tacts in the Presevo Valley, beyond will, desire and what I would have been able to talk about with emotion and patriotism, but in practice I'm not the person who wants to show, to be sure it doesn't show, we haven't taken a step because we haven't been able to take steps to send books to these communities that have been very necessary. I wasn't willing to make a decision so that the books could stay at the border for a long period of time and then pay only costs. So I didn't want to make a show, we tried to find alternatives, we didn't, we didn't succeed. We are in talks with Tirana as well, if we have any chance that through Tirana these books will go, if even through Tirana we will not arrive, unfortunately because of political problems, we will not be able to send out the books”, the minister said Bytyqi.

And for that, he said they are willing to co-operate in any form with Tirana, helping at cost and whatever else is required.

Among other things, in this report, the minister has also cited depoliticisation of schools in Kosovo.

He hopes to find agreement with the Central Election Commission, and through an administrative directive, it will be decided that school directors are no longer involved in election processes.

We'll find a consensus that I believe is easy to get through with the CEC, so school principals never get to school management points on election day, so leave the election process, and every school principal has no role in the election process. I consider that they are the first steps towards what we have consistently declared to be the process of depoliticising schools in Kosovo”, the minister said.

Bytyqi has also announced the start of the implementation of the teaching profile project, which according to him is one of the biggest achievements.

“We have started for the first time in Kosovo, the performance of teachers, with September 29th, has begun the teaching performance measure project, we have made public information about the start of this project and are constantly in touch with the Inspector's director about how the start of this important project is going and so far we have not been having any problems”, Bytyqi said.

Among other things, the minister indicated that the school year 2017/18 has been completed as regular and without any problems, meanwhile, said the new year has begun in order except 9 schools that, according to him, start teaching late due to renovations.

And for that, he said they would make compensation for lost hours.

MP Ishmael Kurteshi expressed his concerns about the situation in private colleges, where he said they register students outside the legal deadline.

According to the minister, colleges that register students outside the legal deadline are not considered registered by August.

Bytyqi has said he expects early 2019 to be part of the European Quality Safety Record for Higher Education (EQAR).