Pupovci points to Kosovo education failure

Radio Free Europe: Mr. Pupovci, the education system in Kosovo, ranging from primary and to higher education, from different local and international reports, is estimated not at the right level. Why is such a situation?

Dukagjin Pupovci: I think that as for the post-war period, the problem lies in the fact that in Kosovo a system that reflects responsibility and accountability is not achieved, and that is seen at all levels. Lack of responsibility and accountability has caused planning to not apply throughout these years. For example, Kosovo has had strategic education development documents sometime in 2002 and those documents are regularly updated, but implementation has not been appropriate, and even less has been responsible for not implementing them.

Lack of quality in higher education has been identified as a problem since 2004, when only the University of Pristina existed, and a very small number of private institutions of higher education have since been a definition, at least on paper and approved by the Government, to work towards improving quality. However, instead of working to improve quality, dozens of private institutions and six other public institutions of higher education have also opened up, bringing a massiveisation of this sector.

The same can be said for the decentralisation of education, which has been talked about much by the middle of the first decade of this century and specifically is implemented with the Ahtisaari Plan, when the Law for Education in the municipalities has brought a high-scale decentralisation. And now, we note that in municipalities primarily employment is not done on the basis of quality criteria, but is done on the basis of political, party, and so on, and the same is true of school principals' appointments.

All of this has made us have a system that doesn't reflect accountability and when there is no accountability, there can be no success.

Radio Free Europe: For the second time in Kosovo, the International Programme for assessment of Students known as PISA is expected to be held. The first time Kosovo showed very poor results. What are your predictions for the next test?

Dukagjin Pupovci: I don't expect any major change, because PISA for its nature reflects the students' ability to apply its knowledge in practice and our education system has not prepared children to the proper extent that the knowledge they gain in school, such as reading, mathematics and science, applies to practical life, and that's why PISA failed in 2015, when Kosovo participated for the first time.

She was the generation of children born in 1999 who are now students, already this time, we will have children born in 2002, so actually P The ISA will reflect the outcome of their entire completed schooling and is not something students can prepare for for a month or three months.

I think this generation has little difference from the past generation in the fact that it started schooling in 2008 when technology was at the highest level of development. These are supposed to have used technology more than the previous generation, the textbooks have had them for free, the school infrastructure has been better, and this could affect a rise in outcome, but it doesn't mean that the result has been raised that it worked better with them. The result will be raised in other states as well, because they too have such improvements and in international rankings Kosovo does not believe it will distinguish much of the place it was three years ago.

Radio Free Europe: The interest in enrolling in higher education in Kosovo has multiplied in recent years, until there is a lack of the number of students in professional schools. Why is there a hesitation in youth profiles and professions?

Dukagjin Pupovci: But first it depends on what we offer students in professional schools. Some 60 percent of the profiles offered in professional schools are in the field of economics, justice, business, health professions, which are not about what we perceive as professional schooling, but are not about skills. And it is true that the number of those who are oriented in these trades that are easier to employ is small because they are not working enough with students in terms of career counseling and not pointing to employment opportunities that they have after finishing schools.

Then the quality of the work in those schools is not always good, and very often students end up finishing their secondary professional schooling and trade and still not being able to do work.

While the labour market lacks good electrolytics, agiustrators, good water-installers. This is a defect, too, of our education system.

Radio Free Europe: How many students manage to prepare themselves for the job market after completing their studies?

Dukagjin Pupovci: Businesses in Kosovo complain from two aspects: as in terms of technical skills, which should be gained during schooling and complain in terms of soft skills, such as the ability to make decisions, to reson critically, as well as communication ability.

Interestingly, business surveys show that they (businesss) are much better prepared to work with the new framework on improving technical skills than on improving soft skills, because technical skills have more to do with how a person does a job, and that is where one is trained in a short period of time. But when it comes to soft skills, it takes a longer time, and that's where the education system has a role since the early elementary classes, because children, students then need to face the challenges of critical thinking, the challenges of making decisions. If this is cultivated during schooling and part of the family, employment is certainly easier even at work.

Radio Free Europe: Finally, the European Book Committee for High Education Security of Quality has ruled out Kosovo Agency for Accreditation. The result?

Dukagjin Pupovci: This can cause great consequences. In addition to the exemption from the registry, we are now threatened to be expelled from the European Association of Quality Insurance Agencys. On April 17th or 18th, they have the annual meeting and have warned they could take a stand-by measure against the Agency of Discension. These days are telling us that Kosovo can also leave the European Frame of Qualifications, which means that Kosovo's qualifications will have a lot of difficulty getting recognized in European countries, in particular in European Union countries rather than in other countries, as now the qualifications are widely recognised on the basis of the membership of the Agency of Discension in these other organs and on the basis of the fact that the Kosovo Qualification Frame is referred to in the European Framework of Qualification.

Thus, this may also cause difficulties for jobseekers who go to Europe, but it can also cause difficulties for young people who want to continue their studies in European educational institutions.

Meanwhile, the consequence in Kosovo is that at the moment we don't have an Accreditation Agency, so we don't have a functional agency, and if the State Quality Council, or Agency Board, is not quickly functioning, then a large number of institutions and higher education programmes will remain uncensed.

Pupovci: The new curriculum has started without textbooks and equipment

Radio Free Europe: Professor, you stressed many problems in the education system in Kosovo. How can Kosovo emerge from this poor state of education?

Dukagjin Pupovci: If we do not apply our plans for improvement, there is no way to improve. Education is a complex area and must be worked in many areas. Governments are usually preferring to work in the field of infrastructure, which is easier. Now from last year's story, the new Kosovo curriculum has begun to be implemented, but there are no textbooks, so it has started to be implemented without textbooks. There probably won't even be textbooks next year for the curriculum. Two generations are being followed without textbooks. Where are the classroom concrete tools, computers, technological equipment all are envisioned in the plan, so it wasn't right to implement the new curriculum without being done.

Kurrikla envisions career counseling in all schools. Where are career advisers, where's the training for them, where's the budget? If this isn't done, normally after five years we're going to have the same problems, once again our young people are unprepared, they're still not going to do business, but they're going in health.

So all of this requires action. I think that in Kosovo in the first place there is no action, and this case is not only in education, it happens in other sectors, so we have this impasse, and after 19 post-war years we continue to be the poorest country in Europe.