Bill for Education Workers of the 1990s Urged

Members of this commission have declared they are not competent to review this bill and that financial experts' assistance, including the Ministry of Finance, Labour and Education, is needed.

For the latter three, the commission has decided to give them until Monday to report on the number of beneficiaries and financial costs, and it has also forced them to attend each meeting of this commission when the bill is considered.

The chairman of this commission, Ismajl Kurteshi, said they need financial experts to guide them, what is the best way to review the bill.

The law we have before us is about the teachers, but the dough is the finance, which means we're the Education Commission, but to deal with something that exactly is finance, we're going to need the active support of people who are experts on these issues. They haven't answered us enough, but I think with a special request in our next job we have to impose the two ministries, except for education and the social welfare work, to come and be part of our work. And especially so that we have precise information so that we know the number of people who would be beneficial and then we could get into this business”, he said.

Even Social Democrat Party deputy Driton Caushi saw as problematic that this bill was left to the Parliamentary Commission for Education, when, according to him, it concerns a more financial issue.

This issue under discussion does not belong to the Education Commission. We can serve as a commission that can provide a moral judgment, perhaps regarding the need for compensation of educational workers, but this issue is up to financial experts. However, we have had the opportunity to hear something and for me it is not clear that there is a clarity within this law or within the institutions of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo that this law does not constitute any burden and does not represent the future sustainability of the Kosovo Republic's budget. I am quoting the finance ministry representative, who had no assurance of the value or cost of this law. He said the value would amount to over 30m euros in the next two years. We had major remarks from the World Bank on the responsibility we receive if we pass this law for the future and the sustainability of Kosovo's” budget, he said.

While member of this commission from the AAK ranks, Teuta Haxhiu has criticised the Ministry of Finance for failing to bring written comments on the bill, though he had criticised it in the preliminary review.

When we don't have comments from the relevant ministries that are constantly talking about the high cost of this law and we're not really convinced of what they're saying, they haven't personally convinced me, but even now they're showing that they're not serious in the sense that nothing written has brought to the commission. It was also required by the Ministry of Education to bring them the correct data that is factual, that is very easy to bring to the commission, how many teachers benefit this year in the next year have been planning for three years. August had to bring this data, but unfortunately they didn't. So to know exactly what that number is in each of the years that the bill is also planned. So the precise data of what they're teaching is, then the Ministry of Ias and Social Goods with their data on how many of them are benefiting”, she said.

On the other hand, MP Nezir Chocaj said the involvement of many categories of education workers as beneficiaries of benefits outside the teacher category is problematic.

I don't consider that certain categories, especially in the rights and benefits that are ahead of this first reading bill, I think we should focus solely on the education sector, not the other sectors. The contributions have all been made, but now they are also looking for welfare students who were there. No one can compare to teachers from that period”, he said.

Otherwise, in order for the commission to proceed with review, data will have to be expected about the number of beneficiaries from the three ministries involved in the bill, where until Monday the commission has been given deadlines to continue.