Bytyqi: There is no reason for strike, we won't agree to damage the learning process

Annie, why are there expected to be teachers' strike in Kosovo, it will not be held and the lesson will begin on Monday, September 3rd. Minister of Education, Science and Technology says there is no reason for strike and that they refuse to hurt the learning process.

In an interview for KosovoPress, Minister Fatmir Bytyqi has talked about problems in education, among other things, the challenge of integrating Serb majority schools into the education system of the Republic of Kosovo.

The United Education, Science and Culture Union had warned strike for this September if the 90s Teaching Law is not adopted, and unless the teaching bill is amended for teaching salaries.

But days earlier the SBASK announced that the lesson will begin on September 3rd and that they will expect the institutions responsible to realise their demands.

For Minister Fatmir Bytyqi there is no reason for strike, and according to him, problems should be solved by being discussed at official levels and then made decisions.

I think there's no reason to strike, interrupt or damage the education system, or direct injury of students, because our young people are not to blame and we cannot for certain purposes to harm our young people. The reason to have a strike is zero, I consider that we will by no means accept a strike or to damage the learning process because there is no reason for this”, he says.

The SBASK had demanded that the primary school teacher's cofficient be 2.5, and that in the 2.7th high school. Happily, Bytyqi says that the issue of the cofficiency and wages is also a concern to the ministry, and that they are making efforts to provide teachers with such good stimulus conditions.

No teacher will have a lower salary than what he currently has, without talking to numbers or divisions of the cofficiency, having no salary, no lower teacher's salary than he has, is there going to be higher cofficiators what we're doing, we specifically in discussing the wage bill we've sent our comments and given our suggestions and remarks. Our suggestions and remarks have been very reasonable and we expect to reflect the Ministry of Administration, however, until the government's decision”, he says.

Kosovo's minister of education has told Preress that they are ready to begin the new school year on Monday, which has been decided on schedule for the 2018/19 school year, and that they are in the final phase of distributing textbooks.

He acknowledges that problems in the education system in Kosovo are numerous, including the lack of school objects initially, then that of labs and other concrete means.

Happily Bytyqi, while acknowledging that he is aware of the many problems in the education system in Kosovo, adds that it is impossible for the same ones to be resolved in a short time term.

According to him, the situation will begin to improve with the start of a performance measurement application. And this will be done by the beginning of this school year, where they aim to increase their commitment by measuring the performance of teachers and to be more responsible.

However, a budget what is set apart for the Ministry of Education is not enough.

If we succeed in having a very good budget that we now have, normally considering the problems that Kosovo budget has, we will have much easier opportunity to address problems even for labs or other concrete tools in schools. What we currently have with us, and have done, we have put into strategic investments that are issues that are investment done by the European Community for the Western Balkans, among the main points we have introduced investments for labs and concrete tools of schools”, he says.

The challenge remained the integration of Serbs into Kosovo education, when it is known that many Serb majority schools -- especially those in the northern part of the country where it is refused to work according to the education system of the Republic of Kosovo.

It was foreordained the formation of a national-level commission to find the solution to this problem that would result in the introduction of all schools in the education system in Kosovo, but that had never happened.

We will soon send the application to Government to form a national commission, and then this commission takes concrete steps towards realising this problem so that solutions can be found and any school in Kosovo can work with Kosovo's educational system. It's not easy, we know the problems, but we shouldn't stop trying to realise even this issue, which is within the competencies and efforts the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has to make, he says.

The next problem in education in Kosovo are inadequate textbooks.

And since it has been noted that there is a lack of literal texts and in compliance with the new curriculum that applies to Kosovo territory, Bytyqi says they have made public declarations for new texts.

According to him, the second announcement will be made in early September, and by January the handover of manuscripts by authors and publishing houses for new texts will be available.