The student shows how he prepared for the PISA test

E.S. (known name for editing) is one of five thousand 15-year-old students, who, in April last year, have submitted to an international education quality assessment programme known in February PISA.

On this test, Kosovo is lined up twice at the bottom of the list of participating countries.

The student E.S, who has already been 17 years and follows in the 12th grade with excellent success at the level of higher education in Kosovo, tells of Radio Free Europe, that about a month before the test they have made preparations and held supplementary hours with professors of relevant subjects.

He says they had a brochure. with some questions from preliminary tests. PISA's.

P The ISA, the world's largest international education study, has made appreciation for the knowledge of 15-year-old reading, mathematics and science students.

Parapraly, about a month we've made preparations for each subject with the respective professors. We've kept two or three extra hours besides normal classes. We've been notified about the questions, with the test format actually. We've been informed of how computer tests are conducted because we don't have computer tests at school, except technology. There was an organization, well we were well informed of the format and importance of the test, but the result is this... ”, E.S. said.

He tells about some of the questions since test P. ISA 2018 had to be fulfilled.

I don't actually remember questions, but shapes. For example, there are several questions behind the English subject, reading the text, and showing meaning or relating to a character. Mathematics have followed more logical questions”, he says.

The only difference in international assessment, according to him, has been that the test has developed in digital form.

Besides technology and any projects we prepare, such as subjects, chemistry, physics and biology, we don't have computers in school for everyday use. This has been something new, not very interesting because we use computers in everyday life for our needs, but as a testing process it has been different because (in Kosovo) it doesn't become a test with computers”, he said.

And Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Bytyqi discipleOn Tuesday, it has said that one of the reasons for this poor outcome could be related to the fact that student participation in the test was done in digital form.

The students' preparations in Kosovo have started after identifying student participants in the test. Coordinator of P ISA in high school “Sami Frasher”, Zeqiri Zylfiu in a conversation for Radio Free Europe, shows that originally all the names of students 15 and then, P ISA chooses the names of students and sends lists to school.

He says about a month earlier, the Ministry of Education received a brochure with various questions Tests of previous years.

And then the names of the students were taken were the brochures that were assigned to the students, where they were asking PISA preliminary tests, and then they were assigned to their respective school professors who worked with the chosen students. After students and teachers of the respective subjects have been assigned, they have kept extra hours, beyond school hours, and preparation has gone smoothly, as before. Questions have been from everyday life, not questions learned in the learning process. Their questions and forms that were in the brochures from P The ISA, they were different from what we learn, but it doesn't mean that much of what we work with students” has been removed, Zylfo said.

Students International Rating Program, Known by Short P The ISA, 2018, has ranked Kosovo 77th in the midst of 79 states that have submitted to that assessment, ranking third from the bottom. Kosovo in this test has left only the Dominican Republic and the Philippines behind.

But what is student E. S, test participants, after publishing the results.

I can't say I'm disappointed, but I'm desperate, because you feel part of the guilt as a direct participant in the test. But this is a call for a wake-up call, to work for the future. In my position, I am desperate with the result, but not disappointed in this case by myself, as it is not only the result of mine”, he said.

Over five thousand 15-year-old students from more than 200 schools have submitted to Kosovo's assessment of 2018.

According to the PISA 2018 report, colleges have reached higher levels on the test than professional schools. If Kosovo's average performance is compared to countries in the region, according to the report, the average performance of 15-year-olds in Kosovo is low, compared to other countries and economies participating in reading, mathematics and science. When the performance comparison in Kosovo is made with other countries and economies in the Balkans, it is seen that other Balkan countries perform best in all three areas.

If the read gap between Kosovo (352) and North Macedonia (383) is drawn, the gap is 40 points. In math the gap between Kosovo (36th) and North Macedonia (384) is 38 points. In science, however, the gap between Kosovo (35) and the following Balkan country in alignment -- Bosnia and Herzegovina -- (398) is slightly smaller, 34 points.

Kosovo has for the first time been part of this assessment in 2015, when even then it has shown poor results. At that world, Kosovo is ranked 68th, among the 72 countries that have participated in the test.