Women Take Over Education

According to the year-old Kosovo Statistics Agency, middle-school elementary education teachers total 10,475 women teaching, while there are 7,780 men.

Meanwhile, in primary education there are 580 women's educators, yet no man.

Jehona Oruqi, director of primary school “Faik Konica” in Pristina. Oruqi tells Radio Free Europe that in the school she leads, women dominate the education of new generations.

There are 63 teachers in our school, 56 are teaching and only 7 teachers - male. Female gender is very important to be in the education process, but we would encourage new generations not only to be taught but also in decision-making positions”, Oruqi says.

Sebahate Canolli, a teacher of the art of music, works for 27 years in education. In 1993 she started working in high school “Germany's Doda” in Pristina. She says that in the years she started working, the situation has not been what it is today.

If we take into account the time 27 years ago, when I started working, the male gender dominated, maybe it was the circumstances and the situation which affected the number of men being present. Meanwhile, the situation has changed after the war. Now we have more women who dominate the education of future generations. Co-operation is at the level, like then, but even now”, Cannolly said.

While the low level of education is being dominated by employed women, whether as educators, teachers, or educators, Dea Ferati, a student, says the profession has no gender and has decided to choose information technology for studies.

When I completed high school, my family has given me an option to choose education as a profession. But that direction, not that I don't like, but I haven't found myself there. The main reason they said so (family), is that most in this profession are women, there is also prolonged rest, and such reasons”, Ferati says.

But I chose the Faculty of Information Technology because I like it. Although most in this profession are male, it has not stopped me from continuing my dream. I am now in the second year and have already started working offers”, she said.

Luljeta Demolli, executive director at the Kosovar Centre for Gender Studies, told Radio Free Europe that the profession-sharing mentality must change. She considers gender discrimination female employment only in specific sectors.

This indicates a lot that this country has not been taken seriously to change roles and to decide perhaps for male teachers and women in other professions. This should change, first in our families”, Demoll says.

The biggest number of women's teachers... is that teachers play an extension of the role of the mother they have at home with the children, and that's been contacting our society because they feel more comfortable that their children are in the hands of women, because education goes on and there's no difference to home”, Demoll said.

Statistics for 2019 show that in Kosovo, girls and women are interested in schooling and employment just as much as men and boys are. However, their employment rate, especially in top leadership positions, according to the GAP Institute, remains very low compared to men. These differences are especially expressed at the central level.

In addition to leading positions, the degree of employed women remains lower than men. While the rate of unemployment in men was 22.8 percent in 2019, lower than in 2018, the rate of unemployment in women was 32.7 percent, higher than in 2018.

As long as unemployment has occurred in men, the opposite has occurred in women. And on the other hand, women's interest in finding a job is almost the same level as that of men. /rel