BB: Pandemia turns Kosovo into its 2015 level

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the educational system will have a negative impact, both on the short term and on the long term.

Economic revenues will suffer decline and the gap in teaching will increase.

The countries of the Western Balkans have each responded in their way to the break of learning, each offering different teaching modalities at a distance.

Despite rapid action, however, the damage to schooling will be inevitable and considerable.

This means that there will be an increase in the number of students left behind in school or that they will leave school entirely.

It is supposed that literacy disability will increase from 53 per cent to 61 per cent.

Even before Pandemia started spreading-19, education in the Western Balkans faced difficulties.

One cannot say that they offer skills that the labour market needs.

Reviewing Test Results P ISA 2018 shows 53% of students do not acquire skills that are necessary for the job market.

Over 78% of 15-year-olds in Kosovo -- and over 50% in Albania, Northern Macedonia and Montenegro -- are virtually illiterate (at level 2 of skills according to the PISA standard).

Due to pandemic, average scores may fall short-term, turning some countries into the level that was last seen in 2015.

If an average student takes 40 points in PISA during a year of school, and schools are closed for four months, and there is no distance learning, that means teaching in the Western Balkans will drop to 16 points in PISA.

With a similar scenario, but with distance learning, the average decreases by 9 points in PISA, since it's supposed that distance learning is not as effective as the one at school.

For Kosovo, this means it will drop to a lower level than it had in 2015 (347 points). For Albania, it is projected to be approximately at the level of 2012.

Shutting down schools will highlight even more the huge inequality in learning

The difference between the success of rich and poor students is now estimated at 1.5 years of schooling in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo (66 points in PISA).

Experiences from previous recession show that when the state budget suffers shocks, this is reflected in student spending.

Education systems in the Western Balkans need to spend more caution, but countries like Albania and Kosovo also need to invest more in their educational systems.

The budget for education should be adequate, to ensure the minimum conditions for coping with additional expenses after COVID-19 pandemic.

Expenses will be essential to ensure that students take the lead in learning, and further educational inequality will be prevented.