The municipalities will decide to restore students to schools

The Ministry of Education and Science has prepared three different scenarios for the start of the new school year on September 1st, while implementation of guidelines depends on municipal education directorates.

Restitutions into school environments, combined learning and learning from different platforms, or as scenario A, B and C, are options that can be implemented by municipalities depending on space in school objects and the epidemiological situation in the country, says Enver Osdautaj, senior political adviser to the cabinet of Minister of Education and Science (MASH).

The Ministry of Education, Osdautaj says, in the first plan, has a return to school facilities, and maximum preparation is being made for the lesson to begin regularly. But, however, the learning process, according to him, will continue based on recommendations from health institutions for protection from COVIED-19 disease, which causes Coronavirus.

“Anyway, if they (the municipal directors) correctly respect instructions given by the National Public Health Institute (IKSHPK) and if they adhere to the instructions the Ministry of Education gave them, municipalities may start the scenario A. But, of the big municipalities that are challenging, we assume the situation with pandemic, then it could be scenario B, combined. We're trying to start a scenario A. But where there are even greater challenges, B can be reached, there is no exception for C, but less is popular for us. But we also have this option”, Osdautaj says.

What are the scenarios for the new school year?

Scene A foresees instruction with presence in pre-school institutions and schools, implementing health authorities' recommendations for safeguard clauses against COVID-19. Defense measures are wearing masks, respecting distance, and maintaining personal hygiene.

Scene B has to do with partial recovery (combined teaching ] presence and learning in distance). In this option, priority is classes 1 through 5, where it is projected to have the maximum number in class of 10 students, reduced schedules, and online supplementary instruction.

As for scenario C envisions lessons from distance through broadcasting of lessons recorded on public television.

School institutions in Kosovo have been closed since March 12th, following measures the Kosovo Government had taken to prevent the spread of the coronary. Then the Ministry of Education decided to continue teaching from a distance. For 1-9 classrooms, instruction has been accomplished through broadcasts of classes recorded on public television, as well as through the Ministry of Education channel on YouTube. While high school level, distance learning has developed decentralisedly, where teachers were the main carriers.

City hall options for combined learning

Some of the municipal directors are preferring combined learning, and some have not made any decisions if, because of the epidemiological situation, a return to school objects is impossible.

Xhemile Thaci -Vevzhasi, director of the Prizren municipality's Education and Science Directorate, shows that they are in the final phase of preparations for the start of the new school year but have not taken any stance on which scenario will be implemented.

She says the Prizren municipality numbers about 30,000 students and is willing to implement any scenarios.

Well, given the pandemic situation, then maybe we should combine these scenarios, so that we can get as well in this direction”, Thaci-Venzies told Radio Free Europe.

Meanwhile, the director of the Education, Science and Technology Directorate, in the Gjakova municipality, Bernard Frokaj, the municipality that numbers over 17 thousand students, says that in Gjakova it is impossible to separate from 10 students in one class because of lack of school objects, but in rural areas, he says, in some cases combined learning can happen because the number of students is much smaller. Despite that, he says no concrete decision has been made yet.

<x0m>Problem may not be implementing protective measures for COVID 19 inside school, but the problem may also be presented as coming and going out of school because we cannot manage, how they will behave, whether they will remain in groups or how. So we consider that it is still an unpleasant position to make a concrete decision”, Frokaj said.

The director of the Education and Culture Directorate in the Istog municipality, Hajrush Shoshi, in a conversation for Radio Free Europe, says preparations for the start of the new school year have begun, but according to him, the actual possibilities are for learning to start together.

The total number of students in this municipality in pre-university education is estimated to be 7,100.

We have a problem sharing out of 10 students in class. Even if we have space, we don't have teachers, it's a problem to organize this way. Thus, combined learning can develop, a number of students come to school, while the other half are online in teaching. The arrival of students to school will become more rotating”, Shoshi said.

Otherwise, Radio Free Europe has also made efforts to talk to Pristina municipality officials, where it estimates it is the largest number of students, but they have not been ready for an answer to the issue.

Remote learning or learning combined will affect declining quality education

Even experts on education issues say that if epidemiological conditions do not allow for return to school, then combined learning may be more effective than long-term learning, which has been imposed on students by the measures taken in March by the Kosovo Government for preventing the spread of corruption.

Dukagjin Pupovci, head of the Kosovo Education Centre, tells Radio Free Europe that even the combined learning option cannot bring quality and accomplish the right goals, however, this has been mandatory even at a global level.

I think this can be more effective, if there's a chance that that the group that stays at home will also work something, respectively, get the duties given. Not to get one week to work one group and the other to be in vain, and then next week to change. But to create a combination between these groups. The best way to do it would have been to make transmission through various platforms, says Pupovci.

Otherwise, Minister of Education and Science Ram Likaj, during a meeting with leaders of the United Trade Union for Education, Science and Culture, has informed of three possible options for the start of the new school year.

The SBASK chairman, the Jasharaj Beatery, has said that any decision concerning the start of the new school year is not easy and that it requires engagement, not only of the UN, the Municipal Education Directors, (DKA) and SBASK, but also of all central and local institutions.

Otherwise, opposition parties, the Vetevendosje Movement and the Democratic Party of Kosovo have criticised the government -- namely, the Ministry of Education -- for failing to publish a concrete plan for starting the new school year.

In fact, the Vetevendosje Movement parliamentary group has handed over in the Kosovo Parliamentary Assembly the application for intervention to the Minister of Education in terms of the situation in the education system, plans and preparations for the start of the new school year. / REL/.