Class with a student

The second class has none, while others have between two and four students.

Each year there is a decline in the number [of students]. The school is the most silent”, says director Qamille Gashi.

When she took that position in 2015, she shows that her school had 60 students today is 19.

There's no competition in class, there's not enough friends. They look forward to coming vacation or any activity so they can meet together”, Gashi tells Free Europe Radio.

Six miles [6 km] from Kechkolla, with about 120 inhabitants, is the mountainous village of Assica, populated by over 150 inhabitants.

At the school started there “Witnesses 1921”, 12 students follow.

According to director Fatmir Zzdrela, classrooms ranging from first to ninth have mostly one student, in just a few cases out of two.

Education experts say that the decline in the number of students, especially in rural areas, has become a phenomenon in recent years.

Nehat Mustafa, from the Centre for Advanced Education in Kosovo, says it happens as a result of abandoning villages and international migration.

According to Kosovo Statistics Agency data, the number of students in primary education has dropped from over 247 000, as it was in the 2017/2018 school year to over 220 thousand in the 2022/2023 school year.

ASC's 2021 data shows that 7,363 residents have changed residence within Kosovo mostly from villages to cities, while over 42 thousand have emigrated .C. to European Union countries.

Mustafa says educational institutions should find forms for non-companied school students to be accommodated in other schools, due to, as he says, socialism, the quality of education and competition.

According to him, following the teachings of the almost empty classroom leaves great consequences for students.

The children of these areas are certainly far behind their peers at schools, where instruction is organized in a regular manner and where competition is greater. Because, otherwise, competition is in a classroom with 15-20 or more students”, Mustafa tells Radio Free Europe.

This problem is imminent and Radio Free Europe asked the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and innovation (MASHTI) if it identified schools with fewer students and if it plans to fix them, but did not receive concrete answers.

In 2021, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Kosovo, GAP, has published a report with data from 19 municipalities. According to them, 340 classes in Kosovo have had five and fewer students, while 642 classes have had fewer than ten students.

At the time, Agron Demi, from this institute, has told Radio Free Europe that Kamenica, Vitita, Rahoveci, Dragashi and Decani have suffered the biggest decline in the number of students, as a result of the decline in nighthood and migration.

Mustafa, from the Centre for Advanced Education in Kosovo, says there are cases when schools with fewer students join different classes in one. This, according to him, is not effective - as much as the delivery of students to schools in the nearest areas where they would be able to attend peer classes.

Asked about the possibility of networking schools, the Ministry of Education told the REL in a written answer that “has made an analysis of schools with fewer students” and has formed a “working group consisting of representatives of municipalities, schools and parents” to deal with the issue.

How this team has come up with estimates is not clear.

In 2019, the Kamenica municipality in eastern Kosovo has closed 19 schools from 29 as long as it has, due to a small number of students.

In classrooms where there are fewer than 15 students, group teaching with students is difficult to organize. The small number of students also managed to socialize and learn from peer interaction”, is said in the reasoning of the municipality, which the world was led by Central Kastrati.

School students closed to Kamenica have been sent to other schools with transportation organised by the municipality.

For similar reasons, in 2018 the Crenasis Town has closed three schools in three villages.

The education director in the Drina municipality, Muhamet Gjota, tells Radio Free Europe that two more schools in two villages in this municipality are expected to be closed.

As a reason for this decision, he mentions the small number of students, the large number of teachers, and the maintenance costs.

With the Law on Local Self-government, municipalities are eligible for decision making in terms of primary and medium-sized public education, and in the context of this composition can reshuffle it. By law, transportation is also secure.

In the Kosovo Trade Union for Education, Science and Culture (SBASHK) agree that in schools with small numbers of students, the quality of education is not satisfactory.

But Chairman Nundman Jasharaj says solving this problem requires physical analysis.

“in this analysis must take part in all key factors, MARY, SBASK, parents and others, in order to find an acceptable solution. Because, it's a sensitive issue and decisions should be made jointly in favor of students, but thinking of employees in the education sector”, Jasharaj says.

According to Statistics Agency data, Kosovo has over 300,000 students continuing primary and secondary schooling in over 1,000 schools.

The quality of education in the country's pre-university system has also been frequently criticised by international institutions.

In a report published by the World Bank in 2020, it has been said that students in Kosovo “have a major impasse in learning”.

In two PISA tests, an international student evaluation programme, Kosovo is almost at the end of the world list.