Small salaries: Kosovo teachers use free immigration holidays

Medical and free vacations have become a way for Kosovo teachers to test the deportation to European countries by not jeopardising the workplace in Kosovo. Officials and educational unionists say this phenomenon can become popular even more after visa liberalisation for Kosovo.

With great love for color, master's degree in painting, and 16 years of work experience as a teacher in Kosovo's Drenas Community, Bekim Istog left to start a new life in Germany.

Annie was very fond of his profession, and Istog had been persuaded to leave this career in early 2022.

Because of this, it was the low wages he received at that time, about 420 euros a month, and there was a risk of landing even further after his number decreased.

“ ...it should be 20 hours a week to get a full [full] salary as we got it then. I fell to 15, [becomes] a very small salary”, Istog tells Radio Free Europe.

In recent years, Kosovo has faced a steady decline in the number of students, creating in some countries the surplus of teachers.
Before leaving his job, Bekim worked at three different schools in the villages of Drenas to reach the required number of classes.

In three schools to travel, I was paid in oil more”, he recalls.

As a solution, he saw a company of his family in Germany that deals with the design of interior and outside buildings.

He was contracted to work as a color selector and managed to obtain a working visa as a certified professional.

“I have nominated my diploma, I have become a degree recognition, and I have gone directly to the [German] Embassy, and within two weeks I have received visas”, he says.

Besides procedures for migration, bliss also took time to test whether life and new work in Germany would be adjusted. He wanted to do so by not risking his job in Kosovo immediately.

I, actually, took a medical vacation and came right here, saw that it was worth staying and... I called the principal and told him that my place [of work] should be released”, says Bekim.

He shows that he received a one - year break with free health reasoning, but he says that he cannot remember how long after taking the vacation, he informed his employer that he would not return.

About a year and a half after his migration, Istog joined his family in Germany with his two sons, one 12 and four years old.

His wife also worked as an educator with the pre-level children in Drenas. She, as Istog put it, did not take medical rest but just quit her job of joining in Germany.

“It's been hard to manage [in Kosovo], for example, to think more about the future. Raising children requires schooling, clothing, and other”, he says.

The blessing, which in 2018, had received recognition at the municipal level in Drenas as the distinguished teacher, says that the great drive for migration has also been the lack of public health insurance in Kosovo.

Bekim says that at the time of his migration, he was not the only one who had used the method of using rest to get out of the country.

The United Trade Union for Education, Science and Culture in Kosovo has raised this phenomenon as a concern.

Beftman Jasharaj, chairman of this union, says they have unofficial information that the number of education workers in Kosovo who have made a one-year break requirement totals up to 300.

“Probably some of them have other commitments, but there is fear in us that a large part of them can experience fate abroad or in other sectors within Kosovo. And if they find themselves, they will not return to the educational system”, says Jasharaj.

In Kosovo, local governments in municipalities are official employers of teachers, and municipal education directors deal with recruiting and approval of teachers' holidays.

Free Europe Radio has submitted requests for information across all municipalities, but a large part have not responded to this request.

In the Drenas municipality, according to official data, during the year 2023 alone, 16 teachers and other education workers have sought free holidays from one month to one year. Meanwhile, in Podujevo and Dragash have been given five holidays.

During 2023, Besnik Hulait, director of education in the Decani municipality, received six free rest requests. Official reasoning was a career promotion.

However, according to Hulay, the educators could not prove this reasoning enough, so their requests were denied. Hulaj says their real reason was migration.

“Different say so or otherwise in writing... So, the reason was migration, because this is a small place and we know each other... but there was a reason we're going to get a career.”, he shows.

Some teachers of this municipality, according to Hulajt, still found another method to test migration.

“There have been cases that have taken three months of medical leave and have not returned. Then he was sent from a letter to the school principal and then sent to the school principal for the opening of the job”.

According to Hulajt, this approach is even more disturbing. He says general investigation should be made of the authenticity of the medical holidays provided by doctors in Kosovo.

If a doctor allows a teacher three months off, or 21 days of medical rest, and the teacher is not sick at all, measures should be taken against doctors as well. We are not experts investigating hospitals, we are based on letters [documentals]”, he says.

Free Europe Radio has requested data from the Health Inspectorate whether there are investigations or disciplinary measures against health staff in Kosovo for such abuses, but has not been answered until the release of the article.

Can the phenomenon get worse?

According to Besnik Hulait, the first problem posed after a teacher left in that form is a delay in recruiting.

We've had many problems, and we've been stuck, because for example, we were delayed by a month of recruiting to do it according to procedures”, he says.

According to him, the easiest possibility of travel after visa liberalisation for Kosovo in 2024 could further increase the number of teachers who migrate in this form.

The annual “They have one month, they can do all they can, because economic conditions make themselves”, he says.

According to data from the Kosovo Statistics Agency, during 2022, about 41,500 people left Kosovo. This number has followed a trend of growth in recent years except in 2020, when travel was limited to COVID-19. Among the alleged reasons for migration from Kosovo has been employment.

By the new Law for Public Officials, which went into effect in February 2023, teachers grew wages. Depending on the educational level where they work and their work experience, they are paid between 580 and 610 euros.

The increase in wages, according to Chief Cincidalist Jasharaj, was <x0 small and derogatory”.

“They have expected much more”, says Jasharaj, who also thinks that the difficult economic conditions of teachers will push them further towards migration.

“We are afraid it can be added [as a phenomenon], because they communicate with colleagues and go a large part abroad and stabilize there, we fear that others may continue their course and gradually be investigated even the lack of educational staff”, says Jasharaj.

The average salary in Kosovo is 520 euros. In recent years, however, the rate for many products and services has increased markedly.