SBASK: The flight of teachers is jeopardizing the educational system, schools can be left without them

The deputy head of the United Trade Union of Education, Science and Culture (SBASHK), Vjollca Shala, estimated that the departure of teachers and students from Kosovo is becoming disturbing, and that if this trend continues, schools in the near future can remain without professional frameworks.

Shala, in an interview for EO, said that longtime teachers are leaving because of difficult working conditions and a heavy social situation, being interviewed in the countries' educational system like Germany.

“We have Kosovo exits of teachers and students, in particular with visa liberalisation of teachers, are taking free holidays. But there are many other cases that teachers without taking a vacation at all, free of charge, learning a foreign language, because of working conditions, and because of the heavy social situation in Kosovo are leaving Kosovo and going to different countries in Europe. In particular, we can mention the state of Germany, where teachers are learning German and attending Germany's education as teachers in their schools.
At the same time, we also have massive student escapes because students are leaving with their families. This situation is very alarming, we would intervene quickly, because if this trend of teaching from Kosovo schools continues, Shala said in the future could find Kosovo schools without our teachers.

She added that the loss of an experienced teacher is irreversible in the short term.

The “is very difficult when a teacher leaves Kosovo, which can possibly have 20 years of work experience in a certain subject. Do you think how many years it takes to make it possible for a student to become a teacher of a certain subject if he is in lower elementary school? It has to be a lot of time to get to the stage where the teacher, who has had a 15 or 20 years' experience, said.

Shala also stopped at SBASK's demands, citing the urgent need for increased cofficiency in the Law of Salaries, signing collective contracts, and regulating work experience.

“As a requirement, of course, except that there is an increase in the value of the cofficiency in the Law of Salaries that has not been done for two years now, even in spite of the increasing inflation and the price of elementary products, of course, as other requirements are the signing of the collective contract, that the collective contract draft we have submitted to the Ministry of Education since 2 October 2024. We have also formed the negotiating commission, while in spite of what we have done in writing, and constant requests for meeting and starting negotiations, this has not yet begun. Then there is the work experience being paid by 0.025 percent, what educational workers but also the workers of other sectors pay about 4 percent, because the Constitutional Court has made a decision that even the first 15 years of experience should be paid by 0.5 percent, as well as those who fall by July 2024, which fall by about 4 percent in absence of their salary<1>, she explained.

Among the demands, Shala also cited the State-funded Pension Scheme Law.

“We have the State-funded pension schemes Law for fulfilling this law, which we have collected sometime around 20 thousand and 606 signatures and handed over to the Kosovo Assembly as civic initiatives for fulfilling this law, where this law has to do with 90-99, when education workers, teachers of that time, kept alive education in Kosovo that are the most precious years, the most glorious of that” period, she added.

It also criticised SBASK's expulsion from the state council for licensing teachers to the Ministry of Education.

This state council for teaching licenses consists of 15 members, and only one member has been reserved to be a representative from the SBASK. And despite what has not been possible to make changes, because 14 votes by one vote cannot make changes, but at least to hear the voice of education workers, even from there it has been excluded. Therefore, we demand that representatives of the SBASK” be returned to all vocational troops, Shala said./Periscopi/