Functional Review of the Ministry of Education, Science and ...

Functional Review and Institutional Design of Ministries
Functional Review of the
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology
FRIDOM – Functional Review and Institutional Design of Ministries is a DFID-funded project, implemented by
HELM Corporation, Consulting and Public Management Group, Governance institute Slovakia and Altair Asesores.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 5
PART A: Cross-cutting issues ................................................................................................................... 6
A.1 The overall scope of competences and objectives of the MEST ........................................................ 6
A.2 Cross-cutting findings and recommendations .................................................................................... 7
PART B: Specific findings and recommendations ................................................................................ 14
B.1 Core substantive units ...................................................................................................................... 14
B.1.1 Pre-university education ............................................................................................................ 14
B.1.2 Higher education ....................................................................................................................... 15
B.1.3 Research and development ...................................................................................................... 15
B.2 Support units ..................................................................................................................................... 16
Internal Audit .................................................................................................................................. 17
Budget and financing ...................................................................................................................... 17
Investments .................................................................................................................................... 17
Legal affairs .................................................................................................................................... 18
Planning and analysis ..................................................................................................................... 18
Information technology ................................................................................................................... 18
Public information and relations ..................................................................................................... 19
Foreign (international) relations and European affairs ................................................................... 19
General administration ................................................................................................................... 19
B.3 Division of work between the MEST and agencies .......................................................................... 20
PART C: Summary of recommendations and sequencing ................................................................... 22
C.1 Summary of organizational recommendations ................................................................................. 22
C.1.1 Organizational recommendations for the MEST ....................................................................... 22
C.1.2 Organizational recommendations for agencies ......................................................................... 23
C.2. Sequencing ...................................................................................................................................... 26
C.2.1 Immediate activities (by the end of 2010) ................................................................................. 26
C.2.2 Short-term activities (by the end of 2011) ................................................................................. 26
C.2.3 Medium-term activities (within 5 years) ..................................................................................... 27
C.3. Gender impact of recommendations ............................................................................................... 27
C.4. Implications for the EPAP ................................................................................................................ 28
Annex 1: List of interviews ....................................................................................................................... 29
Annex 2: FRIDOM´S comments on the new organogram designed by the MEST .............................. 31
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report presents results of the functional review of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.
The report covers the ministry’s mandate, its HR resources, organization and processes.
The current MEST mandate is appropriate and should not change substantially. In terms of staff numbers,
these should be mildly increased over time to strengthen capacity in the area of research and
development and the so-called special support functions. Sectors should be abolished as a layer of
management.
In terms of HR, the ministry should prepare a short-term interim plan for HR development of MEST’s
employees in the most urgent areas (financial and IT literacy, new regulations, languages) and build a
database of learning activities that were provided by donors and their participants as well as those
activities that are under preparation and use it in managing the capacity building efforts. More
strategically, the MEST should prepare a strategic document on HR capacity building.
In the area of financial management, the MEST should rectify the legal problems by commencing
implementation of the MEST’s accounting system and nominating an asset officer. It should also prepare
a system of internal administration of finances including the review of the current structure of the MEST’s
budget. Based on the adopted system of internal administration of finances, it should perform training of
financial literacy for all levels of the MEST’s management.
There is a need for fundamental improvements in the IT and information management areas. The ministry
needs to equip all relevant units with basic software, create a central in-house IT-maintenance service,
ensure there is an area-based (PreUE, HE, R&D, financing, planning...) IT-support service provision for
specific software, prepare the new Education MIS using the standard professional information system
development approach and, finally, prepare a strategic document on information services development.
The MEST should build an administrative culture, particularly prepare an internal regulation about
submission of materials and organization of meetings of the MEST’s management, implement a project of
electronic registration of documents. It should also introduce a system of coordination based on creation
of 2 groups of related units: Pre-university education group and Higher education and R&D group, and
nominate a coordinator (called Deputy Permanent Secretary or Director General) for each of the groups.
In the education area, it should establish 2 departments - the Department of VET and the Department of
General Education replacing the current Department of Pre-university Education Administration and
Department for Pre-university Education Development. The MEST should also establish the Centre for
Evaluation for Pre-university Education as a stand-alone unit and transform it into an agency in the
medium-term. The Department of General Education should be divided into divisions dealing with preprimary,
primary and lower secondary education; general upper secondary education; special education;
communities; general education development. The VET Department should have 3 divisions dealing with
VET administration, VET development, and lifelong learning (LLL).
Research and development requires both organizational improvements and a clear strategy. The ministry
should prepare a Research and Development Strategy, improve financing and establish a grant agency
for R&D support. Based on the new R&D strategy, it should decide about further position of research
institutes.
The MEST is currently in the process of developing or establishing a significant number of executive
agencies – e.g. the Accreditation Agency. The key recommendation here is always to conduct an
independent cost-benefit analysis of such proposals before making a decision. The second
recommendation is to engage the Pedagogical Institute not only in research, but also in development
activities for pre-university education. Lastly, the ministry should shift service delivery functions for the
university/research community under the Prishtina University (Student Center, University Library). On the
other hand, the Inspection Department should be retained as a part of the MEST and considered for
transformation into an agency in longer run.
The last part of the recommendations deals with support functions. The key suggestion is to establish two
departments. One is the Department for Budget and Financing with three divisions - Budget Division,
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Division for Accounting and Payments and Investment Division. The other is the Administration
Department with four divisions - Division of Operations, Division for IT Support, HR Division and
Procurement Division. Additionally, we suggest transformation of the current Planning and Analysis Office
into the Planning and Analysis Department with the Division of Planning and the Division of Statistics and
upgrade of two units - the Internal Audit Unit to have 3 positions and report to the permanent secretary
and Public Relations Unit as an office within the Cabinet of Minister.
The Draft Report was submitted to the MEST for comments on August 31, 2009. The MEST sent its
remarks on November 6, 2009. The MEST’s remarks contain brief description of a new MEST’s
organogram proposed recently by a MEST’s committee with no further details about its single
components. As for the Draft Report, the MEST’s remarks limited themselves to statements that
the report’s recommendations have been considered when designing the new organogram.
Therefore, no changes in the Draft Report have been made and FRIDOM team’s comments on the
new MEST´s organogram have been added to the report as Annex 2.
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Introduction
This report presents results of the functional review of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology
(MEST) in Kosovo and has been prepared by the FRIDOM project. The functional review focuses on the
administrative capacity issues in the education sector, reviews the objectives, functions, structures,
procedures and personnel of the MEST and subordinated agencies and as the result proposes
recommendations for improvement of the existing situation.
The process of the functional reviews is based on the May 2006 decision No 08/197 of the Prime Minister
of Kosovo to request support from the UK government (DFID) to undertake an assessment of central
institutions. In February 2007, the Government made the functional review and re-organization of its
administrative structure a key objective of its newly published Public Administration Reform (PAR)
Strategy and Action Plan. The FRIDOM Project has been launched in April 2008 and involves all
ministries (except for the newly created foreign affairs and defense ministries) as well as horizontal
business functions of the government such as human resource management, procurement, e-government
and others.
Most Central and Eastern European countries have undertaken similar functional reviews processes in the
lead-up to the European Union accession. As these experiences show, there is a high risk that the
recommendations from functional reviews done by external consultants are not implemented. Therefore,
Kosovo’s approach to functional reviews is that recommendations from reviews will be translated into
Strategic development plans (SDPs) of ministries by the relevant institutions themselves and also into
further updating of the Kosovo’s Public Administration Reform Strategy.
As a part of the review, the FRIDOM Team prepares an Analytical Report outlining options for
restructuring and capacity development of each portfolio. It also provides support and capacity building to
the line ministries, which are responsible for developing the SDPs.
The Analytical Report is structured into three major sections. Part A briefly presents the review findings
and recommendations with regard to the overall mission and scope of competences of the MEST, looking
at the functions, organization and staffing through the lens of the whole institution. Part B presents
findings and recommendations for specific departments/agencies. Part C concludes the report with a
summary of organizational and other changes as well as options for sequencing and implementation of
the recommendations.
The formulations of the findings and recommendations come from the interviews with the MEST’s
employees, from the study of documents about Kosovo’s education sector as well as the whole public
administration. The comparisons with the similar ministries of 6 small EU member states have been also
used to a large extent as well as personal experience of the authors.
Most of the findings and recommendations of this report have been presented and discussed at two
meetings with the MEST’s management. Feedback from the discussion has already been incorporated
into the text of the report. 1
The Draft Report was submitted to the MEST for comments on August 31, 2009. The MEST sent its
remarks on November 6, 2009. The MEST´s remarks contain brief description of a new MEST´s
organogram proposed recently by a MEST´s committee and the scheme of the upper level of the
organogram with no further details about its single components. As for the Draft Report, the MEST´s
remarks limited themselves to statements that the report´s recommendations have been considered when
designing the new organogram. Therefore, no changes in the Draft Report have been made and FRIDOM
team´s comments on the new MEST´s organogram have been added to the report as Annex 2.
1 There ARE a few changes in this report compared with presentations, particularly the establishment of the Administration
Department, which is based on the overall FRIDOM analysis carried out for all the ministries
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PART A: Cross-cutting issues
A.1 The overall scope of competences and objectives of the MEST
The MEST was created by the UNMIK Regulation No 2001/19 (amended by Regulation No 2005/15 on
the Executive Branch of the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government in Kosovo) to perform functions in
the area of education and science. According to these regulations, the MEST is responsible for:
- Overall education policy and legislation, including higher education and life-long learning,
- Research and development,
- Libraries.
To understand the key challenges in the Kosovo education sector and the mission, main goals and
objectives, we review three major documents: Medium Term Expenditure Framework 2009 – 2011 (MTEF
document), the Program of the Government of Republic of Kosovo for 2008 – 2011 (Program of the
Government) and Conclusions from 1 st High Level Forum 2009.
The mission of the education sector is development of an effective education system, which contributes to
economic growth, and provides better opportunities for all citizens of Kosovo. The current situation in
education is still considered difficult, mainly due to the transition that the education system is going
through, demographic trends that characterize the Kosovo population as well as the lack of necessary
capacities. Kosovo has a very young population, and compared with the South Eastern European
average, the school age population as a percentage of total population is roughly two times higher. But
enrollment rates are low, especially in the secondary and tertiary level and differ across different groups,
with significant gaps between urban-rural, male-female, and so on. Lack of capacities manifests most
visibly by the fact that large number of schools in the primary and secondary levels operate in three or four
shifts per day, which affects both the quantity and quality of education. The provision of vocational
education suffers from the low number of facilities providing vocational training. There are also numerous
problems in the tertiary level of education, both public and private. Even though Kosovo has adopted the
Bologna process, the quality of teaching is not adequate and there is lack of structures for internal and
external evaluations and accreditation mechanisms for institutions of higher education. In addition, there is
little or no scientific research at university level, which inhibits innovation and technology transfer.
The MEST has transformed mostly very generally formulated goals and objectives from the governmental
declaration into a set of more concrete goals, objectives and activities. The most up-to-date list of these
objectives was formulated by the Minister Dr. Enver Hoxhaj at the High Level Forum in March 2009. The
list of strategic priorities comprises the following items:
To reduce the number of shifts in schools through construction of primary and secondary schools
To develop and support the inclusive system of education
To improve quality in teaching; revised curricula and teaching materials, capacity building and
accreditation of teachers
To reframe the secondary education and to promote vocational education and training
To establish vocational training institutions at tertiary level adapted to labor market needs
To improved quality of higher education through quality control, application of European standards
and revised academic organization
To establish research institutions at universities which can also provide services to the private
sector and for other needs
Develop information technology on all levels of education
To declare human resource development as national priority and to create a culture of learning
These priorities are already largely linked to specific activities that are being undertaken under the
umbrella of two existing MEST’s strategies: Strategy for Development of Higher Education in Kosovo 2005
– 2015 and Strategy of Development of Pre-University Education in Kosovo 2007 – 2017. The strategies
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have been assessed and reviewed by international experts. Although the assessments contain also some
criticisms, the strategies, particularly the more recent strategy for pre-university education, are considered
as a good starting point for further development. The most comprehensive assessment of the strategies
has been done within the Swedish study Joint Education Sector Consultancy Feasibility Study for Sector
Wide Approach in Kosovo (Swedish study). The result of this study is not just an assessment of the
existing strategies but also a proposal of a roadmap towards a new comprehensive strategy using a
system wide approach. The conclusions of the study are fully accepted by the MEST and a new project for
elaboration of the comprehensive strategy is under preparation.
Therefore, the Ministry has a clear vision of its policy priorities that is also accepted by this report as a
basis for our thinking.
In terms of the mandate, the MEST has a standard mandate of an education ministry with the following
caveats. The ministries responsible for education in other countries usually have R&D in their portfolio, but
they often have also areas of youth and/or sport and/or culture. For example, in Slovakia, the Ministry of
Education has, in addition to education, research and development, also youth and sports. In Slovenia,
the Ministry of Education and Sports is responsible also for sports (but the higher education and research
are in a separate ministry). The Finnish Ministry of Education has all these competences – youth, sport
and culture.
However, in the case of Kosovo, we consider the current state to be optimal, given the overload of the
ministry. Therefore, the recommendation is not to add any further areas in the short to medium run. If
there were a political decision to transfer some competences to the MEST, our position would be that
adding youth policy would be the issue that the MEST could take on most naturally.
A.2 Cross-cutting findings and recommendations
As we have already mentioned, the main goal of the vertical functional review is to evaluate the current
state of the MEST and other administrative institutions in the education sector and to assess their ability to
achieve the declared goals and objectives. We start by reviewing strengths and weaknesses of the MEST
we have identified during the review.
Strengths:
a) well-defined responsibilities, functions, goals and objectives,
b) strategies for pre-university education (PreUE) and higher education (HE) peer-reviewed by
international experts,
c) education as the official top governmental priority,
d) committed leadership of the MEST, understanding the importance of reforms,
e) quite a high number of enthusiastic employees at the MEST.
Weaknesses:
a) insufficient and unbalanced HR capacities,
b) underdeveloped basic infrastructure functions:
i) HR development,
ii) financial administration,
iii) internal audit,
iv) information services,
v) IT support,
c) weak capacity and absent policy for R&D,
d) malfunctioning administrative culture,
e) unresolved organizational structure.
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The review builds on these two lists to help the MEST build on its strengths and deal with the
weaknesses.
Organizational structure
From the organizational points of view, there are two key issues
- balance of resources (numbers of people in different areas),
- organization of the resources into units.
According to the document provided by the MEST in February 2009, the MEST employed 235 employees 2
(164 without Inspection Department) 3 organized into the Minister’s Cabinet, Permanent Secretary’s Office
(PS’s Office), 9 departments, 14 divisions, 14 sectors and some further units. For assessment purposes,
we have made comparisons of the MEST with similar ministries in 6 small EU states (EU-6) with regard to
staff numbers. The comparisons show smaller staff numbers at the MEST in general as well as in certain
areas. The situation is documented by the Charts No 1 – 4.
The Chart No 1 shows that the MEST has the smallest staff in comparison with all EU-6 ministries. The
next 3 charts show that the situation is different when looking at the staff numbers in 4 broad areas. While
the situation in education and general support areas is comparable with EU-6 ministries, the numbers of
staff in R&D area and in special support area is far lower in Kosovo than anywhere else. We think that this
is one of the reasons of poor performance of the MEST in these areas (see our findings below).
Chart 1 Chart 2
2 In fact, during the review we received several slightly different information on the staff numbers. We had to decide to take
one version for comparisons presented in the report. On the other hand, the differences in information have not been
substantial for the purposes of the report.
3 In order to not distort the comparisons, we avoid sometimes the Inspection Department containing 71 posts deployed
throughout the country from our considerations. EU-6 ministries do not contain such a department at the ministry level.
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Chart 3 Chart 4
In terms of how the existing resources are organized into units, the biggest problem perceived currently by
the MEST’s top management, which was stressed by MEST’s representatives at almost all meetings we
had, was that of the MEST’s organizational structure. It is true that the current state of the MEST’s
organizational structure is highly problematic from several points of view. For example, there is no officially
valid organogram. Further, according to the de-facto organogram (see the upper-level organizational
structure scheme in Scheme 1) the Permanent Secretary has to coordinate 16 units. The organization is
far from optimal also at the lower level of the organizational structure. The MEST is currently using
organizational structure with 3 layers, comprising departments, divisions, sectors (and also Minister’s
cabinet and Permanent Secretary’s office with offices within them). The average number of positions in 9
departments is 11.8, in 14 divisions it is 6.1 and in 14 sectors it is 1.8 (again, the Department of Inspection
is excluded). Out of 14 sectors, 8 contain just 1 post. From the point of view of administration, having a
unit with 1 post has no sense. It is also clear that narrowly defined units decrease flexibility organizing the
work. The situation in EU-6 ministries and its comparison with Kosovo is shown in Table 1.
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Scheme 1: Current de-facto organogram of the MEST
Table 1: Comparisons of organizational units in EU-6 ministries with the MEST
Kosovo Estonia Slovenia Latvia Lithuania Finland Slovakia Total
Type of unit N Avg N Avg N Avg N Avg N Avg N Avg N Avg N Avg
Department 9 11.8 14 13.6 11 19.2 19 11.8 8 20.8 5 49.2 20 19.8 86 17.9
Division 14 6.1 0 - 12 10.3 46 4.1 28 6.5 10 19.4 47 7.2 157 7.1
Sector 14 1.8 0 - 2 5.5 0 - 4 5.3 0 - 0 - 20 2.9
Source: FRIDOM
Note: N = number of units of a given type, Avg = average size of the unit
In addition to the unnecessary sectors, there is the issue of how to organize departments/division. There
are generally two approaches:
small number of big departments (used e.g. in Finland), or
higher number of departments with coordinators (called e.g. Deputy Permanent Secretaries or
Directors General).
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Based on this analysis, we make 2 recommendations:
Recommendation A.1: Do not reduce staff at the MEST. Strengthen staff numbers for R&D area
and special support area by gradual increase and rebalancing of the HR resources.
Recommendation A.2: Design and implement a new MEST’s organizational structure based on 2
levels with the following basic rules:
the units at the upper level are generally called departments, the units at the lower level are
generally called divisions; other names can also be used,
each unit at the lower level is a part of a unit at the upper level,
there are no initial limitations on the size and structure of organizational units,
department may or may not be divided into divisions,
the partition of a department into division need not involve all members of the department.
Further findings and recommendations on the organizational structure can be found throughout the whole
text of the report.
Human resources
Capacity of the MEST human resources is the most frequently mentioned problem in all assessment
materials on education sector in Kosovo. For example, in the above mentioned Swedish study we can find
that “the current administration has encountered serious difficulties in managing the education sector due
to ...inexperience of political and civil staff ...” though “it should be recognized that there have been
significant capacity building initiatives (albeit not very systematic) supported by both local institutions and
international partners, but with limited effect capacity development has mostly been supply-driven and
largely fragmented and has proved to be mostly only marginally effective. Support to capacity
development has to respond more to a clear demand and be designed and implemented under partner
government leadership. In order to better approach this key area – essential for successful sector-wide
program design and implementation – a new approach is needed, including simple and effective capacity
needs assessment tools and the design of an overarching capacity development plan.” As can be seen
also from these observations, capacity building activities in education sector have been currently initiated
and performed mainly by donors and not by the MEST. Moreover, the effect of these activities has been
limited. The MEST’s HR unit has no plan for capacity building. There is a clear need for a strategic
document for capacity building, but this should not delay activities in the most urgent areas (basic training
in the financial and IT issues, information on new regulations and organizing courses in languages).
Though with limited effect, some capacity building activities have been recently performed and it would be
helpful to have a list of these activities and their participants when preparing a new HR capacity building
plan.
Recommendation A.3: Prepare a short-term interim plan for HR development of MEST’s employees
in the most urgent areas (financial and IT literacy, new regulations, languages).
Recommendation A.4: Build a database of learning activities that were provided by donors and
their participants as well as those activities that are under preparation and use it in managing the
MEST’s capacity building.
Recommendation A.5: Prepare in cooperation with international experts within the upcoming
SWAP FOR EDUCATION project a strategic document on HR capacity building. 4 The first step of a
comprehensive solution of the HR capacity building problem is a strategic plan. The roadmap for
the preparation of such a plan has already been prepared in the Swedish study.
4 Developing such a document is recommended also in the Report III of the Swedish study (roadmap 2).
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Processes
Financial management
Financial management at the MEST shows very serious shortcomings – both from a legal and operational
point of view. From the legal point of view, there are the following issues confirmed by the Auditor General
2007 Report and Auditor General 2008 Report:
the MEST does not have its accounting,
the MEST does not have procedures and controls in place for the preparation of financial statements
to provide accurate and reliable financial information,
the MEST has not implemented measures prescribed for asset management, e.g. it does not have
asset officer.
Operationally, there are the following problems with an impact on effectiveness and efficiency of the
MEST’s financial management:
the structure of the MEST budget (“budget lines”), which was established years ago and has not been
reconsidered since that time, does not correspond to the current tasks of the MEST,
there is no clear system of internal administration of finances is in place,
there is considerable lack of financial literacy among the management at different levels,
human capacity in financial area is absolutely insufficient (compare 7 posts currently provided for
financial management at the MEST with the following numbers of employees in financial units in the
EU-6 ministries: Latvia 32, Lithuania 28, Slovenia 72, Slovakia 43, Finland 38)
Recommendation A.6: Rectify the legal problems by commencing implementation of the MEST’s
accounting and nominating an asset officer.
Recommendation A.7: Elaborate a system of internal administration of finances including the
review of the current structure of the MEST’s budget.
Recommendation A.8: Based on the adopted system of internal administration of finances perform
training of financial literacy for all levels of the MEST’s management.
As for the organizational aspect of the field of finances, see the section B
Information technology and services
Data are of crucial importance for any further development, but also for daily operation of the education
sector. Data processing inevitably requires IT support. The current conditions for using IT at the MEST are
insufficient. Many agendas that are normally administered with IT support are done just on paper.
Centralized IT-maintenance services (for hardware as well as for software) are unsatisfactory. The main
reasons are twofold:
long delays in service delivery,
unfamiliarity with the specific needs of education sector when speaking about application software
support.
There is no reliable system for data collection for education sector needs. The EMIS system developed
recently and deployed to 48% of schools and most of municipalities is not functioning. Personal and
technological capacities for information services for education sector are insufficient. A new EMIS project
is under preparation within the WB-project IDEP.
Recommendation A.9: Equip the relevant units of the MEST with software for basic administration
support.
Recommendation A.10: Create a central in-house IT-maintenance service provision for hardware
(the maintenance itself may be outsourced) and basic software.
Recommendation A.11: Ensure there is an area-based (PreUE, HE, R&D, financing, planning...) ITsupport
service provision for specific software.
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Recommendation A.12: Gradually add, to key departments where this is currently lacking, IT
support staff familiar with the department’s area of responsibility.
Recommendation A.13: Prepare the new EMIS project using the standard professional information
system development approach.
Recommendation A.14: Prepare a strategic document on information services development.
As for the organizational aspect of the field of IT and data collection, see the section B.
Administrative and managerial culture
The organizational and administrative culture of the work at the MEST does not satisfy standard criteria.
For example, there are no minutes from meetings, no materials for comments before meetings.
Registration of documents is done just in the written form, not electronically. Meetings of management are
inevitable part of working life of any organization. But unprepared meetings are usually ineffective and in
fact a waste of time. There are well defined standard principles how to prepare and organize meetings to
be as effective as possible. Preparation of participants for meetings is one of important issues. A part of
this preparation is the study of materials that will be discussed at the meeting.
Well-organized mechanisms for document flow are essential. Organizations like the MEST work mainly
with documents. Therefore it is crucial to have a system of storing, administration and searching of
documents. An electronic registration of documents is a powerful tool supporting such a system.
The MEST has currently 9 departments 5 and 7 further units coordinated by the Permanent Secretary.
Some of departments are closely related (for example departments in the area of pre-university
education). The work of related departments needs to be closely coordinated because it is tightly
interlocked. It cannot be expected that the coordination of this type can be performed by the Permanent
Secretary only. EU-6 ministries use either coordinators for groups of departments or have a small number
of large departments.
Recommendation A.15: Prepare an internal regulation about submission of materials and
organization of meetings of the MEST’s management.
Recommendation A.16: Prepare and implement a project of electronic registration of documents.
Recommendation A.17: Introduce a system of coordination based on creating of the following 2
groups of related units:
Pre-university education group,
Higher education and R&D group,
Administration group,
Nominate a coordinator (called Deputy Permanent Secretary or Director General) for each of the groups).
As for the coordinator, there are 2 options:
the coordinator will be one of the heads of departments within the group,
2 new posts of Deputy Permanent Secretaries or Directors General will be created.
The coordinators will coordinate also agencies in the MEST’s portfolio working in the corresponding area.
(The list of all units assigned to single groups can be seen from the diagram in Section C.)
5 Besides Inspection Department.
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PART B: Specific findings and recommendations
In Part B, we deal with findings and recommendation that concern organization of departments and other
MEST units. This part is organized around the proposal of the new organizational structure. Part B is
divided into 3 main sections dealing with:
- core substantive units,
- support units and
- division of work between the MEST and agencies.
B.1 Core substantive units
The MEST’s competences comprise the whole education area and research and development. Education
area consists of two main subareas: pre-university education and higher education.
B.1.1 Pre-university education
In general, there are two basic approaches for organization of ministry in the area of pre-university
education:
According to type of schools (primary / general secondary / vocational / special)
According to type of activities (administration / development / quality assurance / standardization
and testing)
Organization of pre-university education units in EU-6 ministries are as follows:
2 countries have just one unit at the departmental level
3 countries have 2 units at the departmental level divided according types of schools,
1 country has 4 units, but it has no units at the lower level.
The MEST is currently using administration / development scheme for division of units at the departmental
level. At the division level, it is based mainly on type of schools in the Department of Pre-university
Education Administration and mainly on type of activities in the Department for Pre-university Education
Development.
Because of importance of VET area for Kosovo’s educations system underscored in different policy
documents, the MEST is considering establishing the Department for Vocational Education and Training
(VET). This means that the current “type-of-activity” approach of organization of pre-university
departments should change to “type-of-school” approach.
Recommendation B.1: Establish 2 departments - the Department of VET and the Department of
General Education replacing the current Department of Pre-university Education Administration
and Department for Pre-university Education Development.
In order to strengthen the qualitative aspect of education, the MEST is considering establishing also a unit
dedicated to standardization and testing. We support this intention, but because such kind of units function
normally as an agency, we recommend transformation the unit into an agency later.
Recommendation B.2: Establish the Centre for Evaluation for Pre-university Education as a standalone
unit and transform it into an agency in the medium-term.
Adopting “type-of-school” approach at departmental level requires appropriate change at division level.
Recommendation B.3: Organize the two pre-university education departments as follows:
a) Department of General Education:
i) Division of pre-primary, primary and lower secondary education,
ii) Division of general upper secondary education,
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iii) Division of special education,
iv) Division of education for communities,
v) Division for general education development.
b) Department of VET:
i) Division of VET administration,
ii) Division for VET development,
iii) Division of lifelong learning (LLL).
c) Employees performing activities that do not fit into any of the above divisions or are
common for more divisions can be left unassigned or form a separate division (i.e. Division
of Common Activities).
The duties of individual divisions correspond essentially to the duties of the corresponding sectors in the
current organizational structure.
B.1.2 Higher education
In other countries, the higher education area is generally dealt with a dedicated department. Looking at
EU-6 ministries, we can see this in 4 cases. Two countries, Finland and Slovenia, have units dedicated to
higher education at the lower level. In terms of organization of higher education departments, there are
different options (university / non university divisions, recognition divisions, mobilities division, R&D in
higher education institutions division).
Current organizational arrangement in HE area with regard to its character does not require any
immediate change. Things can potentially change after the new law on higher education is adopted, but
reorganization in this area is not a priority.
Recommendation B.4: Retain the Higher Education Department in its current position including its
internal division. In case of need, adjust eventually the internal division of the department in accordance
with the results of the ongoing efforts in the higher education area (the preparation of the new law).
B.1.3 Research and development
One of the basic responsibilities of the MEST is to promote research. The Program of Government
stresses the goal of the MEST to build capacities for research and science. The current state of MEST’s
capacities in R&D area does not show the readiness of the MEST to meet these requirements and
presents one of weaknesses of the system. This statement is based on the following observations:
The MEST has very weak personnel capacity in the R&D area and needs to clarify organization of
the ministry work. (In terms of ministry organization in other countries, research and development
area shows similar situation as it is with higher education: except for Finland, there is always
some sort of department of R&D. In Finland, there is a division dedicated to R&D. In terms of
internal structure of the departments, different options are used (policy vs. projects, international
cooperation in R&D, R&D at universities).
Currently, the MEST has no budget for activities in R&D (except the budget for basic survival of
the research institutes). Under such conditions, no development of the area is feasible. But even
when some finances for R&D are allocated, it is important to have in place an effective system of
their delivery to the final recipient. We are proposing a standard way based on principle of grants
provided competitively using peer-reviewed research proposals.
There are only a small number of research organizations in Kosovo. Three of them, Pedagogical
Institute, Albanological Institute and Historical Institute are currently organizations of the MEST’s
portfolio. We had meetings at all of these institutes and we have found that the conditions for their
work are rather poor and that the institutes cannot effectively function under such conditions.
Moreover, there is a declared strategic priority presented recently by Minister Hoxhaj to establish
research institutions at universities ... (see section A). So it is necessary to consider seriously the
future position of these institutes.
15

There is no easy or quick way to resolve these problems, but the set of recommendations below provides
for practical steps that could lead the way forward.
Recommendation B.5: Elaborate a strategy for R&D area. This is the self-evident first step since,
without a policy direction, not much can happen. Given the fact that the other major areas of MEST
work have their own strategic documents, this is the most important one that is lacking.
While there is no strategy for R&D in place, we do not propose changing current MEST's organizational
structure in the R&D area. The elaboration of the strategy would show the Kosovo's priorities in R&D and
the measures for their support. Based on them, appropriate adjustment of the organizational structure
should be proposed, if need be. As with higher education, organization of the department is also not the
principal issue as there are several equally valid options. The absence of capacity is the real issue.
Recommendation B.6: Retain the Department of S&T in its current position including its internal
division. In case of need, adjust eventually the internal division of the department in accordance
with the results of the development of the new R&D strategy.
Next two recommendations respond to the second and third observation above.
Recommendation B.7: Arrange financial issues for R&D support; establish a grant agency for R&D
support. 6
Recommendation B.8: Based on the new R&D strategy, decide about further position of research
institutes; in case the institutes remain in the current setting, improve conditions for their work.
B.2 Support units
The support units can be divided into two main parts: special support and general support. Special support
consists of the following areas:
internal audit,
budget and financing,
investments,
procurement,
human resources,
legal affairs,
planning and analysis,
information technology,
public relations,
foreign (international) relations and European affairs.
General support includes
general administration,
operation (technical services, assets management).
For proper functioning of any ministry, all the areas of the special and general support need to be covered.
The organization of units ensuring support functions within the overall organizational structure of a ministry
can be done in different ways. However, there are some limitations given by the law that should be met
(more on that below). We have also analyzed the organization of support in EU-6 ministries. The results
and recommendations for the MEST are as follows.
6 As an example, the Slovak Research and Development Agency can serve (www.apvv.sk).
16

Internal Audit
In the small EU countries, Internal Audit Unit is always dedicated organizational unit at the upper level of
the organizational structure. In most cases in EU-6 (5 of 6) it reports directly to the Minister. There is an
Internal Audit Unit at the MEST but with just one employee now. According to the draft of the Law on
Internal Audit, the Internal Audit Unit should be under direct control of the Minister or Permanent
Secretary. 7 In terms of its substantive work, the Auditor General Report for the year 2007 contains several
findings pointing to different problems. Auditor General Report for the year 2008 confirmed that nothing
essential has been done with the findings so far. Moreover, the work of the unit in 2008 was not
concentrated on the problems identified in the Auditor General 2007 Report.
Recommendation B.9: In the plan of activities of internal audit, concentrate on areas where the
main problems have been identified by the Auditor General.
Recommendation B.10: Establish the Internal Audit Unit with 3 posts as a dedicated unit at the
upper level reporting directly to the Permanent Secretary.
Budget and financing
We are dealing with the administration of finances in general in the section A above. Here we present the
recommendations on the organizational aspect of this field.
Units responsible for budgeting and financing in EU-6 are mostly (in 4 cases) dedicated organizational
units at the upper level. They report to the Minister or Permanent Secretary. In one case, the unit is part of
PS’s Office and in one case of Administration Department. As for the internal organization, it is different in
each EU-6 ministry. Accounting is a division of this unit in 1 case (Latvia), while in 2 cases (Slovakia,
Lithuania) the accounting is a separate upper level unit.
In the Kosovo context, it should be mentioned that according to the Law on Public Financial Management
and Accountability, the chief financial officer (head of unit for financing) should report to the Permanent
Secretary.
Recommendation B.11: Establish the Department for Budget and Financing as a dedicated unit at
the upper level reporting directly to the Permanent Secretary.
Recommendation B.12: Establish three divisions within the Department for Budget and Financing:
Budget Division, Division for Accounting and Payments and Investment Division.
The Investment Division should deal with all issues connected with investment budget for education
sector. Moreover, it should deal with issues of the school infrastructure that the MEST is responsible for.
The Budget Division should deal with all tasks related to the budget for education sector prescribed by
legal regulations, specifically: proposal of the budget for the MEF, allocation of the approved budget to
organizations and units of the education sector, administration of budget during the year, coordination of
data collection and final composition of financial statements of education sector for the MEF, ensuring
communication concerning budgetary issues with the MEF. Most of the work on the investment part of the
budget would be handled by the Investment Division, while the Budget Division would include the products
of the Investment Division into the overall documents and reports. The Division for Accounting and
Payments would deal with accounting and payments through State Treasury in accordance with the
relevant legal regulations and internal administrative instructions of the MEST. The division would be
responsible for the preparation of financial statements for the Budget Division as well as for providing
accounting records for asset management for the Division of Operation of the Administrative Department.
Investments
At the MEST, the Division for Infrastructure under the Department of Infrastructure and Technical Services
plays the role of an investment unit. Units responsible for investments in EU-6 ministries are more often
7 See Article 3 (definition of the senior management of the Public Sector Subject) and Article 10 Section 1 of the Draft
17

units at the lower level, i.e. they are a division of a department (in 2 cases a division of the financial
department, in 1 case a division of the PS’s Office). Just in 2 cases are there dedicated units at the upper
level of the organizational structure.
In case of the MEST, it is necessary to take into account the importance of current activities of the Division
of Infrastructure in solving problems of school infrastructure in Kosovo. On the other hand, it is also
important to point out that centralized school construction / procurement at the MEST’s level is not, in our
opinion, suitable solution.
Recommendation B.13: Devolve gradually the school construction / procurement to municipalities.
Keep standard-setting for school buildings, prioritizing and policy setting in this area at the level
of the MEST.
As for the organizational arrangement of the investment unit, there are 3 options:
to retain the investment unit in its current position,
to establish the investment unit as a division of the Department of Budget and Financing,
to establish the investment unit as a department.
We recommend establishing the investment unit as a division of the Department of Budget and Financing
by transformation and moving the Division of Infrastructure from its current position. The reason for this is
that the school infrastructure issues will be of a priority in a short and medium term. But in the longer term
the unit will take responsibility for the standard cross-sectional investment agenda of the MEST with
regard to the education sector.
Legal affairs
Units for legal affairs in EU-6 ministries are in most cases (4) at the upper organizational level as
dedicated units. When speaking about legal affairs, two areas need to be distinguished:
legislation as the creation of new legal regulations,
application of existing legal regulations.
In some ministries, there are different independent units for each of the two areas.
Recommendation B.14: Retain the legal unit in its current position as a department with main
emphasis on legislative work. In case of need, establish a post for a lawyer in PS’s office.
Planning and analysis
Dedicated units for planning and analysis exist at 3 EU-6 ministries, 1 at the upper level and 2 at the lower
level as part of PS’s Office and Policy Coordination Department respectively. In case of Kosovo,
strengthening planning is considered as one of the top priorities.
Recommendation B.15: Transform the current Planning and Analysis Office into the Planning and
Analysis Department with the Division of Planning and the Division of Statistics.
The Division of Planning deals with preparing and evaluation of all kinds of the MEST-wide and the
education sector-wide plans in coordination with the corresponding MEST’s units. For these works, the
division prepares also necessary analyses. It also provides methodological help to the work of policy
planning for other MEST’s units.
The Division of Statistics main responsibility is to ensure the functioning of the MEST’s data collection
system EMIS and to elaborate MEST’s statistical reports and corresponding analyses. The division also
provides methodical as well as practical help for data collection needs of other MEST’s units.
Information technology
IT infrastructure and data collection issues were discussed in the section A above, but here we present
organizational recommendations that follow. Looking at other countries, special units for IT support can be
seen at 4 of the EU-6 ministries, usually at the lower level of organizational structure. As mentioned
already, improvement of IT support at the MEST should be a priority. IT support can be of two types.
18

There is the basic IT support, while special IT applications in individual areas also require specialized
support. For this reason, it is beneficial to have both general IT support capacity and IT experts familiar
also with the agenda in the corresponding area.
Recommendation B.16: Establish the Division for IT Support within the Administrative Department.
Recommendation B.17: Gradually establish specialized IT positions for each group of
departments.
Public information and relations
Given the fact that a large part of the population is directly or indirectly among clients of the ministry
(students, parents etc), public information function is a vital one. We can find dedicated unit for public
relations at the upper level of organizational structure in all EU-6 ministries (in one case together with
foreign relations). The unit directly reports to the Minister in 3 cases.
Recommendation B.18: Establish dedicated Public Relations Unit as an office within the Cabinet of
Minister. The Public Relations Unit would perform tasks related to mass media presentation of the MEST
and monitoring of news referring to the MEST and education sector. The unit would also manage the
MEST’s external communication in cooperation with the MEST’s units.
Foreign (international) relations and European affairs
Here we put together two related yet different areas. The reason is that at EU-6 ministries we can find
units supporting both areas or separate units for each of them. The MEST has just established the
Department for European Integration, Donors Coordination and Brain Gain. We believe it is important to
incorporate the international relations agenda. International relations issues comprise tasks regarding
international cooperation of the MEST, e. g. coordination and representation of the interests of Kosovo in
bilateral and multilateral relationships and international organizations in the field of competence of the
MEST, tasks regarding arrangement of foreign business trips of the MEST’s employees and visits to the
MEST from abroad, tasks regarding protocol, organizations of conferences and seminars with
international attendance.
Recommendation B.19: Include the international relations issues in the mandate of the Department
for European Integration, Donors Coordination and Brain Gain.
General administration
We can find „Administrative“, „Administration“ or „General affairs“ units at 5 of EU-6 ministries. In case of
Finland using the system of big departments, the Administration department comprises units for most of
the supporting areas. In the further 4 cases, smaller number of different areas (i.e. procurement, HR,
documentation, operation, IT support) are comprised in these departments. With regard to the overall
approach, based on the overall FRIDOM analysis carried out for all the ministries, we recommend
establishment of an Administrative Department that would comprise these functions.
In the area of technical services, assets management, maintenance, stand alone units in these areas can
be found just in 2 of EU-6 ministries. Only in 1 case there is a dedicated unit for operation at the upper
level (Slovakia). In all other cases, the overall units for general administration deal with these issues.
Recommendation B.20: Transform the existing Department for Infrastructure and Technical
services into two divisions - Division of Operations and the Division for IT Support – in the
Administration Department. Transform the original Division of Infrastructure into the Investment
Division in the Department of Budget and Financing.
The Division of Operation should deal with all issues covered currently by the Division of Technical
Services. Moreover, it would take care of asset management in accordance with the corresponding legal
regulations (according to Auditor General Report not covered currently at the MEST). Accounting
background for the asset management would be provided by the Division for Accounting and Payments of
the Department for Budget and Financing.
The Division for IT Support would ensure services necessary for functioning of IT infrastructure of the
MEST as well as plan their development. The services would comprise hardware and software support.
19

As for hardware support, it is expected that the services will be provided mainly by external subjects and
the division will ensure organization of their delivery. As for software support, the division will mainly
ensure the operation of MEST’s local data network and servers (web, mail, etc.), installation and
maintenance of basic software for MEST’s employees’ computers and general consultation services for
MEST’s units in the IT area.
B.3 Division of work between the MEST and agencies
Agencies are executive, but operationally independent organizations within a ministry’s portfolio
performing implementation and regulatory functions. Agencies are very common in education sector and
they usually cover tasks such as curricula development, textbooks, teachers’ training and quality control
(inspection, evaluation, accreditation). Decision about proper use of agencies requires understanding the
appropriate rationale for their use, which is in proper division of tasks between the ministry and others -
when the ministry is overburdened with day-to-day implementation tasks, it runs the risk of neglect of its
principal policy and legislative tasks. On the other hand, it is important to notice that establishment of an
agency may lead to higher costs and problems with clear accountability. Moreover, establishment of an
agency without appropriate enabling environment for its management (including a degree of financial
autonomy) is likely to be worthless.
Current situation in Kosovo’s education sector is that the employees of the MEST deal with almost all
tasks. Autonomous institutions are represented mostly by research institutes that are not even proper
executive agencies performing tasks that should belong to such agencies (though the Pedagogical
Institute could, in fact, perform such a role). Then there are organizations dealing with service delivery
functions for the university/research community under the Prishtina University (Student Center, University
Library). In majority of EU-6 ministries, the situation is different as the Table 2 shows. 8
8 The classification of institutions to the concrete areas is in some cases blurred so the figures in the table should be considered
informative.
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Table 2: Comparisons of agencies in education sectors of EU-6 countries and Kosovo
Area
Kosovo
Number of
employees
Number of
institutions
Number of
employees
Estonia
Number of
institutions
Slovenia
Number of
employees
Number of
institutions
21
Number of
employees
Latvia
Number of
institutions
Lithuania
Number of
employees
Number of
institutions
Number of
employees
Finland
Number of
institutions
Slovakia
development of
education
99 3 154 2 365 2 99 1
development of
research
88 1 23 1 18 1 56 1
general library 105 1 134 1 24 1 128 2
international
cooperation
28 1 127 2 49 1
lifelong learning 22 1
research
institute
94 3 259 2 82 2
statistics and
analysis
130 1
vocational
education
29 1 42 1
support of
education
18 1 12 1 49 1
support of
handicapped
evaluation of
education and
18 1 60 1
quality
assurance,
inspection
99 1 17 2 66 2 40 1 73 2 257 1
Total amount 199 4 304 6 17 2 441 9 63 2 926 11 914 12
The MEST is about to establish the Accreditation Agency as an independent organization and there are
thoughts to establish the Centre for Evaluation of Pre-university Education as an agency. Although the
decision about the Accreditation Agency has been presented as final while making the Centre for
Evaluation for Pre-university Education independent is expected only in longer run, we propose to go
through cost-benefit analysis in both cases. Otherwise, it can happen that the intended benefits from the
independence of the Accreditation Agency can be considerably decreased by the costs of this step.
According to its director, the Pedagogical Institute currently sees its mission as research in the area of
pre-university education. On the other hand, the institutions of this kind in the education ministry’s portfolio
in other countries (e. g. the State Pedagogical Institute in Slovakia) normally deal also with development of
curricula and textbooks, setting standards and other practical development activities necessary for
functioning of pre-university education. It is questionable whether research should be the main priority in
situation where basic functions are not performed.
Prishtina University recently became financially independent from the MEST by acquiring the status of
budgetary organization (before, finances for the Prishtina University formed one of budget lines of the
MEST’s budget). Surprisingly, the facilities serving for the university as the Student center and the
University Library have remained financially directly connected to the MEST’s budget.
Number of
employees
Number of
institutions

In connection with agencies, special attention needs to be paid to the issue of inspection. According to the
Law on Inspection of Education in Kosovo No. 2004/37 (law on inspection), the inspection in Kosovo’s
case deals with all levels and types of education. In some countries, the word “inspection” relates more to
pre-university education. As for higher education, the control and assessment of education are executed
within processes called accreditation and evaluation and the general control of observance of laws in the
higher education institutions is performed by a dedicated ministry’s control unit. In fact, also in Kosovo the
main effort and capacities of inspection are concentrated on pre-university education and the inspection of
higher education is limited to the control of observance of laws and does not deal with evaluation of quality
of education. The inspection is often executed by dedicated agencies (in EU-6 ministries it is the case of
Latvia, Slovenia and Slovakia). The Kosovo’s legal regulations explicitly state that the inspection is
performed by an executive body in the framework of the MEST and that the head of inspection (Chief
Inspector of Education) reports to the PS.
Recommendation B.21: Conduct an independent cost-benefit analysis of the delegation of
implementation tasks currently performed by the MEST to the Accreditation Agency and to the
Centre of Evaluation for Pre-university Education. Make a decision only on the basis of the
analysis
Recommendation B.22: Engage the Pedagogical Institute in development activities for preuniversity
education.
Recommendation B.23: Shift service delivery functions for the university/research community
under the Prishtina University (Student Center, University Library).
Recommendation B.24: Retain the Inspection Department as a part of the MEST. Define more
precisely the role of inspection in higher education in the law on inspection. Consider its
transformation to an agency in longer run.
PART C: Summary of recommendations and sequencing
This part contains summary of recommendations suggested by the report and the proposal for sequencing
in their implementation and also a brief look at the relationship of the report recommendations with gender
and EPAP objectives.
C.1 Summary of organizational recommendations
The report contains both organizational and other recommendations. In this section, we provide a
summary of the organizational recommendations.
C.1.1 Organizational recommendations for the MEST
Design and implement a new MEST’s organizational structure based on 2 levels with the following basic
rules:
the units at the upper level are generally called departments, the units at the lower level are
generally called divisions; other names can also be used,
each unit at the lower level is a part of a unit at the upper level,
there are no initial limitations on the size and structure of organizational units,
department may or may not be divided into divisions,
the partition of a department into division need not involve all members of the department.
In terms of specific reorganization, this is the summary of all organizational recommendations that involve
a CHANGE from the current situation:
Establish 2 departments - the Department of VET and the Department of General Education
replacing the current Department of Pre-university Education Administration and Department for
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Pre-university Education Development. Organize the two pre-university education departments as
follows:
o Department of General Education:
Division of pre-primary, primary and lower secondary education,
Division of general upper secondary education,
Division of special education,
Division of education for communities,
Division for general education development.
o Department of VET:
Division of VET administration,
Division for VET development,
Division of lifelong learning (LLL).
Establish the Centre for Evaluation for Pre-university Education as a stand-alone unit and
transform it into an agency in the medium-term.
Establish the Internal Audit Unit with 3 posts
Establish the Department for Budget and Financing. Establish three divisions within the
Department for Budget and Financing: Budget Division, Division for Accounting and payments
and Investment Division.
Introduce a system of coordination based on creating of the following 2 groups of related units:
o Pre-university education group,
o Higher education and R&D group.
Nominate a coordinator (called Deputy Permanent Secretary or Director General) for each of the
groups).
Transform the current Planning and Analysis Office into the Planning and Analysis Department
with the Division of Planning and the Division of Statistics.
Establish the Administration Department with 4 divisions: Division of IT Support, Division of
Operation, HR Division, and Procurement Division.
Establish dedicated Public Relations Unit as an office within the Cabinet of Minister.
Include the international relations issues in the mandate of the Department for European
Integration, Donors Coordination and Brain Gain.
C.1.2 Organizational recommendations for agencies
Conduct an independent cost-benefit analysis of the delegation of implementation tasks currently
performed by the MEST to the Accreditation Agency and to the Centre of Evaluation for Preuniversity
Education. Make a decision only on the basis of the analysis
Engage the Pedagogical Institute in development activities for pre-university education.
Shift service delivery functions for the university/research community under the Prishtina
University (Student Center, University Library).
Retain the Inspection Department as a part of the MEST. Define more precisely the role of
inspection in higher education in the law on inspection. Consider its transformation to an agency
in longer run.
23

The recommendations above lead to the proposal of the organizational structure in the Scheme 2, with
more details provided by Table 3.
Scheme 2: Upper level of the recommended new organizational structure of the MEST 9
9 In the Scheme 2, boxes with solid borders are MEST’s units, boxes with dashed borders are institutions in the MEST’s portfolio.
The Accreditation Agency is displayed as an agency already. The Centre for Evaluation for Pre-university Education is drawn as
MEST’s unit, but it is highlighted because of considerations of its transformation to an agency. The University Library and the
Student Center are drawn as institutions in the MEST’s portfolio but they are highlighted because of the recommendation of
their shift to Prishtina University. The Inspection Department is drawn in accordance with the actual legal state as reporting to
the Permanent Secretary.
24

Table 3: Lower level of the recommended new organizational structure of the MEST
Units
A Cabinet of Minister
A.1 Minister’s Office
A.2 Public Relations Unit
B Permanent Secretary Office
C Internal Audit Unit
D Budget & Finance Department
D.1 Budget Division
D.2 Division for Accounting and Payments
D.3 Investment Division
E Department of EUI, Donors Coordination and Brain Gain
F Department of General Education
F.1 Division of pre-primary, primary and lower secondary education
F.2 Division of general upper secondary education
F.3 Division of special education
F.4 Division of education for communities
F.5 Division for general education development
G Department of Vocational Education and Training
G.1 Division of VET administration
G.2 Division for VET development
G.3 Division of lifelong learning
H Centre for Evaluation for Pre-university Education
I Higher Education Department
I.1 Division of administration of higher education
I.2 Kosovo Center for International Cooperation
J Department of Science & Technology
J.1 Division of Science
J.2 Division of Technology
K Legal Department
L Department for Planning and Analysis
L.1 Division of Planning
L.2 Division of Statistics
M Administration Department
M.1 Human Resources Division
M.2 Procurement Division
M.3 Division of Operation
M.4 Division for IT support
N Department of Inspection
N.1 Division of Inspection of Pre-university Education
N.2 Division of Inspection of Higher Education
25

C.2. Sequencing
In this section, the report presents a proposed sequencing of activities for implementation of the review
recommendations. The activities are divided into three groups:
immediate (execution of activities within 1 year – by the end of 2010),
short-term (execution of activities within 2 years – by the end of 2011),
medium-term (execution of activities within 5 years).
C.2.1 Immediate activities (by the end of 2010)
In this section, those activities are included that are workable within 1 year. It comprises the following:
Start execution of all organizational recommendations of the section C.1.
Prepare a short-term interim plan for HR development of MEST employees in the most urgent
areas (financial and IT literacy, new regulations, languages).
Build a database of learning activities that were provided by donors and their participants as well
as those activities that are under preparation and use it in managing the MEST’s capacity
building.
Resolve the most serious shortcomings of the financial management area – commence conduct
of MEST’s accounting and nominate asset officer
In the plan of activities of internal audit, concentrate on priority areas identified by the Auditor
General.
Ensure central in-house IT-maintenance service provision for hardware and for basic software.
Prepare the new EMIS project using the standard professional information system development
approach.
Prepare an internal regulation about submission of materials and organization of meetings of the
MEST’s management.
Prepare in cooperation with international experts within the upcoming SWAP FOR EDUCATION
project a strategic document on HR capacity building.
C.2.2 Short-term activities (by the end of 2011)
In this period, the MEST’s organizational transformation should be essentially completed and the capacity
building and other proposed activities should be stepped up.
Strengthen staff numbers for the R&D area and special support area
Define more precisely the role of inspection in higher education in the law on inspection.
Elaborate a system of internal administration of finances including the review of the current
structure of the MEST’s budget.
Based on the adopted system of internal administration of finances perform training of financial
literacy for all levels of the MEST’s management.
Equip the corresponding units of the MEST with software products for basic administration
support.
Prepare a strategic document on information services development.
Ensure area-based (PreUE, HE, R&D, financing, planning,...) IT-support service provision for
software.
Prepare conditions for gradual completion of key departments by IT support staff familiar with the
department’s subject.
Prepare and implement a project of electronic registration of documents.
Prepare strategy in the R&D area.
26

Based on the new R&D strategy decide about further position of research institutes; in case the
institutes remain in the current setting, improve conditions for their work.
C.2.3 Medium-term activities (within 5 years)
In this period, the efforts embodied in the elaborated strategic documents would continue to be
implemented. Additionally, this is the appropriate time frame for:
Devolution of the school construction / procurement to municipalities.
Establishment of a grant agency for R&D support.
C.3. Gender impact of recommendations
The terms of reference of the project stipulate that the project should also assess “possible differential
gender impact of recommendations, given workforce profile”. This requires analysis of the gender
composition of the MEST employment, which is presented in the Table 4. 10
Table 4: Current gender composition of the MEST staff
Male % Female % Total
MEST 94 57 70 43 164
By positions
Department directors 7 78 2 22 9
Division heads 10 71 4 29 14
Others 77 55 64 45 141
By department
Department of the
administration of pre-university
education 13 59 9 41 22
Department for developing preuniversity
education 10 42 14 58 24
Higher education department 7 64 4 36 11
Department of Science and
Technology 3 75 1 25 4
Department of finance and
personnel 5 38 8 62 13
Legal Department 2 50 2 50 4
Procurement department 3 60 2 40 5
Department of Infrastructure
and technical services 17 77 5 23 22
PS Office 7 44 9 56 16
Minister’s Cabinet 4 44 5 56 9
Other units 23 68 11 32 34
Source: own calculations based on the MEST data from February 2009
As we can see, the gender balance (male: female) in the MEST as a whole is 57:43. As for department
directors and heads of division, the ratios are similar (78:22 and 71:29), but much more in favor of males
10 ) In accordance with the approach used in comparisons of personal capacities with EU-6 countries, we do not take into
account the Inspection Department.
27

than at the whole-ministry level. In terms of departments, the departments with prevailing female
employees are Department of Finance and Personnel, Department for Developing Pre-university
Education, PS Office and Minister’s Cabinet. So the gender imbalance can be seen mainly at the
managers’ level. The review recommendations implementation can be used for redressing this gender
imbalance, but on its own, the recommendations can be seen as gender neutral.
C.4. Implications for the EPAP
With regard to the MEST, the actual version of European Partnership Action Plan contains 119 actions.
Deadlines of the actions have been planned as follows:
2008 – 13 actions
2009 – 55 actions
2010 – 5 actions
2012 – 1 action
2013 – 1 action
continuous – 44 actions.
The actions can be divided essentially into the following 12 groups:
1. Elaboration and implementation of the Action Plan for the pre-university education strategy
2. Improvement of school infrastructure and equipment
3. Implementation of quality assurance system in pre-university education and improvement of
inspection
4. Improvement of vocational education and training and implementation of the National Qualification
Framework
5. Improvement of education for communities and for pupils with special needs
6. Implementation of the process of licensing of teachers and improvement of administration of preuniversity
education
7. Elaboration and implementation of the Action Plan for the higher education strategy
8. Implementation of quality assurance system in higher education
9. Elaboration and implementation of sector wide approach in education sector
10. Increasing financing of education
11. Realization of international cooperation in education
12. Improvement of R&D area
In general, recommendations of this report create better conditions for performance of all actions that have
not been performed yet. All actions are consistent with the proposals of the report, the only exceptions are
some actions from the group 2 “Improvement of school infrastructure and equipment” (for example the
action “Prepare and complete documentation on projects (pre-measures and pre-calculations) of
construction of schools”), where we recommend shifting more responsibility to municipalities. Except for
this instance, no changes in current EPAP actions are necessary on account of the functional review.
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Annex 1: List of interviews
Organization Unit Position Name Date
SIDA Public Administration, Economic Programme Hykmete Bajrami 2/19/09
Development and Education officer
World Bank Human Development Sector Officer Flora Kelmendi 2/19/09
MEST Top management Permanent
secretary
Enver Buçaj 2/20/09
MEST Top management Advisor of
minister
Adnan Dragaj 2/23/09
MEST Office for Planning and Analysis Head Azem Azemi 2/23/09
MEST Department of pre-university
education administration
Head Alush Istogu 2/23/09
MEST Division of finance and budget Head Haki Sfishta 2/23/09
MEST Department of Science and
Technology
Head Murteza Osdautaj 2/24/09
MEST Higher education department Head Avdullah Alija 2/24/09
MEST Department for pre-university
education development
Head Agim Berdyna 2/24/09
MEST Top management Minister Enver Hoxhaj 2/25/09
MEST Internal Audit Unit Head Vebi Ismaili 2/25/09
MEST Division for general education Head Miranda Kasneci 2/25/09
MEST Life long learning Officer Radica Berishaj 2/25/09
MEST Division of finance and budget Officer Sherif Dobra 2/25/09
MEST University of London International
expert for
WB
Rosalind Levacic 2/26/09
MEST Ministers Cabinet Chief of
cabinet
Valbona Dermaku 2/26/09
MEST Office for Private Education and Head Fehmi Krasniqi 3/30/09
Vocational training
MEST Division of Inspection of Higher
Education
Head Abdyl Gashi 3/30/09
MEST Division for the communities Head Enesa Kadic 3/30/09
MEST Division for vocational education Head Valbona Mjeku 3/31/09
MEST Division of quality assurance Head Ramush Lekaj 3/31/09
MEST Division for standards and
evaluation
Head Mustafë Kadriu 3/31/09
MEST Pedagogical Institute Head Fehmi Ismaili 3/31/09
MEST Albanological Institute Head Hysen Matoshi 4/1/09
MEST History Institute
Head Jusuf Bajraktari 4/1/09
MEST Accreditation Agency Head Basri Muja 4/1/09
MEST Inspection Department Head Defrim Gashi 4/3/09
MEST EC Liaison Office Task
Manager:
Education &
Employment
Sophie Beaumont 4/6/09
MEST Legal Department Head Isni Kryeziu 4/6/09
MEST Sector for Special Education Head Lulavere Kadriu 4/6/09
MEST Personnel division Head Naxhije
Ajvazi
Shala- 4/6/09
29

MEST Department of EUI, Donors
Coordination and Brain Gain
Head Kaplan Halimi 4/7/09
MEST Ministers Cabinet Political
advisor
Nezir Cocaj 4/7/09
MEST Department of Infrastructure and
Technical Services
Head Fadile Dyla 4/7/09
MEST Department of finance and
personnel
Former head Pakize Isufaj 4/8/09
KEC Executive Director Head Dukagjin Popovci 4/8/09
MEST Prime Ministers office Advisor of
the Prime
Minister
Fetah Podvorica 5/28/09
MEST Top management Deputy PS Alush Istogu 5/28/09
30

Annex 2: FRIDOM’s comments on the new organogram designed by the MEST
The FRIDOM’s comments on the new organogram based on its scheme provided with the MEST´s
remarks on the Draft Report are as follows:
1. The new organogram contains 3 groups of related units with three director generals (DGs) as
coordinators. Two of the groups are similar to those proposed by the report. They are the Preuniversity
education group and the Higher education and R&D group. The third group –
Administration group with the corresponding DG – was originally considered also by FRIDOM’s
team but in the end it was replaced, in accordance with common FRIDOM’s approach, by
Administration department and the DG for administration was omitted.
2. The departments of the Pre-university education group in the new organogram partly differ from
those proposed by the Report. The organogram keeps the two existing pre-university education
departments (for administration and for development) and adds a new department for VET. As the
report stresses, there are two basic approaches for organization of ministry in the area of preuniversity
education:
a. according to type of schools (primary / general secondary / vocational / special),
b. according to type of activities (administration / development / quality assurance /
standardization and testing).
The report proposed the use of “type-of-school” approach at the departmental level taking into
account that the MEST preferred to have a new department for VET. The new organogram
adopted a mixed approach having two departments defined according type of activities and the
third based on type of school approach. This organization seems to be less transparent than that
proposed by the report.
3. The Higher education and R&D group in the new organogram is at the MEST level identical with
the report’s proposal. But the organogram proposes 3 new agencies: Center for International
Cooperation in HE & Science and Technology, Centre of Innovation & Transfer of Technology and
National Academic Recognition & Information Center. The report prefers to make organizational
changes (including eventual introduction of further agencies) in the R&D area after elaboration of
a strategy in this area only.
4. The biggest differences between the new organogram and the report concern the support area.
The new organogram does not consider having an Administration department and keeps some of
the divisions of the Administration department proposed by the report as departments
(procurement, HR). Since the MEST’s remarks do not specify in details the tasks of the proposed
Information Office and Logistics Office, it is not possible to make a detailed comparison with the
report’s proposals when about IT support area and Planning and Analysis area. Avoiding
functions of planning and analysis (that seems the organogram does) should be considered as
serious mistake.
5. Looking at the new organogram it seems that the DG for central administration will play the role
that the report, according to the legislation, considered for the PS. In fact, in the FRIDOM’s
opinion, the functions like internal audit or budget and finances should be directly managed by
one of the very top representatives of the Ministry – i.e. by the Minister or by the PS.
6. The de-facto top role of the DG for administration in the new organogram is confirmed also by the
inclusion of the Inspection department, which should otherwise be in Pre-university education
group.
31