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

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.
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