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

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