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

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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