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

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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 6
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. 7
Page 1 and 2: Functional Review and Institutional
Page 3 and 4: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report prese
Page 5: Introduction This report presents r
Page 9 and 10: Chart 3 Chart 4 In terms of how the
Page 11 and 12: Based on this analysis, we make 2 r
Page 13 and 14: Recommendation A.12: Gradually add,
Page 15 and 16: iii) Division of special education,
Page 17 and 18: Internal Audit In the small EU coun
Page 19 and 20: There is the basic IT support, whil
Page 21 and 22: Table 2: Comparisons of agencies in
Page 23 and 24: Pre-university Education Developmen
Page 25 and 26: Table 3: Lower level of the recomme
Page 27 and 28: Based on the new R&D strategy decid
Page 29 and 30: Annex 1: List of interviews Organiz
Page 31: Annex 2: FRIDOM’s comments on the

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