Kosovo Human Development Report 2010 - UNDP Kosovo - United ...

13.7 to one in elementary education,
and 11.4 to one in secondary education.
92
• Exclusive school infrastructure:
access to well-maintained, sanitary
and safe educational facilities
is imperative for supporting social
inclusion initiatives in education.
Despite substantial investment
in new school infrastructure for
Kosovo, urban areas still face challenges
associated with a general
lack of space and a growing number
of students due to rural-urban
migration. Achieving a minimum
of 2 square meters of space per
pupil and achieving that all classes
are held in one sole building will remain
a challenge for a considerable
time in the future. 93 Many schools
still have three-four shifts and are
spread across several buildings.
The physical condition of school
infrastructure remains poor with
schools lacking adequate buildings,
appropriate space for learning
and recreation, didactic material
and equipment. 94
• Non-inclusive educational reform:
Kosovo’s essential reform
and recovery effort has had unintentional
negative effects on levels
of social inclusion in the education
system. In 2000/2001, the structure
of the educational system in Kosovo
changed from eight compulsory
years of basic education plus
four years of secondary education
to a five-four-three year system for
compulsory primary, secondary
and upper secondary education.
This change added a year – the
ninth grade – to Kosovo’s elementary
education and shortened secondary
education to three years. 95
As a result, more girls – particularly
rural girls - have been dropping out
of compulsory education. Many elementary
schools, especially in rural
areas, had to organise the ninth
58 | KOSOVO HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2010
grade in other locations due to a
lack of available facilities – increasing
travel distances beyond the
means of many poor rural families.
96 Teacher quality has equally
been affected by the adjustment
and decentralization of the education
system. The transfer of additional
responsibilities to schools
has not always been accompanied
by the necessary capacity building,
particularly in regard to working
with children with disabilities.
• Misalignment between the education
system and labour market
needs: currently, there is lack of
synchronization between the subjects
and skills learned in school,
and those that are necessary to
succeed in life and to participate
in the job market. This creates a
significant barrier to social inclusion
efforts in Kosovo. 97 Two main
issues affect this process in Kosovo:
1) programme orientation in educational
institutions is not aimed
at job market needs, without any
comprehensive research conducted
to assess those needs; and 2) inadequate
teaching methodology,
especially at the secondary and
higher education levels, and lack of
practical programmes (as opposed
to pure theoretical ones) produce
weak results in preparing the future
work force. The importance
of this issue cannot be overstated.
Together, the labour market and
the education system are the two
primary determinants of Kosovo’s
future.
3.3
Who is affected by
exclusion from
education?
To a greater or lesser extent, all of Kosovo’s
poor, disabled and minority children
suffer degrees of exclusion from
education. This analysis seeks to pin-