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

RAE students constituted a mere 1.43
percent (6,523 students) of total school
enrolment in elementary and secondary
schools in 2009 (MEST 2010). One
quarter of all Kosovo-RAE children do
not attend primary school at all, and
two thirds or more (78 percent of girls
and 62 percent of boys) are not in
secondary school. Only 1.4 percent of
Kosovo-RAE women and men attended
or have finished high school and a
tiny minority have completed or even
attended university. 104 Overall, Kosovo-
RAE children stay at school for the least
amount of time and achieve academically
less than other ethnic groups. As
a result, more than 16 percent of Kosovo-RAE
do not read or write. Illiteracy
is more common among Kosovo-RAE
women (25 percent) than men (8 percent)
and is a result of significant dropout
rates for Kosovo-RAE girls. 105
The barriers to inclusion in education
for the Kosovo-RAE are exacerbated
by problems of with civil registration.
More than 10,000 out of the estimated
30,000 members of Kosovo-RAE community
in Kosovo are estimated to be
unregistered. This directly affects their
access to basic documentation, public
services and education. 106 Other barriers
include poverty and cultural traditions,
where poorly educated parents
are unable to provide effective support
and encouragement for their children’s
schooling. Language is a sensitive but
critical issue; Kosovo-RAE children often
attend schools in the Serb parallel
system or in the Kosovo formal system
depending on their place of residence
and mother tongue. This is a huge disadvantage
for Kosovo-Roma children,
since many of them speak Romani at
home. 107
Other ethnic groups also find their
ethnic identity a barrier to quality edu-
60 | KOSOVO HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2010
cation. Within the Kosovo curriculum,
the right of Kosovo-Bosniak and Kosovo-Turk
students to be educated in
their mother tongue education ends
at primary school-level. Kosovo-Albanian
students in northern Kosovo have
access to primary education in their
mother tongue, but have no support
from their municipalities. Kosovo-Serb
majority municipalities in northern
Kosovo do not support transportation
of Kosovo-Albanian students to
and from schools. 108 Because of security
reasons, children whose families
cannot afford private transportation
receive education in temporary, inadequate
school facilities that lack even
the basic conditions for learning. 109
(iii) Girls, especially those residing
in rural areas: there is a growing
tendency among young people
to leave school before completing
basic education. This compromises
their future opportunities for human
development. Estimates suggest
that 33 percent of students
drop out of school for economic
reasons, which directly link to
poverty. In addition, 15 percent of
them drop out of school because
they join the workforce in order to
generate income for a living. This is
more emphasized in rural areas. 110
Girls are particularly at risk in this
regard. Inclusion of girls in education is
affected by numerous factors, such as
traditional views on the role of women,
poverty, and distance to schools. As a
result of high drop-out rates among
girls, in 2003, the ratio of girls to boys
enrolled in primary school was 0.89.
This is lower than the girls/boys ratio in
any other transition country in Europe
(0.94 was the average). At the secondary
level, the girls/boys ratio declines
further to 0.87 (grades 6-9) and 0.82
(grades 10-12). 111