NEWS

OSCE Mission in Kosovo concerns about situation of Gorani, Bosniak, Turkish and Roma students

The law for primary and secondary education in minority languages adopted in 2003 by the Kosovo Assembly, does not guarantee equal access to education for students of all communities and still in 2008 minority groups must face additional difficulties, which derive mostly from the lack of curricula and textbooks.

Even though Kosovo’s mainstream curricula is aimed at integrating all communities into the reformed educational system, paradoxically the relevant legislation does not provide for a curriculum in Serbian language and therefore prevents the Ministry of Education from developing adequate textbooks.

Among others, the case of Gorani students in Dragash/Dragaš municipality must be highlighted because it shows the lack of integration of a Serbian speaker community that has shown the willingness to switch to Kosovo’s curricula. Acknowledged by the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, Gorani parents over the last four years have faced serious problems in putting their children through even primary education.

Currently Gorani students have no choice other than following Serbian curricula as long as there is no alternative if they don’t want to miss school years and be able to enroll in higher levels of education. During the existence of Kosovo's Provisional Institutions of Self-Government (PISG), the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology decisions accepting Serbian curricula were made in extraordinary circumstances and reacting to the demands made by specific schools or groups of students as it happened with Gorani in 2004 and 2006.

No sustainable and long lasting measures were ever adopted to provide an adequate response for a structural problem. Nevertheless, if integration of non-albanian speakers was not achieved under Kosovo’s reformed curricula, this seems to be less likely to happen in the new born State of Kosovo according to what Ahtisaari proposal provides for schools taught in Serbian language. It states in its Article 7 Paragraph 1 that “Schools that teach in the Serbian language may apply curricula or text books developed by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Serbia upon notification to the Kosovo Ministry of Education, Science and Technology”.

If parallel school system attended by Serb students under the authority of the Serbian Government's Ministry of Education and Science is authorized by the applicable domestic legislation, it may happen that a solution to the problem is finally achieved.

Other minority groups facing the same kind of problems, Bosniak and Turkish students for instance, also lack textbooks in their languages based on mainstream curricula. In cases where the acceptance of Serbian curricula may not solve the problem, as minimum, textbooks of good quality in the respective language of the minority group must be made available. Currently there’s a lack of educational material for classes in primary schools or there’s not material at all as it happens reportedly in secondary education. As for the quality of the existing textbooks it’s been publicly denounced that is not good enough as result of poor translations made for subjects with very specific scientific or technical terminology.

The situation of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian people, perhaps the most marginalized communities, is very delicate and their integration in the educational system represents a difficult challenge to the local authorities that must count with the support and intervention of non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations.

OSCE Mission in Kosovo organized in November 2007 education roundtables to raise awareness on the problems and demands of minorities and will soon issue recommendations, addressed in particular to the Ministry, to help improve the situation.

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