The EU Office in Kosovo /EUSR, German Development Cooperation, Austrian Development Agency, The Embassy of Switzerland in Kosovo and World Learning issue the following statement:
“The results published yesterday of the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) revealed that out of 72 participating countries Kosovo ranks in the group of the three least performing ones. While we welcome participation of Kosovo in PISA and other international assessments, the results of this first effort are concerning and need to be taken seriously. These PISA scores describe the performance of students attending secondary schools across Kosovo. They are an important indicator of the effectiveness of the mandatory basic education system and a reliable predictor of further education. Given these poor results, strong, immediate, joint actions are needed.
Education reforms must be adopted without further delays, improving the transparency and accountability at all levels. Corruption and nepotism have no place in education system and institutions, and actions must be undertaken to ensure this. Corruption must be eliminated and anti-nepotism efforts have to be supported. Coordination and communication within the Ministry of Education, Science and technology (MEST) must be re-defined to enable effective and efficient cooperation.
The new Kosovo Education Strategy Plan indicates the priority areas and offers a framework for the invigoration of the education reform. The new curriculum with its focus on competence-based teaching and learning provides a very solid plan to shift the focus of the education system from pure knowledge acquisition to the competencies that students of the 21st century need. All pre-conditions for a successful national implementation of the above, such as new school textbooks, teachers' training and manuals and further material have to be put in place as soon as possible.
Although education is a societal task and all stakeholders have to contribute, it is the special responsibility of the Government of Kosovo to ensure that all children have equal access to high quality education. A lot of funds have already been invested in education, but results have been limited. For that purpose, investment into quality of education in Kosovo must be increased, while the effective use of available resources must be ensured.
As representatives of the donor community, supporting the development of Kosovo, we expect the MEST to ensure a broad discussion of PISA results in government and in parliament. These PISA results can serve as a stepping stone for Kosovo’s education system: education must become a cross-party national priority in order to secure adequate performance of Kosovo students in a competitive labour market.
This is Kosovo’s first time participating in PISA and the results published today give objective feed-back about the competencies of 15-year-old school children, relative to a trusted and respected international benchmark.”