Parallel worlds Rebuilding the education system in Kosovo Parallel worlds Rebuilding the education system in Kosovo Marc Sommers Peter Buckland International Institute for Educational Planning The choice and the presentation of the facts contained in this book and the opinions expressed therein are not necessarily those of UNESCO-IIEP and do not commit the Organization. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO-IIEP and the World Bank concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Published by: International Institute for Educational Planning 7-9 rue Eugène Delacroix, 75116 Paris e-mail: [email protected] IIEP web site: www.unesco.org/iiep Cover design: Corinne Hayworth Cover photo: Marc Sommers Composition: Linéale Production Working document © UNESCO 2004 This volume has been printed in IIEP’s printshop Contents List of abbreviations 7 Acknowledgements 9 Series preface 11 Executive summary 13 Foreword 17 Map of Kosovo, May 2000 18 Prologue: Forging a new path 19 Chapter 1. Introduction 23 Perceptions and perspectives: four guiding assumptions 23 Coverage 25 Methodology and approach: context, policy and practice 25 Constraints 29 Chapter 2. A social history of education in conflict in Kosovo 31 History in conflict 35 Education as resistance: the parallel system 41 Enter the outsiders 47 Kosovo and education: outlining the current situation 56 Chapter 3. Structuring a system: educational policy in Kosovo 63 A chronology of change 65 Implications for the education system 71 Who is learning? The question of access 79 What are they learning? Curriculum development 86 From whom are they learning? Teachers and teacher development 91 Who decides? School and system governance 98 Final comments 105 Chapter 4. A system in transition: educational practice in Kosovo 107 The push for reform 109 Gender and access: the case of medical high schools 116 The Serbian challenge 119 Handover politics 128 Views from below 136 5 Contents Chapter 5. Conclusion: an unfinished odyssey 141 Reviewing the reconstruction legacy 142 Advancing policy 144 Reform in practice: considering the Lead Agency approach 145 Missed opportunities 146 Tough trade-offs 148 Managing expectations 150 Time will tell 150 Bibliography 151 References 151 Supplementary bibliography 156 Appendices 1 Field research question guides (Marc Sommers and Hasnije Ilazi) 173 2 Field research question guides (Peter Buckland) 177 6 List of abbreviations CIDA Canadian International Development Agency DES Department of Education and Science DESK Developing the Education System in Kosovo EMIS Education Management Information System FRY Federal Republic of Yugoslavia FRYOM Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia FSDEK Finnish Support for the Development of Education in Kosovo GMP Gross Material Product GTZ Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit IAC Interim Administrative Council IBE International Bureau for Education ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross JCCE Joint Civil Commission on Education JIAS Joint Interim Administrative Structure KEC Kosovo Education Centre KEDP Kosovo Educator Development Programme KFOR Kosovo Forces (collective name for NATO forces in Kosovo) KLA Kosovo Liberation Army KTC Kosovo Transitional Council LASH League of Albanian Educators LBD United Democratic Front LDK Democratic League of Kosovo MED Municipal Education Director MEP Ministry Empowerment Project 7 Parallel worlds Rebuilding the education system in Kosovo MEST Ministry of Education, Science and Technology MREB Mitrovica Regional Education Board NGO Non-governmental organization OCHA Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OSCE Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe PDK Kosovo Democratic Party PIO Principal Education Officer PISG Provisional Institutions of Self-Government PS Permanent Secretary SEO Senior Education Officer SRSG Special Representative for the Secretary General UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNMIK United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo UNSCR United Nations Security Council Resolution VET Vocational Education and Training 8 Acknowledgements The authors are grateful for the contributions and kind assistance of a number of people. First and foremost, they would like to thank their editor, Christopher Talbot of UNESCO-IIEP, for his patience, challenging insights, and consistent support. Special thanks are also due to their research colleague in Kosovo, Hasnije Ilazi of the University of Pristina and the Kosovar Civil Society Foundation, for her energetic support, dedication, and compassion. They hope that her research findings and analysis are appropriately represented in this text. They would also like to express their gratitude for the contributions of their translators (Erol Bince, Ana Milovanovic and Eva Vuka), research assistants (Gina Costante and James DiFrancesca), members of their ‘Research Advisory Team’ (which included Angela Vitale, Xhavit Rexhaj and Dukagjin Pupovci), and those providing essential logistical support, especially Angela Vitale, Angela Cady, David Young and, not least, Lorraine Daniel and Erika Boak of UNESCO-IIEP. Finally, they wish to extend their heartfelt thanks to all of the dedicated education professionals, and their students, who made time in their schedules to contribute their insights, reflections, ideas, and aspirations about education in Kosovo. Since their perspectives, concerns, and challenges lie at the core of this endeavour, the authors’ research, and this case study, could not have been completed without their kind assistance. 9 Series preface UNESCO is increasingly requested to provide an educational response in emergency and reconstruction settings. The organization is in the process of developing expertise in this field in order to be able to provide prompt and relevant assistance. It will offer guidance, practical tools and specific training for education policy-makers, officials and planners. The fifth of the eleven objectives adopted by the Dakar World Education Forum in 2000 explicitly focuses on the rights of children in emergencies. It stresses the importance of meeting “… the needs of education systems affected by conflict, natural calamities and instability and conduct[ing] educational programmes in ways that promote mutual understanding, peace and tolerance, and that help to prevent violence and conflict”. The Dakar Framework for Action (World Education Forum, 2000: 9) calls for national Education for All plans to include provision for education in emergency situations. Governments, particularly education ministries, have an important role to play in an area that has often been dominated by the actions of NGOs and United Nations agencies. Moreover, the field of educational planning in emergencies and reconstruction is still young. It has to be organized into a manageable discipline, through further documentation and analysis, before training programmes can be designed. Accumulated institutional memories and knowledge in governments, agencies and NGOs on education in emergencies, are in danger of being lost due both to the dispersion and disappearance of documents, and to high staff turnover in both national and international contexts. Most of the expertise is still in the heads of practitioners and needs to be collected, since memories fade fast. Diverse experiences of educational reconstruction must now be more thoroughly documented and analyzed before they disappear. This task includes the publication in this series of seven country- specific analyses being conducted on the planning and management of education in emergencies and reconstruction. They concern the efforts currently being made to restore and transform education systems in 11 Parallel worlds Rebuilding the education system in Kosovo countries as diverse as Burundi, Kosovo, Palestine, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Timor-Leste. They have been initiated and sponsored by IIEP, in close collaboration with the Division of Educational Policies and Strategies in UNESCO Headquarters. This particular volume on Kosovo, Parallel worlds, has been researched and written in partnership with the World Bank Human Development Network-Education. The objectives of the case studies are: • to contribute to the process of developing knowledge in the discipline of education in emergencies; • to provide focused input for future IIEP training programmes targeting government officials and others in education in emergencies; • to identify and collect dispersed documentation on the management of education in the seven countries; and to capture some of the undocumented memories of practitioners; • to analyze response in seven very different situations to educational provision in times of crisis; • to increase dissemination of information and analysis on education in emergencies. IIEP’s larger programme on education in emergencies and reconstruction involves not only these case studies, but also a series of global, thematic, policy-related