Select Committee on Foreign Affairs Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence

APPENDIX 20

Supplementary memorandum submitted by the British Council

1.  INTRODUCTION

  On 24 March 1999 began the NATO bombing of Serbia, heralding the end of almost a decade of Serbian control of Kosova1, and potentially, of 50 years of communist control of education. The aims of this report are broadly threefold:

—  to document the history and background to the situation of education in Kosova up to the present conflict;

—  to outline the current strategies or interventions by various agencies; and

—  to identify priorities for the immediate and long-term future.

  The report was commissioned by the British Council in order to inform its own work in the region, but the Council intends that it will have a wider value in providing information for any agency or organisation that will be assisting in the process of reconstruction. The report has been compiled from a variety of sources: collection of reports and articles by observers and academics; reports by international agencies such as UNICEF and World Bank; Internet bulletins; newspaper articles; interviews with Kosovans in London; and a field visit to Kosova and Macedonia 23-29 July 1999 to meet with a variety of people and organisations associated with education (as listed in the Acknowledgements).

  Given the isolation and situation of education in Kosova since 1990—as will be explained later—hard data on issues such as pupil enrolment or teacher deployment are difficult to obtain, and searches have been frustrating at times. The current situation is clearly very fluid, and prognoses cannot be made with solid conviction. Yet it is hoped that this report will provide sufficient evidence to paint a picture of the current circumstances and to enable strategic priorities to be drawn up.

2.  BACKGROUND

  The region of Kosova has a population of two million, making it the most populated of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). 90 per cent are ethnic Albanians, 7 per cent are of Serb origin and 3 per cent are other nationalities. It is a young population, with an average age of 25 years. Children aged 0-18 make up 47 per cent of the population. Within Europe it has the highest birth-rate (23.1 per 1,000) and also the highest rate of infant mortality (27.8 per 1,000 live births).2

  As elsewhere, the education system of Kosova has had a long history of inseparability with the politics of the region. Between the wars, Kosova was returned to Serb rule and education was provided only in Serbian. Prior to the second world war there had been just 252 schools in Kosova, teaching only in Serbian. By the end of 1945 there were 392 containing 392 classes in Serbian and 279 in Albanian. A survey carried out in 1948 found that 74 per cent of all Kosova Albanians over the age of 10 were illiterate; there was a shortage of professionally qualified teachers; the bare 300 Albanian school teachers employed in 1945 were supplemented by nearly 50 recruited from Albania itself.3 The policy was reversed in World War II when "empowered" Albanians took over Serbian schools, named them after historical figures and proceeded with education in Albanian.4

  During the Communist period, under the slogan "brotherhood and unity", education was provided both to Serbs and Albanians in their respective languages. In primary school, children could choose between Serbo-Croat, Albanian and Turkish as their language of instruction. From the Yugoslav point of view, following Stalin's policy of promoting national rights to placate and contain opposition, post-war Yugoslavia "allowed ethnic difference and granted extensive ethnic and cultural rights".5

  The curriculum was the traditional heavily loaded socialist one of up to 16 subjects until the end of secondary school, including Marxism, Defence and Protection as well as the normal maths, science, arts and physical education. However, there was a continual tension within communist ideology, between discourses of "a-nationalism", policies of "national affirmation" (implying learning the literature and history of Albania) and the expectation that Albanian students would learn lessons in "socialist Yugoslav patriotism". History was considered the principal subject for this nationalism, through themes such as the national liberation struggle and the figure of Tito. Lessons on the horrors of war and Nazi atrocities did take place,6 although it could be argued from later events that their effect on furthering peace was minimal. Islam was suppressed, with the Koranic schools abolished and the teaching of children in mosques made a criminal offence in 1952.

  Nonetheless there was a perceived growth in Albanian national identity, not only in terms of opposition to Serbs, but also in terms of fraternity with Albanians in Albania.7 The mutual fears of a Greater Serbia and a Greater Albania must be seen as constant undercurrents to political and educational activism in the region. Differential birth rates, and therefore a decline in the proportion of the Serbian population in Kosova was seen by Serbs as a threat to their dominance, and even as a deliberate move to wrest Kosova from Serbia. However, in his book on the history of Kosovo, Noel Malcolm, while acknowledging the high birth rates of Albanians, shows that this varies between urban and rural areas. The myth that Albanians breed as part of a political campaign is disproved, in that urban, low birth rate couples are more likely to be politicised than their counterparts in remote villages.

  A period of rapprochement between Yugoslavia and Albania from 1968 benefited Kosovars. A decision was made in late 1969 that the handful of higher education "facilities", set up as offshoots of the University of Belgrade, should be converted and expanded into a fully-fledged University of Pristina, with teaching in Albanian as well as Serbo-Croat. Within 10 years, the number of students attending was estimated at 30,000, studying under more than 1,000 lecturers. The proportion of ethnic Albanians among Kosovo's student population rose between 1968 and 1978 from 38 per cent to 72 per cent.8 This was mirrored in the increasing Albanianation of the Party, of local administration, the police and other security forces. By 1980 there were 36,000 full-time students, and an additional 18,000 in extension study programmes. The doors of education were wide open, in part as a stopgap to the unemployment problem and to stop youth roaming the streets. Consequently Kosova had the highest ratio of students in the country: 274.4 per 1,000 inhabitants, compared with 194.9 for the Yugoslav national average and 165.7 for Solvenia, the most advanced republic in the Federation.9

  In 1981 massive Albanian student protest broke out at the University of Pristina, starting with demonstrations about University conditions, but moving to demanding the elevation of the Kosovo province into a republic, and even a merger with Albania. The university was immediately labelled as the "fortress of Albanian nationalism" and the demonstrations labelled as "counter-revolution". The communist authorities reacted by purging textbooks of nationalist Albanian content, banning writers from Albania and halting educational co-operation between Kosova and Albania. Many students were expelled from schools and teachers dismissed. The contentious issue of the proportion of Albanian national content in curricula was solved by the imposition of the so-called "joint kernels". Albanians had to implement the same curricula as the Serbs, whilst Albanian authors were represented in only 20 per cent of the content. This heralded the full segregation in education which would take place in the 1990's.

  Up to 1990, Kosova had a separate representation in the Yugoslav government and the Kosova authorities had decision-making power in all aspects of the education process: legislation, school curricula, textbook publishing and pedagogical institutes.10 Ethnic Kosova Albanians had their own Assembly, banking system, police and courts. Yet for Milosevic, the considerable autonomy enjoyed by Kosova under the 1974 Yugoslav constitution endangered Serbia's unity. Using threats of military force, the Serbian government forced the Kosovan parliament to de facto abolish its autonomy in March 1989 and subsequently imposed a number of measures implementing centralised rule over the province from Belgrade. A new Serbian constitution was adopted in 1990, which de jure transferred rule over the province, including its education system, to Belgrade. "Temporary measures", which remained permanent, included the suppression of the Albanian newspaper Rilindja, the closing of the Kosovo Academy of Arts and Sciences and the dismissal of thousands of state employees. In May 1990, all Albanians resigned from the Kosova government. In August and September 1990, the Serbian government passed a series of laws mandating a unified curriculum to be taught exclusively in the Serbian language (ie Serbo-Croatian). Between September and December of that year, the Serbian Education Ministry replaced all ethnic Albanian primary school principals with Serbs.11 Approximately 6,000 teachers were dismissed in 1990 for having taken part in demonstrations against the government, and the rest were dismissed when they refused to comply with a new Serbian curriculum which largely eliminated the teaching of Albanian literature and history. Twelve thousand primary teachers lost their jobs in one day. Thirty-four teachers of special school for the "deaf and mutè in Prizren were also dismissed on the grounds that they were not applying the Serbian curricula.12 The institute of Albanian studies in Pristina was closed down by administrative decree and its academic staff evicted by a gang of armed men in plain clothes.

  Ethnic shifts were introduced in previously desegregated schools, with Serbian students having classes in the morning and Albanian students in the afternoon. Alternatively the primary schools were physically divided, sometimes with brick walls or metal fences down the middle. Numerically, Serb students constituted about 10 per cent on average, but they still occupied more than half the time or half the premises.This meant that in primary schools, Albanian children had to be accommodated in up to five shifts a day, considerably reducing their learning time. In one school of 2,400 students, for example, 800 were Serbs, but they still occupied half the building. The Albanian students' classrooms were not financed, equipped or even heated by the state. While the Serbian authorities had to tolerate education in Albanian language in primary schools (as education up to eighth grade was obligatory according to the law) there was therefore no contact between pupils. There were two separate administrations of any school. Some schools were completely closed to Albanian pupils.

  In the spring of 1990, there was a mass alleged poisoning of school pupils: thousands of children were taken to hospital suffering from stomach pains, headaches and nausea. Observers at the time thought this to be a case of mass hysteria, although in 1995 evidence emerged that the Yugoslav army had manufactured Sarin, which had been found in the blood of the children. Whatever the true explanation, most Albanians believed their children were being poisoned, and some attacked the homes of local Serbs. This gave the authorities the excuse for another crackdown.13

  The majority of Kosovar Albanian parliamentarians considered the abolition of the province's autonomy invalid and a violation of the constitution. In September 1990, they adopted their own constitution declaring Kosova an independent republic outside the Yugoslav federation, and created shadow Ministries, including a Ministry of Education.

  The "defiant" teachers and professors—including most of the personnel at 68 secondary and 400 primary schools—stopped receiving their salaries from the Serbian state in March 1991.14 Albanians were excluded from school and university buildings; Albanian students were not allowed to use the huge National Library (which was also the University Library), and over 100,000 Albanian books were pulped. The main reading rooms were turned over to a Serbian Orthodox school. At the Museum of the League of Prizren, in an Ottoman quarter of Prizren which had been declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO, the exhibits were taken away and the museum was converted into a hostel for Serb refugees from Croatia. A period of "deliberate impoverishment" of the Kosova region and its educational and cultural facilities ensued.

3.  THE PARALLEL EDUCATION SYSTEM 1991-99

  The reaction to what was seen as "foreign occupation" by Serbs was the establishment of what has come to be called the "parallel education system." Albanian teachers and lecturers set up their own Albanian-language education system in private houses, cellars, garages and small areas of existing educational buildings. According to figures provided by shadow-state school authorities in 1994, private individuals provided 204 houses with 533 rooms and total floor space of 11,261 square metres for the parallel classes (not including those provided to the Pristina University, which also moved to private homes). In 1995, the system comprised 5,291 children attending 185 pre-schools, 312,000 pupils attending 418 elementary schools, 56,920 students enrolled in 65 secondary schools, some 100 "handicapped" students attending two special schools and about 12,200 students studying in 20 University faculties. The shadow-state education system was estimated to employ about 20,000 teachers, professors and administrative personnel.15 Numbers declined as the decade wore on, but before the recent conflict there were still an estimated 267,000 Kosovar Albanian children in parallel schools.16

  The financing of this system was self-organised. Contributions were collected in the form of a tax, raised through trade unions and parallel tax authorities. The shadow state fund for the Republic of Kosova raised money in the United States and almost all Western countries, and was believed to account for 30 per cent of the shadow state's budget. The school system received help from international teachers' unions and trade unions, as well as charitable organisations. The journalist Shkelzen Maliqi estimated that the system's yearly budget was at least $45 million, but that only half of that actually got distributed.17 Salaries arrived several months late, if at all.

  The curriculum of the parallel system was inevitably one to promote Albanian nationalism. At elementary and secondary school level, the communist 14 subject curriculum was maintained as far as possible, as were the mainly oral system of examining, whereby students were examined in groups by a single teacher asking questions and assigning grades. The shadow state brought its curriculum to standards of the Albanian school system, and began importing textbooks from there. Albania was the only country where diplomas with seals from the Republic of Kosova were officially recognised.

  The parallel schools, while openly conducted and therefore officially tolerated, were at the same time subject to repression. Teachers and organisers were frequently subjected to arrest, intimidation and beatings by the Serb police, as detailed by various human rights organisations.18 Most police crackdowns happened in June each year, at the end of the school year, when final examinations were being taken.

  The Dayton agreement in 1995 did not change the situation of the Kosova Albanians, and indeed strengthened Milosevic's rule in Serbia. Rugova did negotiate with Milosevic in September 1996, and signed an agreement under which schools and university buildings (but not state salaries) would be made available to the Albanian parallel system. Yet the Serbian authorities completely failed to implement this agreement, and Rugova lost credibility.

  It is admitted in all quarters that the parallel system suffered many difficulties, and the education received in it was problematic. The parallel schools should not be romanticised. Apart from difficult physical conditions, parts of the curriculum were out of date, senior teachers were very old and younger ones left their jobs because of the unstable incomes.

  Maliqi claimed that this weakness facilitated the return of a system in which schools and the university were run by party directives through political cadre. At one stage the shadow state education authorities replaced all directors of the elementary and secondary schools, without consultation, and at the university similarly, the rector was given authoritarian powers.19 Conversations with young people who had been through the parallel system revealed an inevitable range of teaching styles, but a serious problem of authoritarian and sometimes brutal methods. There was a lack of didactic materials, or "means on concretization", as locals would call them. Given that the schools were not attractive places to be, discipline and motivation were hard to maintain and teachers sometimes resorted to repressive methods of control. There was little accountability in terms of quality, favouritism by teachers was unchecked, and the oral examinations were somewhat arbitrary in terms of grades received. Widespread joblessness among Kosovo Albanians, following the mass dismissals, meant there was increasingly less money to pay for education. The number of school students had dropped by up to 24 per cent from the 1989 figures by 1996; the number of university students halved.20 Of particular concern was a significant decrease in the female enrolment in primary and secondary schools.

  Yet the parallel schools were a massively important symbol of both liberation and competence. They were the only centrally-administered institutional segment of statehood that the Serbian authorities tolerated—even if this was an uneven tolerance. There were parallel health care systems, but no parliament nor police force was successfully established. By demonstrating their ability to run an independent educational system, Albanians argued they proved the ability to run their own parallel state—a significant point returned to later in this report.

  A resilient and increasingly sophisticated political culture had grown up among Kosovar Albanians since 1989, centring round the intellectual circles of the University of Prishtina. Two organisations played a key role: the Association of Philosophers and Sociologists of Kosovo and the Association of Writers of Kosovo. The latter's president was Dr Ibrahim Rugova, who became the leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo (the LDK) in 1989. The "internationalisation" of the problem was a key strategy, showing that the status of Kosovo is not just an internal question for Serbia. As Noel Malcolm points out, by setting up the institutions of a separate republic, the Albanians of Kosovo have engaged in a strategy of political "as if":

  To behave as if Kosovo were not part of Serbia might seem, in the short term, sheer make-believe; but if the strategy were persisted in for long enough, foreign governments might eventually feel obliged to admit that they were the ones who were engaging in fiction when they continued to treat Kosovo as a mere region of the Serbian state.21

  This was indeed borne out by the eventual intervention of NATO.

4.  THE CURRENT SITUATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE: JULY 1999

  Assessments are still continuing on the extent of damage to educational facilities, whether this was by Serb forces, Serb students or NATO bombardment.

  The first major disruption of education occurred in the municipalities of Glogovac and Srbica in 1997, where teachers were killed and there was the first public appearance of the KLA in this area. Serious disruption of education in the other municipalities started in April 1998; the beginning of the new school year was disrupted in 19 out of 30 municipalities. The Albanian education authorities estimated that 94,398 children were excluded from the school system, either because the schools were closed, or because the children were among the IDP (Internally Displaced Population). There was an attempt in the Albanian parallel system to distribute textbooks free of charge to all IDP children as well as those in areas of conflict. At that stage, a list of 100 destroyed or damaged schools was drafted. The official authorities in Prishtina reported however that the state system started normally in all municipalities.22

  The Albanian education authorities, who admitted to incomplete data, estimated that the educational system inscribed 205,804 students for the academic year 1998-99, 62,000 less than the previous year. At least 500 out of some 12,000 teachers had fled Kosova during the same 12 months. Two thousand children were in Montenegro, 3,800 in Albania and 2,000 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the conflict, the authorities evidenced the death of 213 pupils and 68 teachers.

  All schools in the whole of Kosova were instructed to take in all IDP children, regardless of availability of documentation; the state system however did not make any reference to IDP children.23 A great concern in the early part of 1999 was the situation of these IDP children and the provision of non-formal education for them. To this end. Memoranda of Understanding were drawn up, such as between Montenegro, UNICEF and UNHCR, to allow displaced children to attend schools. Many children (and adults) have lost their identification documents, affecting their ability to travel and get access to basic government services. As Kosova refugees start to return, and the camps become smaller (on 25 June an estimated 300,000 had returned; Cegrane in the north of Macedonia had fallen from 45,000 to 6,000 by July 1999), then the education of IDPs becomes a reducing problem, although the question of lost identification and accurate records remains.

  UNICEF conducted a very large education assessment, November 1998-January 1999, using a sample of 292 schools with 305 school buildings, and comprising 112,778 students, both in the state and the parallel system, across 12 municipalities.24 (The total number of school buildings in Kosovo was estimated to be something over 900). This survey looked at water and sanitation, (latrines and toilets), building conditions, and equipment and supplies. Only 14 per cent reported to have toilets inside the school buildings, and 33 out of 178 had no kind of toilets at all. 20 per cent had a water supply in the buildings, 48 per cent had water outside and 33 per cent had no water supply at all. Of the 96 per cent that had wells, only 9 per cent reported them to be in good condition. In terms of buildings, there had been complete destruction of 45 schools (all in Albanian villages); the closedown of 11 schools due to the complete destruction of furniture, and there were five schools occupied by armed forces. All existing schools claimed a lack of school equipment, furniture and educational supplies for children. Assuming this picture is replicated across all Kosovo, this paints a grim picture of facilities. It is not just a question of Albanian children moving back into reasonably well-equipped Serb-occupied schools, as all are seriously deficient.

  The Technical Faculty in Prishtina was in fact to have been the start of the agreement to share facilities, but this was interpreted by Serb students as a step on the way to a loss of Kosovo and they refused to share it with Albanian students. Police were called to intervene in a sit-in, but before that the Serb students demolished windows, furniture and libraries. The picture there, as in many places, is of buildings being stripped of equipment and labs and wiring destroyed, so as not to leave functioning premises to the Albanians.

  Now that buildings are opened up to the Albanian entry and scrutiny, there is also assessment of their condition after 10 years of Serbian occupation. The National Library, for example, while not significantly damaged, depicts a scene of utter neglect; no books or journals appear to have been purchased for 10 years, even in Serb-Croat; books are in bad condition, located in subterranean basements flooded with water. It would seem that few Serbs used the library, nor consulted the books. A major assessment and overhaul is necessary to make this a working library, together with attracting readers back in and creating a library culture once more.

5.  EDUCATION ADMINISTRATION AND EDUCATION PLANS

  The overall administration of Kosova at present is under UNMIK (the United Nations Mission In Kosovo). Its work has been divided between the various agencies. OSCE (the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe) is in charge of institution rebuilding—including rebuilding democratic processes and elections, human rights monitoring and capacity building; IMF and World Bank are in charge of economic regeneration; and the EC is in charge of reconstruction—including public services and reconstructing school buildings. UNHCR is the agency for humanitarian aid and is still responsible for education programmes in the refugee camps.

  The future of Kosova and its education system is naturally uncertain. While currently administered by the UN, elections for a new government will be held, although estimates of when these elections will be vary between eight months and 18 months, that is, some time between spring 2000 and December 2000. What the education policy will be clearly depends partly on the results of this election.

  Meanwhile, the task of restoring and reconstructing education is in the hands of UNMIK. This has established a Joint Civil Commission on Education (JCCE). The commission is composed of the UNICEF education specialist K Ramachandran; four members nominated by representative organisations in the Albanian community; three members nominated by organisations representing other language groups; and one member nominated by UNESCO. The JCCE is to make representations to the Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG). Significantly, the JCCE itself was planned to have a conflict resolution strategy to ensure decisions over structure or policy in education.

  There are three phases of the UNMIK education strategy. The first is an interim phase. Because of the education lost in the last semester of conflict, this will provide "catch up" classes for two months, August-September 1999, in some regions. It appears well known in Prishtina that schools are to reopen around 2 August, although communications are difficult and it is not clear how pupils and teachers are being notified. The new academic session will begin in October. This interim phase will use the existing curriculum and existing textbooks for one year. The publishing unit next to UNMIK has the Albanian manuscripts and can produce sufficient original textbooks within two to three months for this interim year.

  The next phase is transitional. During this year, there will be an extensive review of curriculum and textbooks, moving towards a new education system. There will also be a review of teacher training, both pre-service and in-service, seen as central in any reformulation of practice and ideology in schools. In the transitional phase a Head of Education will be identified in each municipality and serve as the accountable authority reporting to the SRSG.

  The third phase will be under the new Education Authority of Kosova, based on the democratic elections. UNMIK is aiming to promote an integrated system, with gradual access for all children; they are not keen on a totally separatist system. Hence the walls dividing schools will be removed, but education in the children's own language will be retained where this is possible. In practice this means that there would have to be sufficient Serb children in a school to make teaching some classes in Serbo-Croat viable. With the existing flight of Serbs from Kosova, and the possibility of continued reprisals, it is not known whether Serbian children will constitute any substantial minority in the schools.

  The current priorities for the UNMIK administration are five-fold:

(a)  to make sure that schools are clear of mines, and that schools will get certification that they are clear;

(b)  to ensure that the existing schools which are being used by KFOR will be handed over to a legitimate school director or committee agreed by the community. The community should request that KFOR vacate schools;

(c)  to conduct an assessment of the physical capacity of schools: around 30 per cent have been lost and have to be rebuilt; in those damaged in the remainder, repairs have to be completed. Donors such as EU are discussing who will participate in this. UNICEF and USAID are committed to supporting 200 schools; KFOR are repairing 50 schools, mostly primary. They are being pushed to help with secondary schools, as they have engineering capability. Altogether about 1,000 schools will be tackled;

(d)  to print sufficient textbooks for the interim phase. This will need support from donor agencies, with an estimate of DM5.2 million. (The official textbook publisher in the period of autonomy was the Kosovo Textbooks Publishers Bureau); and

(e)  to pay the salary of teachers: this is estimated at $3 million per month. It is complicated as there is not a proper system of payment through public administration.

  These immediate priorities are then relatively uncontested, and are designed to move as quickly as possible to some sort of formal provision for as many school pupils as possible and to repair the physical infrastructure. More delicate are, and will be, the negotiations about the University, including teacher training. UNMIK is negotiating with both Rectors: of the university of Pristina (the old parallel Albanian University) and Pristina University (the official Serb controlled University). There are also negotiations with the former Ministry of Education and Technology. UNMIK is attempting to have both Albanians and Serbs on these negotiating teams.

  Such negotiations are impeded by the lack of data on how many teachers and lecturers there are, and how many have left. Even in the previous administration, data was very patchy. The official website "Welcome to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavià (FRY) on 6 July 1999 gave education figures for pupils and teachers "without pupils/students and teachers in Albanian from Kosmet" (Kosovo and Metohia).25 Similarly, the FRY Statistics of Education 1997 gives the proviso on almost every relevant page "Data on pupils of primary and secondary schools with lectures in Albanian are not available for Kosovo and Metohia; therefore coverage incorrectly shown."26 It is reported that there were 11 special schools for example, with 292 pupils, but not the breakdown of who attended.

6.  THE WORK OF INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES

  A number of international agencies involved in educational reconstruction in Kosova, and collaboration is particularly important.

6.1  European Union

  The EU is still at the discussion and negotiation phase in many areas. Statements and directives are being adopted and posted on the Internet, for example, Stabilisation and Association Process for countries of South Eastern Europe and the reconstitution of Kosovo ECDG1A Adopted 10 June 1999. This provides a framework of co-operation between the EU, the EC, the US, Russia, Japan, The Balkan countries, Turkey and "other countries", plus relevant organisations.

  The EU's role is to focus on programmes to underpin democracy, to stimulate the economy and to foster contractual relations. EU aid (of 500-700 million EUR) will be directed at humanitarian assistance, the return of refugees (ECHO and UNHCR), the programme of reconstruction (called OBNOVA) and macro-economic aid.

  EU support will be provided through the European Training Foundation and the Phare and Tempus programmes. The latter are to focus on developing functioning higher education administrations and departments and enhancing co-operation between higher education and the economy. It hopes the stability Pact will explore the scope for co-operation in the joint development of teaching and learning materials in central subjects, training and in-service education for teachers, exchanges of students and teachers, the establishment of cross-border training co-operation including business enterprises, partnerships between educational institutions including schools, companies and higher education institutions, and joint efforts to build a regional infrastructure for using modern communications technology in education, training and science.27 There is a stress on life-long learning and synergy between education and the economy. Organisations are asked to help rebuild the system; help pupils and teachers to face up to the consequences of war; guarantee possibilities of sufficient vocational training; and develop, through higher education, the ability to take part in scientific debate and international co-operation.28

6.2  Council of Europe

  The Council condemns all acts of violence and terrorism in Kosova, but neither supports Kosovo's independence, nor endorses Serbia's view that the violation of human rights is an internal matter for FRY. They have stated that Kosova should have a certain degree of autonomy and should be represented in proportion to the percentage of ethnic Albanians in all administrative systems; including education.29 They have asked EU for specific measures regarding anti-corruption, bio-ethics and education for democracy and citizenship. European parliamentarians argued on 23 June 1999 that the Council could also greatly contribute to reform of the schools curricula and education system.30 The Council sponsored a team of Local Government Experts to visit Kosova 26 June to 2 July to report on the actual state of local government and local administration and ways of restoring and restructuring local government and democracy.31

6.3  UNICEF

  UNICEF is key in humanitarian assistance, particularly in health and relief items. It is responsible for the co-ordination of children's health and children in need of special protection. From a recently completed nutrition survey carried out by UNICEF, Action Contre la Faim (ACF) and Mercy Corps International (MCI) it was found that almost every fifth child aged between six and 59 months in Kosovo was stunted. This resulted from micro-nutrition disorders, poor water supply, environmental pollution and frequency of diarrhoea diseases.32 UNICEF is therefore working on this, and immunisation and maternal health questions. They are involved in training for health workers, the upgrading of the knowledge and communication skills of nurses and volunteers on maternal and reproductive health, as well as mobilising the general public in order to re-establish confidence in the state of the health system.

  In education, UNICEF has taken a lead role in chairing co-ordination meetings in Prishtina. It works with Children's Aid Direct (CAD) to provide school supplies for children, distributing some 80,000 individual student kits to 11 municipalities, Additionally, it has distributed teaching/classroom kits (or school-in-a-box) for 20 schools in four municipalities. They are supporting emergency repairs to schools, procuring 4,500 desks and benches for schools as well as wood for heating for 35,000 beneficiaries. ICRC, UNHCR and international NGOs are providing heating stoves. However, it is estimated that more than 12,000 desks and 23,000 chairs are needed. UNICEF will use alternative structures similar to the UNICEF school tents used in refugee camps in Macedonia and Albania.

  Playrooms are to be established for pre-school children and other children who do not attend school, in order to provide recreational and non-formal learning opportunities. Care providers will need to be provided with adequate training, play materials and didactic aids. Catch-up classes for refugees have been organised, combined with recreational activities and psycho-social counselling.

  As other agencies, UNICEF is concerned about landmines, which were laid indiscriminately in Kosova during the conflict in 1998. Although the extent of the landmines problem seems to be relatively limited (OSCE cites fewer than 100 officially confirmed reports), there is international concern about the widespread existence of UXOs (unexploded Ordnance). There is the possibility that booby-traps have been left by fleeing combatants. An educational campaign has been started using posters warning of the danger of landmines and how to avoid accidents, with 100,000 leaflets distributed through schools and other outlets. A radio and TV campaign has also been mounted.

  In terms of psycho-social support for children affected by conflict, activities began in May 1998, using an approach called "Smilekeepers". Collaborating partners include Kinderberg, MCI, Italian Consortium of Solidarity, OXFAM and its six local implementing partners, the Centre for Protection of Women and Children, and the Association of Paraplegics. In February 1999, it was reported that 750 children had benefited from Smilekeepers; it was estimated that 12,500 children will have been involved in the activities by the end of 1999, including 2,500 severely traumatised children. The programme involves training teachers in the methodology of psychological debriefing, in psychological first aid, and in understanding therapeutic consultations in the classroom. UNICEF are supplying manuals in both Albanian and Serbian languages.

  UNICEF are also concerned about teacher training in general, and have conducted an Active Learning programme in Bosnia. This is dedicated to helping teachers to create child-centred classrooms, to use peer tutoring, and to support individual differentiation. It has also worked on introducing school-based management and leadership, and aims to develop demonstration schools there.33 This experience could usefully be repeated in Kosova.

6.4  Save the Children Fund

  SCF has been active in Kosova since 1993. Their main work has consisted of distributing material assistance to refugees living in collective centres throughout Kosova and supporting the rehabilitation of institutions working with children. In April 1997 they opened an office in Prishtina, focusing on developing the capacity of young peoples' organisations, working with young people on health education issues and health assessment, supporting children with disabilities and their parents, and carrying out family tracing for refugees. This office, and one in Prizren, has been reopened; current programmes for refugees in Macedonia and Albania are being reviewed as the number of refugees decreases rapidly. Discussions are taking place with designated authorities and de-mining organisations in SCF's assigned municipalities to create safe areas, such as schools, to allow children to resume structured activities. One school and one football pitch in Djakova have already been de-mined.34

6.5  Soros Foundation

  Rather than contributing humanitarian aid, Soros acts as a catalyst for projects on a longer-term basis. It assists in the needs of displaced children, education, independent media, legal and psychological counselling and the strengthening of civil society. It has organised early childhood programmes, and assisted traumatised parents to help with their children's education.35 A well-known initiative is the KEEP programme (Kosovo Educational Enrichment Program) which has been initiated by the Fund for an Open Society, funded by George Soros. KEEP aims to create model schools with the help of local communities in selected areas of Kosova. This links with two core sub-programmes, "Community School" and "Effective School." The communal dimension carries out repairs, provides sports areas and adapts spaces for cultural events; the effective school dimension focuses on educational content. There are several component parts, including teaching standards development, modern school administration, technical support, school libraries, English language work, computers and extra-curricular activities. KEEP also organised a "Campaign for a return of female students to schools," working with 11 NGOs.36

6.6  Oxfam

  Oxfam started to work in Kosova in 1993, establishing an office there in 1995. Together with UNHCR, they have worked on programmes of clean water, sanitation and rural development, and also support women's organisations and disability groups. They are helping to establish centres for female IDPs. Oxfam works with NOVIB, a Dutch agency, which has major plans for curriculum reform and teacher training.

7.  LOCAL INITIATIVES

  Many locally based organisations in Kosova are joining in the challenge for reconstruction with their own projects. Most are building on activities developed during the past decade. However, in the face of mass initiatives by major donors, it can sometimes be difficult for local NGOs to find a space. Some have not experienced large-scale international organisations before, and have to get used to negotiating and co-ordinating with them. Four examples of local initiatives are given below.

7.1  The Union of Science, Education and Culture

  This teacher's union is likely to be very influential in the future. There are four branches: kindergarten/elementary; secondary; university; and scientific/cultural institutions. The union has been organising for nine years on a self-financing basis. Activities ranged from providing school ambulances to combating new and returned diseases such as TB, to organising paying the teachers through government in exile, to attempting to improve the curriculum through "civil education" and education in individual and collective human rights. It sees the current needs as trying to improve damaged schools; co-ordinating with the UN and the Joint Civil Commission on Education; and trying to unify different aspects of political life. This includes creating one Ministry of Education (from the two current shadow ministries). It also includes ensuring an independent Union: in this regard, a decision has been taken that an executive member cannot also be a member of a political party executive board.

  The union sees in-service training as an urgent issue, in that a system of motivation and networking among the regions must be found for teachers. There is an understandable tradition of teachers only going to seminars if they were paid. Changes are needed in teaching styles, to have more equitable relations with students, abolish corporal punishment, allow students to be free to express opinions, develop creativity and see schools as "an oasis of freedom" among other representative areas such as the patriarchal family.

7.2  KACI (Kosova Action for Civil Initiatives)

  KACI is an independent think tank, which organises around the values of the democratisation of society. It was an advisory group in the Rambouillet talks and is also talking with UNMIK about property and ownership rights. Its aims are to target those areas most damaged by war and trauma, and engage pupils and teachers in workshops on the "fundamentals of civic society". This is later to be enlarged to urban areas. A free English language school is envisaged as part of this strategy. Donors have promised money; ideas such as swimming between local authorities are being explored.

7.3  Post-pessimists

  This highly unusual and influential youth organisation started in May 1995. Its 16 to 20-year-old members aim to bring about positive change and "build a healthy society" without prejudice. Before the NATO bombing there were two co-ordinators, one Albanian and one Serb, and the emphasis of the group is very much on integration. The slogan is "If you cannot become a friend at least try not to be enemies". They claim to be the only integrated youth organisation, although admitting to the problem of finding Serb members. There are three groupings: sociology (which hold round tables and discussions); arts (for music and exhibitions) and journalism (the production of newspapers and magazines in both languages). The post-pessimists have translated the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into an Albanian version for children, in a booklet with pictures. A typical example of the "round tablè approach was in resolving a case at a secondary school where a teacher made extreme rules for behaviour, the teacher was invited together with university people, a psychologist and students from that school and other schools to discuss the issue, and indeed the teacher relaxed his stance subsequently.

  The structure of the organisation is to have members and "candidates", with the latter having to come for three to six months to show their commitment and willingness to work. The President is elected from the Board, which has representatives from each of the three groupings. There is a basic constitution, but each Centre adds its own rules. There are post-pessimists in Belgrade, Solvenia, Croatia and Bosnia, and the organisation maintains an international network. It has received funding from a number of donors, including Norwegian People's Aid and the Soros Foundation. It is currently planning a project called "Children Our Futurè which aims to bring 2,000-2,500 children to an area near the Trade Centre to restore it and turn it into a park for children, as an event with music and picnics. UNICEF will provide posters, and discussions are under way with Oxfam and SCF for their support. A major support comes from KFOR, who help with their current centre. Ongoing plans are to restore the newspaper, for which an office is needed, as the old one was destroyed.

7.4  Creative and cultural activities

  Creative Exchange (a UK Forum for cultural rights and development) has conducted a "modest" survey of creative activities in Kosova, particularly with refugee communities. On the agency side there appears to be far greater interest in using creative and cultural activities in humanitarian aid compared to five years ago during the Bosnian war. The agencies are working with local groups with the majority of activities provided by non-professional local volunteers. The vast majority of activities appeared to consist of drawing or painting. However, theatre, music, circus/clowning, puppetry, mime, craftwork, sports and games were also popular. The majority of the activities aimed at providing a normalising and stabilising experience, offering entertainment and stimulation, alleviating boredom, and in some cases providing informal psycho-social support to cope with trauma. Most interventions appeared to take place in the setting of schools, classrooms, creches or play facilities for refugee children.

  The survey found that such interventions were best executed by arts workers or volunteers with a strong understanding of local conditions and with relevant experience; some foreign artists arrived to perform in refugee camps without any real awareness of experience of emergency situations, and were ill-briefed. It would be important to have clear objectives for creative interventions and a strategic approach to analysing the risks and benefits from this kind of activity. There should be support for the continuation of regular cultural activities, in order to make a valid contribution to stabilisation, to rebuilding of local cultural infrastructures and to shoring up of cultural self-confidence, it is important to ensure that intercultural dialogue "proceeds at its own pacè.37

8.  ISSUES

  There are a number of highly difficult and complicated issues to be resolved in the reconstruction of education in Kosova. In some, ways and given the huge resources from the international community, the rebuilding of the physical infrastructure may be easier and more swiftly completed than rebuilding values. Issues are tackled below under three main headings: pluralism/diversity; content/structure, and sites for learning.

8.1  Pluralism and Diversity

  8.1.1  Ethnic Integration

While it would seem obvious to argue for immediate education in tolerance and living together, the current situation is not immediately conducive to this. A survey in March 1998 quoted by the International Crisis Group reported that 42 per cent of Serbs would like to see all autonomy for Kosova abolished, 40.7 per cent would grant them limited autonomy, while only 8.3 per cent believed that Kosova should be autonomous.38 With the declining popularity of Milosevic, and the impact of NATO bombing and international disapprobation, these attitudes may have shifted, but it will take a long time before traditional Serb feelings of sovereignty over the region will change. For Kosovar Albanians, the barbarity and destruction, the loss of family, homes and livelihood, will mean "forgiveness" would be a very long way off. It would be facile to start up conventional "education for tolerancè courses while the evidence of Serb devastation is still surrounding students and their teachers. Children are returning to schools with 10-inch shell holes in the walls.39

  However, there appears to be some success in the calls for Albanian restraint in reprisals. Inevitably, Serbs have been killed, some homes destroyed and property claimed; the KLA is not a unified force, and contains renegade elements. It is split down a "bizarrè ideological divide, with hints of fascism on one side and "whiffs of communism on the other".40 However, the overall picture of Albanians as a non-violent people still holds, and there is hope that the future will see agreement to co-exist, even if strong association or "mutual understanding" is not feasible. At least religious intolerance is not an issue in Kosova. The editor of ZERI who is a member of the negotiating committee for the new government, analyses the problem as behaviour ingrained with "communist pollution", of which an important element is lack of tolerance, "trying to find who is responsible for this bad position, and no-one looking at their own biography".

  KACI feels that people need "real experience in pluralistic lifè and that this will require a deep institutional reform in education. UNICEF is exploring the development of resources to promote human and child rights and assist local reconciliation efforts through peace education.

  For historians such as Noel Malcolm, while both sides have had blinkered views of the history of Kosova, the

"constricted understanding of the Serbs is the more serious impediment of the two . . . whose hopes of genuine democratic development have been poisoned by the constant reintroduction from above of a politics of fantasy and hatred. When ordinary Serbs learn to think more rationally and humanely about Kosovo, and more critically about some of their national myths, all the people of Kosovo and Serbia will benefit—not least the Serbs themselves."41

  The task of enabling youth to think "more rationally and humanely" is an enormous one, and is one of the biggest challenges of an education system. The view of this report is that it should start in the first instance at the teacher training level, as well as in non-formal education, such as in support for various youth groups working for peace.

  There is important work continuing, for example, from a number of smaller organisations such as Pax Christi Flanders and Pax Christi Netherlands. For four years this has been trying to facilitate a dialogue between Serbian and Albanian young people, with 20 organisations involved. Albanian and Serbian political parties, NGOs and student organisations. Fifteen meetings have taken place, not only in Kosova and Belgrade, but in different countries of Europe, including Northern Ireland. In Brussels, young representatives of all Albanian and almost all Serbian Political parties visited educational structures in Belgium. When Serb participants came to Kosova in 1998, it was the first time they had ever visited. It was reported that during the war from March until June 1999, Serb and Albanian participants stayed in touch by phone, asking each other for help.42 The report admits "after all the atrocities which happened during the war the process of establishing regular contacts might be much harder".

  Education in human rights has to be treated with care. A report from a refugee education programme in Tirana in April 1999, mentioned how the first phase involved playing with the children to make them feel free using jokes and games; the second phase used toys and books "to show children their human rights, which were repressed by the Serbs".43 This particular programme also stresses respect for other cultures, with lessons in "international culturè, but it would not be difficult for materials on human rights, used in unskilled hands, just to emphasis the barbarity of the repressors and to continue hatred.

  One should also not overlook tensions within Albanian party politics. The Westminster Foundation for Democracy June 1999 report was hard-hitting about the problems of creating a pluralist and multi-ethnic Kosova.

  The end of conflict and insertion of KFOR have not been matched by political willingness by the three main political forces to set aside their differences in the interests of making political progress. Instead, no one is voicing any grounds for optimism in the foreseeable future. Further, the current party frameworks spawned in the Albanian community under Serbdom may not be appropriate for the new Kosovo.44

  Hence the WFD's priorities would be for a training programme in the organisation of political parties and in political management, with maximum learning and political awareness training for participants, and minimum opportunity to argue politics and their political differences between each other.

8.1.2.  Gender

  Unusally in predominately Muslim societies, all schooling and higher education has been coeducational. There is no evidence of any Islamic fundamentalism which would curtail educational activities for women and girls. However, in rural areas, girls are likely to be the first victims of economic circumstances and will be withdrawn from schools if parents are unable to afford schooling for all their children. The overall estimated illiteracy rate of 20 per cent is higher among women.45 The female literacy rate in rural areas is reported to be 65 per cent. Up to 80 per cent of refugees or IDPs are women and children, confirming a pattern already reported from in Bosnia, where able-bodied men stay behind to defend their villages. There are problems in this definition, for UNHCR has an automatic mandate only to help refugees, not those who remain displaced in their own country; these are the responsibility of their home government—even if the government caused the humanitarian crisis in the first place. Women have been the victim of sexual violence and suffer the further problem of ostracism from their own community.

  The society in Yugoslavia generally is traditionally patriarchal. Socialist ideology ensured equal educational opportunity, but male power at the systemic and cultural level characterises gender relations. While there are women in the medical and educational professions (with women 80 per cent of primary teachers), women have been largely excluded from politics Rural women did not benefit much from new technology, with the traditional double burden of agricultural and domestic work.46 However, women fought in the KLA during the conflict, and are highly active in current media circles. Remnants of communist ideology regulated fixed proportions of women in some firms.

  There are a number of organisations arguing for women's rights and human rights. With their long history of secret organising, they do not need training in setting up an organisation, rather in professional

development. A Gender Affairs Unit will be created in UNMIK, which will look at the protection of groups vulnerable to human rights abuses, such as women, children and the disabled. The influential radio station Radio 21 is run by women, who also used their homes to run classes for girls on conflict resolution. They also produce a monthly magazine for women called Eritrea.

  Nonetheless in rural areas it was suggested that women would have to earn more money and could be involved in projects such as counselling for post-trauma, or in production of items such as carpets which had been destroyed.

  Different interviewees mentioned the particular problem of the incorporation of the young male into civil society. Certainly, research into gender differentials in the way that males and females respond to crisis and disaster has indicated that women may be better able to cope, with men less free to express emotions and admit the loss of a breadwinning or status role.47

8.1.3  Rural/urban divide

  This was mentioned by a number of respondents and texts. Young people who were trying to promote cultural events were aware that these might be rejected by young rural males. Musically, there have been concerts and events, but they have concentrated on patriotic, folk-lore styles of song, with little else; young people would prefer something more international.

  Rural people felt that "they did the fighting", they liberated the town; unless one had lost one's home and family, one had little right to speak of suffering. It was surmised that one would need the backing of the KLA before English teaching, for example, could be introduced in some areas. The clan system, and the sense of honour and vengeance is still strong in rural regions; the tradition of blood feuds will not have been helped by the current conflict.

8.1.4  Roma (traveller) children

  A concern which has been overshadowed by the present Serb-Albanian conflict is the situation of the minority Roma group, who probably constitute the poorest and lowest status group of all. According to data provided by Roma associations, there are about 500,000 Roma in Yugoslavia. Although the figure from official statistics from 1991 was 131,000.48 Apart from some "positive experiences" in some municipalities in Kosovo, where the Roman language and culture was in corporated into curricula, the education of Roma children has been carried out in one of the other listed languages. This is said to have resulted in high drop-out, very low enrolment rate and large numbers of underachievers among Roma children. There is a lack of teaching staff for minority instruction and absence of in-service training. The Roma are seen as the real forgotten and alienated group: there is a refugee camp of 1,000 gypsies in Montenegro, where they are given food and shelter but where "nobody goes near". On 20 July the Italian government decreed that because of the end of the "official conflict" no more refugees will be accepted, although boats with hundreds of Roma refugees were still arriving, still suffering persecution.49

  A particular problem is the perception that a large number of Kosova's gypsies have "thrown in their lot" with the Serbian minority, taking Serb names and saints' days, their bands playing Serbian songs and their people speaking Serbian as well as Albanian.50 Many have headed for the uncertainty of Serbia. It is not a good climate to start urging focused educational policies for them.

8.1.5  Disability

  It is thought that there is an increase in the children with special educational needs, although, like all education statistics, numbers are impossible to obtain. According to Children's Aid Direct, there could be as many as 23,000 disabled children in Kosova. Few have social protection or provision and are totally dependent on their families, or on centres staffed by volunteers under the parallel system. The rights of the disabled hardly exist. Organisations in UK, some working with the Mother Teresa organisation, are trying to support two special schools in Prishtina, as they have been stripped of equipment. The relevant discipline in Higher Education is called "Defectology"51, and it is likely that not just facilities but also concepts of special need will need modernising.

8.1.6  The Role and History of the KLA

  Another imponderable for the future is the stance and activity of the Kosova Liberation Army. Their spokesman Krasniqu told the Albanian-language daily on 12 July 1998 "I do not think we have ideology". Most of the leaders of the faction of the KLA in exile were students at Pristina University in 1974. It is claimed that "along with its degree programs, Pristina University began to quietly school young Kosovar leaders in the art of revolution".52 But young Albanians in the KLA repudiated not only Serb rule but also Rugova's older, urbane leadership and feel betrayed by the Albanian intellectuals. There is suspicion that they will be bankrolled by Islamic radicals. The Student Unions too are perceived to be politically oriented, with their members all having joined the KLA. The association of KLA leadership and membership with the University means that it will be difficult for the latter to be seen as a neutral apolitical force for peace. It could be hypothesised that the difficult negotiations that UNMIK is having with the two rectors are not just about curriculum and structure of learning, but about control and ideological slant. The Faculty of Education will not be outside such tensions.

8.1.7  Values for peace

  "Kosova without an enemy does not know how to function. It needs to channel its negative energy, otherwise people will turn against each other", in the view of one influential newspaper editor. Tolerance is seen as the most important Western value, plus the notion of change. The editor's analysis was of three levels of democracy, political, economic and educational/cultural. His view was that everyone would speak of democracy at the first level, even if this is misleading; at the second level, communist ideas of state-run activity will betray their true orientations; but it is at the third level that the last remnants of communism will remain, and will be the most intractable.

  Newspaper reports speak of discovering a Serb school where military training aids were used to instruct children how to use mines and booby traps. Textbooks included diagrams on how to find and attack a tank's weak spots and how to set a mine beneath the ground or in the long grass.53 Significantly, however, these instructions were in Albanian, although later reports provided evidence that the instructions had also been found in Serbo-Croat. The implication is that both Serb and Albanian children had been taught bomb-making techniques at different periods of the school's history. The "defencè curriculum is deeply ingrained on both sides.

  However, in an article on education and peaceful ethnic conflict resolution. Piggot questions UNICEF's analysis that local students and newcomers are unaccustomed to living with different ethnicity's and cultures and need to learn how to deal with difference. She claims that one in seven marriages in the former Yugoslavia was mixed, one in three in ethnically mixed areas, and that people are used to living with different cultures. She quotes a psychologist working with the Smile Keepers project in Serbia who was concerned about non-peaceful messages being put across and who also commented on targets for peace education. Bullying may be dealt with at the level of the individual, but the course of war takes place outside their control. A recent symposium on conflict resolution and education in Germany was "as if they had forgotten that children were not the problem".54

  There are then dilemmas in the targeting of peace education and education for non-violence. Children are the most tractable, and they form the next generation; but there needs to be a properly sustainable economy and working set of democratic institutions if this education is to take root.

8.2  Content and outcomes of education

  8.2.1  Education for employment

Kosova is the poorest region of FRY and has been one of the most underdeveloped areas in Europe for decades. Unemployment is high and was estimated in March 1998 to be 75 per cent.55 This resulted at least partly from dismissal from state enterprises and therefore with Kosovan return to these jobs, unemployment should decline, but it will still be a significant problem. The curriculum will need to address vocational needs and preparation for paid or self-employment. The original Marxist concentration on industry might shift towards improving agricultural skills and production. Socialist pedagogy has been based on a "monistic" rather than pluralistic approach, with only one educational goal "the comprehensively developed personality".56 This hides the goal of political socialisation, and plays down economic goals, as can be found in market-regulated economies. More overt links with a potential labour market, and therefore co-ordination with a Ministry of Employment seems to be priorities. Students will need not just skills for the labour market, but job-seeking skills, which are particularly difficult for displaced persons.

8.2.2  Curriculum

  A key issue both for existing teachers, for the unions and for students is new subjects on the curriculum. The union representative mentioned civic education (including rights and responsibilities), multicultural education (including education for tolerance, so that the mistakes of the past are not repeated); and new history and geography which is unbiased and avoids propaganda. Young people talked of the need for sex, AIDS and drugs education (even if the Soros methods of distributing condoms in schools was seen as totally inappropriate). There was awareness that many of the old social and familial rules had broken down, particularly as people spent time in refugee camps, and a new moral order was necessary. KACI talked of the need for social activities, making the school a "centre of sociability". Both sport and theatre were seen as potentially unifying and motivating aspects of young activity, and could usefully be a solid part of school curriculum.

  However, curriculum is likely to be contested. Interviewees intimidated that the older generation will insist on a national curriculum, including national history and music. Current Ministry officials will be doubtful about content such as sex education or other "funny ones". Others in education however will strive for an international "balancè looking outward to the rest of Europe and to the Western world. One imperative will be to reduce the number of subjects and allow for more choice and specialism, especially towards the end of secondary school. It is clear that Albanians will look to the West, contrasting with Serbs who have looked towards Russia.

8.2.3  Culture and Arts

  There appears to be little tradition of a link between formal schooling and cultural life, and indeed the cultural editor of Koha Ditore, the leading daily, was unsure that getting young people together to engage in culture in institutions was necessarily advisable. Previously there was some music and art in high school, but not drama or film studies. Art was of the draw-an-apple variety, and music was writing the score and clefs. Albanian music teachers were not allowed to teach Serb children during the last 10 years. There was no traditional audience for classical music. The implication is that there is not likely to be a large pool of arts teachers who can revitalise this area of activity and learning. Currently no one is co-ordinating culture, and—as in many walks of life—people are appointing themselves as directors of theatres or TV stations. Understandably, with the military and political history, culture can become pushed out of newspapers. There is therefore space for theatre and music workshops for young people; and international events such as the planned three-day festival in September are aimed to promote local arts activities through interaction with international musicians and actors. However, the future of school music and the arts is unclear, until the curriculum review is completed.

8.2.4  Teaching and learning styles

  There is a consensus among all generations that teaching has been characterised by authoritarianism and role learning. The emphasis on social realism and the limited number of books and materials has meant that pupils are not used to forming their own opinions. There was little questioning, and assessment was characterised by regurgitation by pupils of facts and opinions from the teacher. Without books, teachers simply read out their notes, which the pupils took down. Serb propaganda was replaced with Albanian propaganda, and essays just copied out what material there was. It is seen as essential to give children a voice in their classrooms and schools, to be treated with humanity.

  With university academics and others losing their jobs, young people saw little value in education, and the substandard conditions of education did not add to their enjoyment. Currently, the type of work available is mostly with international agencies: as one student pointed out, there will be a great generation of interpreters and drivers.

  The oral assessment tradition is seen as potentially biased. The young people interviewed wanted more emphasis on written examinations which would give time for thought and the opportunity to rectify mistakes. If there were oral examinations, then another teacher than their own should conduct these, to prevent favouritism and indeed to avoid bribery and corruption.

  The age profile of academics at the University who influenced and will continue to influence curriculum was seen as problematic by young people, and this profile was evident in terms of senior people who are returning to jobs having waited a long time to regain them, with no middle cadre having been trained in the meantime.

8.3  Sites for Learning

  8.3.1  University Reform

In the reform of the University, as elsewhere, the difficult questions of integration will have to be solved. 13 Faculties have been operating under the parallel system. UNMIK envisages the reconstruction of a multi-ethnic university, but the Yugoslav federal government wants parallel universities. Its recent appointment of a new Rector for the University is a signal of the interest by the Milosevic government. The World University Service is active in repairing the facilities and providing materials, but points out that there are no figures for Serbian students and professors remaining in Kosova, and thus dividing the power structure equally is hardly viable.57 There is no certainty that those who remain will welcome contact with people whose sympathies are with the KLA. The English department did lecture to both Serbs and Albanians together, even if for tutorials students went to tutors of their respective languages. Complete integration is perceived as much more difficult now. Regulations about language are simultaneously being reviewed: any professor that wants to lecture in the Medical Faculty must be able to speak both Serbo-Croat and Albanian, as patients cannot be divided; but this regulation will not apply to other Faculties, and divisions will most likely continue. The difference from the old system is envisaged to be that there will be one administration, one rector and one system of examining and certification.

  The need for a new structure and curriculum is mentioned in many circles. KACI is talking with the Central European University, who provide assistance. Teacher education is at the forefront, but also modernisation, the provision of laboratories and equipment and exposure to new theories and ideas. Those seeing the role of the media as central in rebuilding society and enabling information flows, would like to see a Faculty of Journalism established, while recognising the difficulties in opening a new Faculty. A librarianship qualification is also advisable.

  Faculties such as engineering have suffered greatly. An engineer needs a job to go to, and as none were available to Albanians, students "did not bother to study". Staff had no chance to go abroad and learn new techniques. The University would have a responsibility to link engineering to environmental studies, as the previous regime showed little care for the environment, exploiting the old Russian machinery to the limit and creating problems of pollution and effluence.

  Another area would be the Faculty of Law. All Albanian judges were expelled in one day, 27 July 1992, and less qualified Serbs were brought in; as in other professions, those working or teaching in the law found other jobs. The parallel Faculty of Law survived, in spite of police harassment, as it was the only means of resistance, and attempts at a parallel judiciary failed. However, it is in bad condition. There will be much work to do around legal reform, particularly with regard to discrimination.

  The Faculty of English used to have book stocks replenished by the British Council, but the library is now impoverished, and renewing links with English departments in UK universities is a priority. There appears to be a problem with the image of the English and Modern Languages departments, in that there is the outside perception that their main role is training teachers, rather than a broader based preparation for work and intellectual life.

  The culture of learning at the University is seen to require an overhaul. In the parallel system there were huge problems of attendance, with almost a "part-timè system in operation whereby students turned up only for the examinations. There has been no staff development in terms of higher education pedagogy and both staff and students have been unused to using journals and current information to inform their work. From hugely overloaded school curriculum, students are "worn out" when they arrive at University and are not professionally oriented to learning. Study skills will be a priority at all levels, as will training for university lecturers in teaching methods.

  Finally, the basic regulations of the University are currently under discussion. Questions to be resolved range around student fees and selection. A "symbolic" amount was paid under the parallel system, but now should students pay at all? Should "bright" students pay nothing? How should selection be done? For the last 10 years, the efforts have gone towards retaining students in the system and therefore entry standards have not been high; there is a need now to raise academic and admissions standards, without discouraging students or contributing to their going abroad for study.

8.3.2  Teacher Training

  This has occurred in two places, the teacher training "high schools" and the University. The high schools are in fact the equivalent of further education in UK, catering for post-secondary students, around the age of 18, and providing a two year, four semester training. There have been problems with the recruitment of staff in these schools, in terms of their own training and qualifications; in some quarters the schools, are seen as providing a superficial preparation for teaching with low standards of certification.

  The Faculty of Education, currently called Fakulteti i Mesusise, has reopened, with most of the "pedagogists" gathering there. Co-ordination will be needed between this Faculty and the teaching high schools, and review of the total provision, length of training and content across the system. The curriculum of teacher training has been the standard socialist one as found in the schools—Marxism, "defencè and a very broad subject base. Assessment, as in schools, is of the one-off, oral type. It will need a large overhaul to make teachers into active learners and reflective practitioners, and to create a research culture in education.

8.3.3  The Management of Education

  At all levels of the education system, there will be a need for the development in management capacity. At the University, it was admitted that staff knew about curriculum, but knew less about how to manage a large institution. Administration was inherited from socialism, with labour-intensive offices. At the school level again, the parallel system did not give a great deal of experience of managing complex integrated systems, although of course it gave a great deal of experience of managing under resource constraints and subordination.

  The training of national, regional and local authorities will be needed, to run an efficient education system. The Council of Europe's Local Government investigation found that while the Government of Serbia introduced a district level of government, the district did not deliver services and now plays no useful function. Provision of services took place at the "communè (ie municipal) level, with the 29 communes providing buildings and supplies for education, but with salaries paid directly by the Serbian government. Currently, the communes are functioning inadequately or not at all. Records are difficult to find, are often in Serbian only and do not correspond to oral explanations. The Council of Europe team recommended that in the transition period, the communes continue to be responsible for services to the community; given the size of Kosova as equivalent to an English County Council or Belgian province, there is no role for the creation of a level between a provincial government and the communes. There are problems of operating according to the rule of law and with respect to human rights; the parallel system is being managed in a non-professional way and on a voluntary basis. Local staff need to acquire new know-how; new skills and different attitudes. This can be done via training and partnerships with other commune and other countries. In educational terms, therefore, there is a need to train those working in the education service, but also generally in local government administration. The recommendation is also for an Ombudsman function established at provincial level.58

8.3.4  Education and the Media

  All families in kosova are used to sitting round listening to the radio for long periods. Radio and television will be central in non-formal and mass popular education. Radio 21, for example, has recently and successfully tried training their audience in conflict resolution skills and in confidence raising, through story building techniques. Their planned expansion of programming will include educational programmes, and it would not be difficult to get a donor to supply radios to school. Media-related workshops for young people are another valuable area for investment. It is important that media experts are included in future curriculum and content reviews for formal education.

8.3.5  National and Local Library Provision

  The current Director of the National Library, a former librarian before 1990, arrived on 29 June and found only a Serbian Guard left. The complete neglect of the library for 10 years means an urgent task to make it once more into a place of learning, as benefits its dual status as also the University Library. Obvious priorities are to computerise all activities; to introduce the Internet and world databases; to upgrade the library holdings; to train new librarians (the old secondary school for librarians having been discontinued); and to upgrade existing staff. There is some controversy over the administrative control of the library, with the Director seeing it is more appropriately placed under the Ministry of Education and Science rather than the Ministry of Youth and Sports. Links with libraries in other countries will be important, not just in assistance with resources, but in staff exchanges to enable "catching up".

  Kosova generally has good tradition of libraries, with 600 of all types. There are 29 Faculty libraries in the University of Pristina (although again, their condition will be doubtful), and there were libraries within schools as well as public libraries in towns and villages which were borrowing libraries. There are children's libraries, but no library schools service as such. There are admitted difficulties of attracting readers back into libraries, especially as they have been damaged and under-resourced. The "false illusion" that Yugoslavs had access to foreign literature was referred to, with the prohibition of radical texts meaning that people were cut off from intellectual life and international thinking. It will take time to rebuild the idea of access to a world of learning and argument.

  In public libraries outside Prishtina, Albanian readers were allowed in, even if stocks of Albanian books were not replenished, and Albanian newspapers were not allowed. Mitrovica library had 3,000 members, 72 per cent of whom were Albanians. There, as elsewhere, computers and other technical equipment have been removed by the Serbs and will need replacing. It is likely that the library can become the centre for cultural activities: in Mitrovica, other buildings have been destroyed, and the Director is organising events to promote Albanian authors and writing, as well as discussion groups on the Kosova constitution. The library is planning to work with primary and secondary schools, to see what they need and try to enrol more pupil members. It is also thinking of having a classroom for English teaching. They would benefit nonetheless from assistance, both in resources and in innovative ideas to enhance the attractiveness of libraries and of a reading culture. It is interesting, however, that many rural women had libraries. Among their other activities in women's reproductive health and in women's and in women's sport, the Legjenda group in Drenicka ran a library, aiming to enable women to participate fully in society.

9.  FUTURE WORK AND INITIATIVES

  In any post-conflict situation, the classic balance between immediate humanitarian education aiming at survival of resilience and formal systemic education aiming at skills and manpower should show a shift over time, as represented in the model below, derived from the work of Chris Williams on street children.

  Immediately after crisis, there is an urgent need more for the welfare side of education, which then should tail off; formal education initiatives and structures gain in importance as normality returns. What is important in Kosova, is to decide whether everything should or can be tackled simultaneously, or whether certain initiatives wait for the long-term. This is linked to the question of who or which agency usefully provides which support. It would seem that agencies such as UNICEF are rightly providing or co-ordinating the humanitarian, welfare side of a new learning environment (the top triangle). But this does not mean that formal education must wait until all these efforts are in place. Post-disaster or post-conflict situations show how important it is to start to return to "normality" as soon as possible, and if this normality is cultural events, or formal classrooms, then efforts should be made to encourage and support these.

  This report identifies five major areas of immediate need for reform within the educational sector.

9.1  Education for Democracy, and Democratic Education

  Like countries in transition from communism, everyone speaks of democracy. Clearly there will be many meanings attached to this term. Timothy Garton Ashs' analysis of Milosevic's regime is of an extreme post-communist example of what has been called a demokratura: formally democratic, substantially authoritarian. "These post-communist demokraturas maintain their power through control of state television, the secret police and the misappropriation of large parts of the state-owned economy".60 Kosova will not go to the way of such demokraturas, but nonetheless there is much work and education to do to establish a consensus on working models of democracy in the region. Area where assistance has been suggested are:

—  providing workshops on democracy in school and university, which look not only at human rights, but at the basic democratic processes of participation, representation, voice, legitimacy, transparency and accountability;

—  for teacher training institutions in particular to show the way in organising democratically, so that teachers experience for themselves for processes of decision-making, debate, listening skills and consultation; and

—  publications on different definitions of democracy, to show the complexity and implications.

  There is a traditional in rural areas of village elders gathering to discuss and consult, but this would need to be gender-inclusive. Yet it is essential that Kosova democracy is self-defined and developed. As Mijatovic points out:

  "If we observe what has concretely happened in the ex-Communist states, we observe a kind of `Frankenstein syndrome'. The parties that have gained power have simply and fairly uncritically copied systems from abroad applied them to their societies (adopting the tax system of one country, the health system of another, etc). A main characteristic of pluralistic democracy is missed in this process, namely that for a democracyto function successfully a synthesis of authentic experiences, creative energies and critical self-assessment is necessary"61.

  Any promotion of education for democracy would not impose western European models, nor simply equate democracy with the free market, but work actively with teachers and students to develop their own indicators for democratic and civil practice in schools and higher education. Analysing ex-communist countries such as Poland who do appear to have moved towards more emancipatory methods in education together with apparently established democracies such as UK would help this development.

9.2  Teacher Education

  The previous situation of teaching/learning styles, and of outdated pedagogy has been described above. Given previously centralised curricula, and lack of opportunity and resources to produce high quality materials, useful initiatives would be in:

—  taking teams of educators to other countries to observe schools and different ways of pre-service and in-service training;

—  workshops in Kosova for teacher educators;

—  a twinning arrangement or link with a Faculty of Education in UK and the Faculty of Education, Pristina, whereby interchange could assist the restructuring and upgrading of the provision and therefore of the teaching profession, as well as staff development in higher education itself;

—  exchange of teachers at different levels of schools—pre-school, elementary, secondary and teacher training high schools;

—  training of teachers in curriculum and textbook design, so that they can participate in production and evaluation on materials;

—  training in integration of pupils with disabilities, in psycho-social support, and in dealing with controversial issues as AIDA education and reproductive health;

—  training in education for Roma and travellers' children; and

—  provision of books on education, particularly in an international context, and translations into Albanian where necessary.

9.3  Educational Management

  Similarly, there has been a time lag in gaining certain types of management experience, particularly for younger administrators of schools and authorities. Strategies for development might include:

—  core teams of managers at various levels of the educational system travelling outside Kosovo to look at decentralisation, local management of schools, school self-evaluation and classroom management;

—  workshops for educational administrators by outside consultants, encouraging networks of school principals to share ideas;

—  specific training for headteachers and principals, including work on data bases and records, finance, dealing with differentiation, working with the community, and the management of diverse pupil groups, including traveller pupils and street children;

—  provision of management journals and manuals for the University and for other education management organisations and teacher training schools;

—  ensuring that there is a gender balance in senior management training and eventual positions or responsibilities; and

—  exercises in management in times of turbulence.

9.4  English Language Teaching

  There is universal agreement on both the importance and popularity of English, and the desire by people of all ages and occupation to learn or improve English skills. This has been heightened by the presence of international organisations and troops, but is seen as the key to moving into the modern and western world of democracy and economic growth. This largely Muslim population is said to be only interested in English, not in Arabic. Private English schools are flourishing, charging up to DM500 a month. The COE/Local Government report argued that local liaison teams should set up, fluent in English and /or other European languages, who could be trained first in the basics of local government and public management.62

  It could be argued that all the three above areas (teacher education, management and democracy) would also be enhanced through international communication enabled through knowledge of English language.

  There are many ways that English learning can be enhanced:

—  assistance with English language materials to schools and the university;

—  an English corner in public libraries;

—  English Language Teaching by accredited agencies such as the British Council;

—  training of ELT teachers;

—  English campaigns in the press and the radio, to keep up a daily dialogue or a gradual build-up of vocabulary and phrases;

—  when more available, an internet exchange between young people in schools in the UK and Kosova;

—  capitalising on English used in pop songs, television dramas and advertising;

—  a School of Translation at the University (capitalising on the current need for interpreters by the many international agencies); and

—  accreditation of existing language teaching institutions and schools, to ensure quality.

9.5  Youth and Culture

  As a World Bank report points out, most of the young generation have experienced not just an authoritarian system, but especially the state of emergency throughout their entire lives. This explains much about their political attitudes, particularly in comparison with their elders. The educational and social needs are seen as crucial.63

  What are sometimes termed "extra-curricular activities" assume great importance in rebuilding a culture, particularly where there have been question-marks over national identity, or where there is an urgency in reforging social and ethnic relations. Assistance can be provided in:

—  support for youth groups such as the post-pessimists, in their activities such as environmental improvement and environmental education, as well as social/political education and discussion;

—  support for young people engaged in musical and artistic activity, by bringing in artists and running workshops in schools and civic centres alongside any benefit concerts;

—  enabling groups of young performers or artists to visit UK and then "cascadè ideas and skills to other young people on their return; and

—  when educational technology permits, the joining of initiatives such as Bosnian Kids Online, which bring together children from ethnically divided regions through the internet, especially where normal communication patterns do not work too well.64

10.  FINAL REFLECTION

  Of the three main terms of reference of the report, to explore past, present and future trends within education, the third is clearly where the strategic interest will lie. Key features which have emerged are the need for co-ordination, for democratic principles and for a focus on young people—in and out of formal educational settings. Firstly, co-ordination, mutual intelligence and collaboration are needed, not just between Albanian and Serb voices where this is possible, but between all the various agencies who will be participating in highly diverse ways in the reconstruction of education in Kosova. There is, secondly, a real opportunity to establish democratic ways of learning, teaching and organising. Democratic principles such as respect for evidence, equity in citizenship and rights, and informed participation in decision-making can be the foundation for the more specific understandings of discrimination. Thirdly, while it is a truism to say that the young are the future, the very age balance of Kosova and the way that part of the region's troubles stem from generations of myths passed down about territory, mean that it is essential to start critical education from a very young age. This education should be international and outward looking, focusing on skills, attitudes and emotions. This is why the report has outlined a five-prong emphasis: democratic education; teacher education; education management; English language; and youth cultural activities. Kosovans want to be truly part of Europe; they will welcome a critical exploration of what a European education and orientation might mean.

  There are a number of books and publications on rapid educational response in complex emergencies.65 These outline a whole raft of activities, from landmine awareness to distance education and adult literacy, as well as the more predictable refugee education and psycho-social counselling. The emphasis is on a "durable solution", which means education for social and economic development. Kosova is perhaps unique, in that it has experienced 10 years of self-organisation, and its people are highly experienced in resourcefulness and enterprise. It would be important not to impose external solutions, nor to assume lack of educational knowledge or vision. An interesting comment was made by the Director of the Open Society in Brussels, that "Because they have run their own education and health systems for 10 years, they are already the world's largest NGO". Nonetheless the very situation of what corresponds to a moment of independence means that Kosova is rebuilding almost from scratch and will welcome a great range of support and collaboration. In giving detail of the past and current history and politics of education in Kosova, it is hoped that this report is able to assist those working through the medium of education towards this "durable solution" to an equally long-standing crisis.

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Prepared 7 June 2000