The Minister of Education, Science, Technology and Information, Arbërie Nagavci, has announced that from June 2024, the testing of teachers who want an advanced license will begin.

Nagavci, in a media conference held on December 28 in Pristina, said that teachers are not against this test that will enable career advancement or a higher salary.

“We have already finalized the legal infrastructure, the administrative instructions that enable the testing of teachers, we are in cooperation with the State Council for the Licensing of Teachers and our partners, also in the process of creating a guide that will make all procedures clear, the criteria and everything else that is necessary for the successful completion of the test”, said Nagavci.

The United Union of Education, Science and Culture (SBASHK) opposes the idea of ​​testing teachers as a way to relicense them.

The head of this union, Rrahman Jasharaj, told Radio Free Europe earlier that “such a written test” would be considered humiliating and degrading by the teachers, because they have completed the relevant education.

However, he had emphasized that the trade unionists are not against the assessment of teachers’ performance, as well as their promotion.

Nagavci said that SBASHK should not oppose career advancement for teachers.

“I believe that the teachers are not against… they will be successful in this evaluation that will be done and they will be able to advance in their career, there may be individual cases, but I don’t think it is good for SBASHK to come out in support of those who may have problems”, said Nagavci.

While talking about the advanced license testing, Nagavci said that they are cooperating with Albania for this, and according to her, they will find out more about this testing in the third month of next year.

“We are in cooperation with the Republic of Albania, who carry out such a test for teachers. Our colleagues have already had several meetings and we have worked in this direction and we will announce this in the first three months of next year, and the aim is to start with the test for the advanced license from June”, said Nagavci.

The quality of education in the country’s pre-university system has often been criticized by international institutions.

In a report published by the World Bank in 2020, it was said that students in Kosovo “have a big learning curve”./REL