Pristina, November 11, 2022 – The Ombudsman published the ex-officio report no. 331/2022 regarding the alignment of the provisions of the general pre-university education system of Kosovo with the rights of children in education.

The report aimed to assess the participation of children, the inclusiveness of educational institutions and the importance of education offered in Kosovo, and to determine whether they serve to fulfill the right of children to education, as a basic human right.

Kosovo has generally achieved almost universal participation in general pre-university education, with the exception of pre-school education, where data is extremely low, despite some incremental improvements in recent years. As for inclusion in education, despite the great lack of resources, the report finds that schools are generally inclusive and accepting of all students, as well as friendlier and more open to diversity compared to a decade ago.

The report also highlights the challenges and problems in the education system in Kosovo, such as the lack of opportunity for students to develop their potential according to their needs and abilities, in accordance with the constitutional provisions. All indicators, from the investigation of the documentation and the findings from the empirical research, show that the education system of Kosovo is far from providing these opportunities.

The result of PISA in education in general remains worrying. The People’s Advocate emphasizes that the quality of education is not at the appropriate level to prepare students for life, underlining the individual and subjective right to a specific quality of education, according to Article 29 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The Ombudsman also finds that the participation and integration of children with disabilities and learning difficulties in regular education has marked progress, but it is still far from including at least 50 percent of these children in the education offered. Likewise, the situation is not good when it comes to the participation in education of the children of the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities. Despite the progress made in improving the participation of the children of these communities, they still lag significantly behind other communities, especially in preschool and upper secondary education.

Similarly, the education system is faced with the problem of lack of textbooks for teaching in Bosnian and Turkish languages, which has been partially solved but needs improvement.

The Ombudsman has suggested recommendations for the responsible authorities, in this case the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, as well as recommendations for the Municipalities of Kosovo, in order to take measures to improve and promote the child’s rights to education.

Report in English soon avaliable at www.oik-rks.org