It is quite clear that our students do not read enough. Even when they do read, the reading is not of high quality. They read just to achieve a result; a desired grade on a test, a desired grade… They do not read to learn. This may be the central cause of the stagnation that has gripped our education system.
Florence Krasniqi
Our collective attention to the field of education is updated only when the PISA results are released. So, once every 3 or 4 years, young and old, experts and lay people in the field of education, attack social networks or television studios to give their "valuable" opinion on why we are where we are; to find those responsible for what has led us to this state. Suddenly, we all become aware, we all have an opinion, we all have a solution. But, surprisingly, nothing changes. The euphoria that overwhelms us passes within a few days, while the problems remain. We return to our daily reality. Our collective attention returns to the dialogue with Serbia, the association and such topics from which we cannot possibly detach ourselves. It remains to talk about education again in 4 years when the results of the next PISA test are announced, it is understood whether Kosovo will still be part of it.
As a professional in the field of education, as a teacher at the upper secondary level, I face every day the challenges discussed in recent days. And of course the problems are big. But the PISA test is not an accurate reflection of the problems in the Kosovo education system. Yes, it is one of the indicators of the problem, but not the most important and certainly not the only one. The results of the PISA test are a consequence. And the problem is that by focusing entirely on the PISA results as a consequence, we distract attention from the cause that causes this consequence.
Therefore, the question naturally arises, why do our students perform so poorly in PISA? Are our students really as weak as the results indicate?
When the PISA test was conducted in 2021, the results of which were just published, the school where I work was one of the schools in Kosovo where this test was conducted. After the test was completed, I spoke with the students who were part of the test to get their opinions about the test. The common denominator of the students' experience was that the process was tiring. The entire testing process lasted over 5 hours, with a half-hour break. Due to fatigue and monotony, the students quickly lost interest in the test and for the most part they only gave enough answers to complete the test. The process was mismanaged because it lacked seriousness. MEST had sent students from the faculty of education to administer the process, whose primary goal was not the quality of the process, but only its completion. There was a lack of proper information for the students in order for them to be aware of the importance of this test. “This test does not affect my grades and success, so it is not important to me” – was the students’ attitude towards the test. Therefore, the result that came out should not be surprising at all. We should not be surprised because there was no way it could have turned out differently. So, the PISA result was a consequence of all this mismanagement. If the process had been managed better, if there had been an information campaign among the students, if there had been more seriousness from the leaders of the process, the result would probably have been better. But, not much better.
The second issue that I understood from the students is that they did not have the patience to read the long paragraphs of questions that were part of the test, especially in the reading and science categories. When there is no patience to read the questions, there will be no attention to what is read, there will be no understanding of what is read and consequently there will be no result. This is the second cause that has a consequence on the PISA result. And this cause is much more complicated to analyze. Its effects are much more complex and much more serious than the effects of the first cause. This has to do with the foundation of our education system, with learning. It is completely clear that our students do not read enough. Even when they read, the reading is not of high quality. They read just to achieve a result; a desired grade on a test, a desired grade from the analysis of a novel or something similar. They do not read to learn. This may be the central cause of the stagnation that has gripped our education system.
Why is this happening? I believe that there are a number of factors that influence this. Our society does not have a developed reading culture. The problem starts with parents. Instead of books, parents buy their children smartphones. From early preschool age, children's main entertainment activity is video games or social networks, such as Tik-Tok, which can create a lack of attention or distraction. The problem continues in schools, where there is a lack of a program that encourages reading. A child who does not create the habit of reading during the primary level of education will have a very difficult time creating it later. Furthermore, the problem continues with the books that students are asked to read, which do not coincide with the time we are living in. Students are asked to read the same books that were given to me more than 30 years ago. But, the world today is completely different from what it was 30 years ago and consequently the needs of children are completely different. Even those students who want to read, read these books with difficulty, or do not read them at all. A 7th grade student, who constantly reads books according to her wishes, told me: “Professor, reading should be fun. It should not be done with difficulty. These readings do not give me pleasure. They stress me out. I do not find myself in those books, I cannot emotionally connect with them”. The situation is similar with textbooks, the quality of which leaves much, yes, much to be desired, especially for the lower or upper secondary level. Most of the books are written in a way that does not promote critical thinking. Still, most of the books, both in terms of content and appearance, differ little from the books from which I learned as a student, during the 80s and 90s. In such a situation, the books are used very little. Students don't learn from books because teachers prepare abbreviated presentations of learning units, or give students questions to prepare for assessments. In these conditions, students rely on rote learning, which does not ensure sustainable success. And this brings us to the third, perhaps most crucial, reason, which is the core curriculum.
In the 2017/2018 school year, the then Kosovo government's MEST decided to begin implementing the curriculum at all levels of pre-university education, after several years of piloting in certain schools. The new curriculum was an innovation for the Kosovo education system. It is a contemporary curriculum based on competencies that students are supposed to acquire throughout pre-university education, starting from the pre-primary level. The implementation of the curriculum began with grades 0, 1, 6, and 10. And this is where the first mistake was made. For students and teachers in grades 6 and especially those in grades 10, the difference was huge. Students who had learned in the classical way of learning for 5 or 9 years were not prepared for this change. They did not understand the changes, especially in the way of evaluation. Furthermore, MEST had not taken the necessary steps to prepare the appropriate technical infrastructure (laboratories, internet in schools, projectors in classrooms, smart boards, etc.) for the successful development of this curriculum. Also, for the first years of curriculum implementation, there was a lack of textbooks based on the subject programs of the new curriculum. Also, proper training of teachers for curriculum implementation was not provided. Most of the training provided by MEST was done in a drop-in format, where the goal was to say that the training was done. Even where the training was serious, by serious trainers, teachers would never be able to apply what they learned in the training, as their schools lacked the infrastructure to make learning more attractive or practical. So, despite initial expectations that Kosovo's new curriculum would change the situation in education, within a short time it was realized that this was a failed experiment. And this experiment continues to this day. Even after 7 years of schooling, schools continue to lack the proper infrastructure for the successful implementation of this curriculum. Most schools in Kosovo continue to be as they have been for the last 30 or 40 years. Teachers have been given a 0st century curriculum, but are being asked to work under 1th century conditions. MEST should start implementing the curriculum only in grades 6, XNUMX and maybe even XNUMX. This would allow for better preparations and gradual investments in school infrastructure. It would also enable better preparation of teachers to be more efficient in its implementation. It would take longer to involve the entire pre-university education system, but it would be successful. The other problem with this curriculum is its subject programs, which are completely inconsistent with its goals. While the goals of the curriculum are to prepare students for the challenges of the 21st century, subject programs teach them about the past. So, students continue to learn, with slight changes, what we have learned since the middle of the 20th century. Finally, the workload of the curriculum, in terms of the subject program, must also be taken into account. A 10th grade student at a natural high school today has 15 subjects, while a social high school student has 16. Every teacher, in every subject, demands the maximum from their students. If each student dedicates at least 2 hours per week to each subject, 30 hours per week are required. This may not seem like much, but students have other needs as well. They need to have fun, or develop other skills and abilities that they do not acquire at school due to the lack of extracurricular activities (various courses, or involvement in sports clubs). Therefore, in these conditions, students find the quickest path to success (getting the desired grade) – learning by rote, learning from pre-assigned questions, or copying. It is depressing to see students stressed and anxious from the workload, especially before assessment periods. And here I am talking about those students who sincerely intend to be successful. The concept of high school is an outdated concept that belongs to the last century. Students in high school learn about everything, but end up learning nothing. Countries that rank high in PISA have curricula that are based on subject programs with a maximum of 8 subjects.
There are many other problems that have degraded education in this way. But, the three causes mentioned above, I believe, are the core of the problem regarding the PISA result. And as long as we continue to worry about this once every 3 or 4 years, the situation will not change. Education should be a priority above priorities, which goes beyond daily political agendas. “The primary goal of education in schools should be to create cadres who are capable of doing new things and not simply to repeat what previous generations have done. So, the goal of education is not to increase the amount of knowledge, but to create opportunities for a child to invent and discover; to create people who are capable of doing new things” (Jean Piaget, Swiss scholar and psychologist). Unfortunately, our education system and our approach as a society to education are very, very far from achieving this goal. We continue to count places.
Professor Florend Krasniqi,
Geography Teacher
edition
t7 live
