ETF’s Rapid Education Diagnosis in Kosovo

“A unique and holistic methodology.”

“This is not just another study.”

These are just some of the descriptions used to describe the ETF's Rapid Education Diagnosis (RED) in Kosovo at a recent dissemination workshop, which took place 8 February 2023 and was attended by a range of national and international stakeholders.

Contributing to the opening session were Ms Edona Maloku Bërdina, Deputy Minister of the Kosovo Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Mr Vassilis Maragos, Head of Unit, at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Neighbourhood, Enlargement and Accession Regions, and Mr Johannes Stenbaek Madsen, Head of Cooperation from the EU’s Office in Kosovo.

All speakers agreed that the strength of the ETF's RED methodology is ‘ownership’ by national stakeholders, without whom the study would not have been possible, and the flexibility it provides for them to learn from experience, anchor achievements, and identify windows of opportunity to reinforce future governance of the education system. 

“The findings not only help the policy dialogue between the European Union and Kosovo, but also the vision and policies, where we are going and identifying the challenges ahead,” said Deputy Minister Bërdina.

The ETF’s Director ad Interim, Xavier Matheu, who joined the speakers, highlighted that building on the policy dialogue between the European Commission’s various services and the Kosovo government, the results will inform EU programming and activities in support of these goals.

“RED takes into account enabling factors at system level, new practices needed, and how to address the challenges as part of the journey towards European integration,” said Maragos from the European Commission calling upon other organisations and donors to draw upon the findings for future EU investment and support.

Indeed, Madsen, from the EU’s Kosovo Office described RED as “an ambitious endeavour meeting the needs for evidence based and informed policy making”. The study is also timely, coinciding with a ‘national debate on the education system’ taking place in Kosovo, he added.  

The ETF’s Head of Systems Performance and Assessment Unit, Hugues Moussy, who chaired the event, thanked all the speakers for their acknowledgement of the ETF’s methodology and for opening avenues of future work together. 

What is RED?

The ETF’s Senior Human Capital Development Expert, Marie Dorleans, who works on the development of the methodology and implementation described, during the session, RED's system level approach which examines the whole education sector based on which findings and recommendations for follow-up are presented and categorised within three essential pillars, namely: inequality, financing, and governance.

“The diagnosis and recommendations reflect structural, organizational and capacity related areas of the system and the role and participation of stakeholders,” said Dorleans.

In Kosovo, digitalisation and early childhood education emerged as areas requiring specific attention. Other pertinent issues include the urban-rural divide, the increase of enrolments in private education, uneven use of resources at school level, school and sectoral leadership, and the gathering of data and monitoring for policy making.

The use of the RED methodology in Kosovo was deployed upon the request of the European Commission in May 2022 following upon the successful pilot in Lebanon in 2021. The final report will soon be available.

The RED methodology will also shortly be extended to other ETF partner countries.