Kosovo – Model for Education

Kosovo is building a model school, for a model education environment.  The building using recyclable material will soon house 1,400 elementary school students.

"We did a small green roof… and the walls are insulated, and the windows are double glazed," explains Merita Behluli, Infrastructure Expert at Kosovo’s Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (MEST).  "And we are using the material which can be recycled.  Also, we are using local materials."

In addition to being easy to build and replicate, the school model is innovative in its use of space and common areas.

The model school is part of an education project, backed by the World Bank.

The multi-component project helped Kosovo's Education officials come up with a national guidebook for the designing and building of new schools – like the user-friendly and efficient one under construction in the capital, Pristina.

In addition to the new guidelines, the education project has assisted in the creation of a new, nationwide database in Kosovo's MEST. 

"In the software database we can see all the schools that are in bad condition, or that have some problems with the roof or something," says Rina Ponosheci, who is one of several technicians managing the new database system at MEST.

Now, Ponosheci says, ministry officials can quickly access information on school facilities around the country, and decide accordingly where ministry funds are most needed in order to repair and improve existing schools, or to build new schools altogether, like the model one now being constructed in an overcrowded Pristina neighborhood.

"We found out that there was an urgent need according to school mapping data," says Behluli, MEST's infrastructure expert.

Mother – and soon-to-be grandmother – Qamila Blakqori, says the new education project comes at a good time, because nearly half a million of Kosovo’s estimated 2 million people are registered in primary and secondary schools around the country.

"When I saw this building I thought that is nice, maybe for my grandchildren, because my children are grown up, so for my grandchildren it is going to be the best place to go," says Balkqori, who lives within sight of the new model school.

New improved schools, she says, will mean an improved and better educated Kosovo in the future.