MJAFT Concerned over Proposed Changes in Higher Education

Mjaft

15 February 2006

The MJAFT Movement remains deeply interested in the problems and debates related to the education reform in Albania. MJAFT believes that education should be treated as a matter of first order and requests maximal attention and engagement not only by the political actors, but also by the whole society.

The Movement is concerned over the fact that there are daily presentations of new initiatives by the Albanian Government, without prior consultation of the civil society and other actors involved in the area.

MJAFT is concerned over the new initiative of the government to change the structure and election system of the members of the NCRT (National Council of Radio and Television) and the Directing Council of the ART (Albanian Radio Television) which the organization considers as a step backwards in respecting the freedom of the media.

They are also worried about the policy of the Government on legalization, which is another problem that requests everybody's attention. Another a special concern is the tendency of the Government to ruin the power balance, which is essential to democracy.

The MJAFT movement requests the increase of the students' role in every decision-taking process of the Albanian universities, such as the selection of titular of the Universities, 30% increase in student representation in decision-making bodies of Albanian Universities, and direct involvement in the election of University Chancellors.

MJAFT also presented its demands regarding the University entry exams, having in mind that the system proposed by teh Ministry of Education and Science is not in itself bad, but the short deadlines for its implementation may result in failure and defects.

Therefore, after a round of consultations with the students of the high schools all over the country, MJAFT identified several risks and asked the ministry to pay attention to several possible issues.

While until now corruption was localized only in some faculties, with the new system this corruption will spread in approximately 250 high schools, where the future students will be selected.

The new system risks creating subjective evaluations of the exams, since the multiple-choice questions have been avoided and only open questions, which request for improved answers of the student candidates, have been envisaged.

It is thought that the increase and unification of the maximal evaluation coefficient during the 4 years of the high school studies all over the country would be more efficient than the evaluation that will be conduced based on the exams that will be held during a single day.

Another risk is also observed: The exam security level will not be the same in urban and rural areas.