UNMIK on Air

November 13, 2003

“Teacher leave the kids alone”

(By Valon A. Syla)

Besim: In my classroom my friend was making noise, he moved a little from his chair, and the professor came in and hit him. He did not say anything to the pupil, neither did he give a warning….

-And does this happen often?

-Yes this happens often, especially in my classroom the professors are very tough

These are words one can often hear from students in Kosovo when talking about their school day.

Hello and welcome to UNMIK on Air,

The days when teachers used to impose order by hitting children’s fingers with a ruler, or pull their hair or even spank children seem to be things of the past; many parents believe their children are safe at school, but the reality seems to be quite different these days in Kosovo; many students in Kosovo seem to have witnessed at least one violent act from a teacher against a student. Besim is a pupil of the Faik Konica primary school and he says

Besim: I have seen many times a teacher beating the pupil, and I have experienced that myself, it is a bad feeling, and I felt very ashamed when my schoolmates watched me, and that’s very bad. Now it is not happening that often, but in the past the violent action was usual, and I remember a teachers beating two or three pupils per day.”

In Kosovo when students say a professor is tough, one doesn’t mean that the exams are difficult to pass, but rather that the professor can literally beat the crap out of you. Pulling hair, pinching and grabbing someone by the ear is an everyday happening, where as slapping, beating and kicking are very rare but still happens in some Kosovan schools. Ragip Zekolli is an adviser to the Ministry of Education.

Ragip Zekolli: The use of violence in school is not allowed at all, I‘m not only referring to physical violence but unfortunately in Kosovar schools the use of physiological violence is also present, when the professor calls pupils by different offensive names and words.

A year ago the Ministry of Education enforced a new regulation for Grammar and High Schools. Code number 31 of the new regulation establishes that in the case of a violent or aggressive act from a teacher against a student, the director of the school should suspend the teacher for at least 3 days with possible further actions. Ragip Zekolli again

Ragip Zekolli: We inherited a school system and we kept it for 40 years, this system is very classical and during the past the pupil’s were tortured, they even didn’t have the right to speak out. In one word the teacher was the one that decided on every issue”

So it’s again the teachers who will decide if they will respect the new regulation and change their old fashioned ways in the classrooms. Still Besim says that violence continues although in smaller proportions.

Besim: In our school there is not too much violence, there is a new law prohibiting teachers from beating us is in power, and so now there is not so much violence”

But violence does not come only from the teachers side, there are cases where school children stab each other with knives and sometimes they carry guns to the classroom. Last year a 17 year old student was killed with a knife after a fight in one of Prishtina’s secondary schools.

The Ministry of Education thinks that the regulation on school violence has had an impact, and according to Ragip Zekolli, day-by-day violence in schools is disappearing.

Ragip Zekolli: Our first step is to create awareness, the second step unfortunately I have to admit that the violence in schools cannot be stopped without taking actions. So we made clear to the teachers that if they use violence against the students they will be suspended from teaching, because we think that’s the only way, the teachers and pupils will understand”

The presence of violence in schools has an impact on the student’s future behavior in society. To give an end to all of this there is need for a strong cooperation between teachers, students and parents.

And that was all from this edition of UNMIK on Air. Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more