Both democracy and socio-economic development are closely connected to the quality of education. The lower the quality of education, the higher the ignorance. The higher the ignorance, the easier it is for politicians to manipulate voters. The more massive the manipulation, the more destructive the education policy will be. The more devastated the education, the more pronounced the poverty of a people. Therefore, this is a closed circle from where it is difficult to get out, without a proper vetting of teachers and professors from elementary to higher education.
Author: Xhelal NEZIRI
There are many wise sayings about education, but none of them seems to have had the right impact here. From the one saying, “if you want to destroy a nation, destroy their education” to the statements of visionary politicians who have led their people to rapid development, such as the statement of former US President Franklin D. Roosevelt: “Democracy cannot succeed if those who vote are not willing to choose wisely. Therefore, the real defense of democracy is education. ”
Both democracy and socio-economic development are closely connected to the quality of education. The lower the quality of education, the higher the ignorance. The higher the ignorance, the easier it is for politicians to manipulate voters. The more massive the manipulation, the more destructive the education policy will be. The more devastated the education, the more pronounced the poverty of a people. Therefore, this is a closed circle from where it is difficult to get out, without a proper vetting of teachers and professors from elementary to higher education.
Are all education workers who have won jobs through parties disabled and incompetent? Of course not. Generalizations never tell the truth. It is a fact that the party has been and remains the only door to gain a job, not just in education. Through the help of parties are also hired good staff, but the first to be employed are people with bought degrees, criminal records, and even psychic problems.
The Minister of the Political System, Sadulla Duraku, openly admitted in a televised debate when he said, “our staff employed in the administration do not know how to make a request”. This is an unnecessary generalization, as it is not true that no one knows how to write a request. However, a good part of them – yes. From elementary, secondary to upper education, they have passed through many teachers and professors, many of whom have been functionally illiterate in their subjects. Therefore, Durak’s statement is not entirely untrue, but should be the starting point of a wider debate among political parties, academia and experts on when and how to apply vetting in education.
Is Durak’s DUI guilty of this situation? The topic of partisanship of education in North Macedonia is as old as democracy itself. Since the introduction of the first parties in 1992 and the formation of the governing coalition between SDSM and PDP in 1994, the transformation of political parties into employment centers has begun. This party employment scheme was further intensified during the 1998-2002 VMRO-DPMNE and DPA rule, and became the norm in the previous governments of both Macedonian parties with the DUI (2002-2006, 2008-2016) and with the DPA (2006-2008). Neither do the new parties that don’t have a long experience in power – such as the Alliance for Albanians and BESA – show any different culture of education employment in the municipalities where they are in power – Gostivar and Zelino. The blame for this partisanship or destruction of education lies within all parties, proportionate to the time they were in power, from which they influenced the selection of employees.
On the other hand, the fault lies within us as a society. If we had unanimously opposed this dangerous trend – from which within short run win only parties, but in long run we all lose – then we would not be in this mess. If most of us had objected to this phenomenon when we are talking about kinship employment, then today we would not have those ruins of our future. The fault lies in the acceptance of this phenomenon as a normality when it comes to personal interests and in reactions only when it comes to the “other” outside the family or party orbit.
To what mess we have fallen, shows the PISA testing. Compared to the countries in the region, North Macedonia has a dangerous decline in the quality of primary education and not only in that. These numbers should be a red alert for those visionary politicians (if any), as the globalization and integration of the European continent will make the new generations uncompetitive in the labor market.