If you have opened the site of the Employment Agency just once, you have probably witnessed the biggest paradox, hundreds of unemployed people are looking for work, and the same number of companies are looking for workers that they cannot find. Macedonia – place of “stamping” of diplomas for functional illiterates.
Author: Katerina Topallova
“More than 90 percent of the unemployed in the country are functional illiterate or non-functional literate, while 63 percent of them do not have primary education or have not finished primary education. This is the current situation, this is the framework that the eager labor market cannot absorb because it is unsuitable. Definitely talk about it, this is a decade-old problem and extremely important.” Deputy Prime Minister Bytiqi gave such a statement, explaining the need for retraining or additional training for greater competition in the labor market. Lifelong learning is a global trend that must be followed and all generations must understand that getting a diploma does not end with education, so now is the time to work.
But what Bytiqi does not emphasize in this statement is the “stamping” of the diplomas or their value.
“The establishment of goals and indicators for the comprehensive strategy for education 2018-2025 is progressing slowly, as well as the implementation of an appropriate monitoring system. The recommendations of the 2020 report were only partially addressed and remain valid,” the European Commission’s latest report says.
What is the quality of education that this country offers and why is no one talking about dozens of students graduating from Macedonian universities without even knowing the Macedonian language? How do they graduate from private universities without knowing the branch that was written on their diploma? Who and how allows the business of “stamping” cadres with higher education? And finally, who cares about elementary illiterate people having a degree?
Corruption in education is not only in the “gift in an envelope” for passing the exam, it is also in the “sale” of books that are a condition for a grade, family, party and friendship ties for a certain pupil or student to “pass” and transition so that students do not leave that educational institution.
The “stamping” of functional illiterates is put to the test immediately when the diploma goes to the labor market, when skills are needed and not fives or ten, when the market demands one thing, while the school gives something else.
For decades, the state has turned a blind eye to many outdated programs, for which reforms are always announced, which always start but never end. Our educational institutions and the labor market are two parallel worlds that cannot be joined. We still write about why we have a small number of registered journalists, few disinterested philologists or mathematicians. Our students are not motivated, because they are learning about “mouse” and keyboard, when they have already posted dozens of statuses on their profiles on the networks social. Our students do projects on flipchart paper and students learn from photocopied scripts.
There will be “stamped” diplomas, because the first half-year passed without texts and we hope they will be printed for the second half-year. Because pupils and students consider this “normal” and because they see that this is how it goes. Because in universities there is a whole family of employees and because no one can do anything about them.
Therefore, the baker will be underestimated even though he is paid more than a lawyer, therefore there will not be a tailor even for medicine even though he is required more than an economist. The Macedonian labor market and education are a teenager and a parent constantly shouting and not listening to each other.
Dear Deputy Prime Minister, the problem is systemic and there is a lack of political will to solve it, because it suits someone that this country is a nursery for illiterate people with diplomas!