Structure-building and quality draw-backs in professional education
By Artan Pernaska
Education and especially professional education is one of the domains in which Albania lags far behind neighboring countries and the rest of European countries. Statistics disclosed by the press show that only an average of 11.9 years is spent in schooling. Though Albania counts numerous state and private universities and the average population is very young, the number of those going to a university does not make for the number of those that abandon school after the basic nine-year schooling. If not improved this particular educational situation may pose serious threats to the development of the country.
Pupils having dropped out of the educational system may or may not turn back to the banks of school after they have quit them. This week, as we dared an interview with Julind, one of the students returning for short-term studies in one of the professional courses in the vicinity of Tirana, his first impressions of the school-day were that his hand was fatigued and his muscles strained from a full hour of note-writing.
Fatigua Calamis
Those familiar with the expressions lapsus lingua (a slip of the tongue) and lapsus calami (a slip of the pen), may not have imagined that besides the slip of the laborious pen there might be a fatigue of the pen (fatigua calamis). This is a most genuine revelation from a situation in which many Albanian youths might find themselves today.
As Julind was coming back from the first lectures of the professional courses on cooking and dish preparation he displayed the notes he had taken with a careful and very readable handwriting. “The teacher spoke very quickly. After the second page, my hand grew tired. It was straining. I felt almost as if I could not collect all that she was saying,” – confessed the eighteen-year old student, who has not finished high school studies and perhaps has not handled a writing device for such a time over the years.
Only 57 % of Albanian pupils register for high school according to information from the Ministry of Education and Science, (Ministria e Arsimit dhe e Shkenc쳬 MASH), the National Strategy on Education, quoted by the local press (Panorama, 14.09.2009).
Professional high school education in Albania seems to be in a deplorable state not only from the numerical point of view, but also in the qualitative respect. Professional high school students in Albania make up only 19 % of the high school students, at a time when in the European Union (EU) they are reported to make up 62.7 % of the total and in Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Croatia 65 % and 70 % respectively.
Migration as a drop-in or drop-out factor
Migration and early-age employment or self-employment are two of the main factors that lead large numbers of teen-agers, especially boys, to drop out of the schooling system. Sometimes the youths are successful in their migration attempts and may enroll for schooling in other countries, but sometimes they are not. The majority of the cases where migration opens the doors to better schooling opportunities are those cases where future students migrate with their families. In such cases there are numerous reports of Albanian children having outstanding success in their studies. But most of the time migration dreams come to a delusional end, as was the case with our boy returning back to professional training after a long absence from school. Julind is a fake name, since the interviewee, who said he was eighteen, was shy of having his name appear.
Some years or months ago Julind was not registered to attend one of the high school years since he had prepared documents to go to the United Kingdom. That year he did not go to school and could not migrate either. After that, says Julind, he was very low and since then he has not been to school again. Actually, Julind is attending a three-month professional course on cooking and preparation of dishes.
Was it his idea ? – No. Not indeed. His mother had enrolled him at a private school. The money could not be taken back. He then went in. – After that ? – Who knows ? Perhaps continue the nine-month course on cooking, or perhaps take a job as an adjutant-cook. And perhaps later finish high-school. His mother proposes to “finance” that for him. That is to have the diploma paid for without attending school. But he says that does not interest him. If he were to have the diploma, he would rather go and sit in for it.
If he were to study for a degree or for a profession he would passionately be interested in electronics.
A grasp of skills
And what would-be students do not get from schooling they grasp from life. But, in the long run, that is not enough.
Julind understands three foreign languages. Italian, he got to understand since he was a child, by watching Italian TV. English, he learned as he was wishing to migrate to London. Before that, he could more easily speak out in Italian. But since he has learned English, he feels a little bit confused to determine outright in what language the words are coming out. England is “great” he says, stressing the word to make it understood that he is now speaking in English. Spanish too he learned at a certain degree, since the telenovelas shown by the Albanian TVs are frequently in Spanish, he says.
“Light” professional training
The course on cooking is great. There are only 4 of them cook-students, and each will have the possibility to present his own dish. Those attending the nine-month course are 18 or perhaps 20. Anyway, they are so much in there that roughly, out of the pick, only one will be able to present his dish and two others will have to watch their friend’s preparation. Not too much of a chance to measure one’s own capacities. The first lecture was on the cold chain. That is what are the specific temperatures requested for the conservation of each of the aliments.
Cooking, hair and body care, car reparation skills, are today paramount skills offered to be cultivated in the young individuals. The proposed educational trainings follow naturally the boom of bars and restaurants, the eagerness of enriching strata of the population to have better beauty and body care and the “explosion” of the numbers of cars in the cities and villages of Albania. They reflect market opportunities and make up for market necessities.
Julind did not take up cooking courses by gourmandize. He thinks (and his mother was first to think so) that bars and restaurants may be today one of the economic activities that may have the highest occurrences of employment opportunities. He knows what the wages are for the main cook, for his helpers and for the waiters. The waiters can make even more money than the chief cook. It depends on where your employer is situated and the business he has created. He may become a cook helper, when he finishes the courses. The wages are not brilliant, but there are sure and not too long employment opportunities in the sector.
What does he think of the education system ? – The system is bad. Not only the education. Government is. The system is. The keyword is corruption. His cousin, who could spend hours on reading and who took all her time to prepare for school has gone out of high school studies also. She tried to study at home, the best she could. She only had modest results. She got all her classes with 5 as her best note. [In the Albanian education system 10 is the highest note. 4 makes you repeat studies. 5 allows you to continue but is a very modest score.] She once asked the teacher why was it so ? Hadn’t she learnt so much as to deserve a better note ? She understood that it was corruption and not studies where she was failing. A friend told her during an exam, not to write so much. Where is your banknote ? – she asked. Isn’t it between the examination papers ? She was discouraged. She went out of school. She is now a nanny or a sort infant attender.
“Heavy” professional training
Architecture, design, electronics and informatics, as well as medical specialties like stomatology are also offered among others as “heavy” professional training possibilities. They also respond to better qualified and more choicy market necessities. But they do not respond to the whole span of necessities. Many necessities of today, but also of the development of the country and of economy in future years are not covered by public or private institutions.
The economist and opposition party member, Ilir Beqja asserts that the lack of adequate professional education is hindering economic development and may continue to do so, (Ora News, 20.09.2009). “Some cement factories are being built in Albania today. They have up to 70 % of their workers coming from foreign countries. There are no qualified workers for them. It concerns investments in infrastructure and the ciphers are real. ŠThe road-constructing enterprises in Albania today face problems, because there are no good road technicians under 50 years of age. New generations of technicians have not been created. This will be a long-standing difficulty, making itself felt more and more” – asserts Beqja.
Professional education means more skills and more responsibilities
One of the main challenges concerning the professional education is that it involves more qualified skills and more responsibilities. While skills which are often supposed to have been acquired in schooling may embellish the profiles of employment candidates, the problem of the responsibilities is not yet sufficiently addressed in the Albanian social organization. Many students who get diplomas are either believed to have “financed” them, or may not have had sufficiently-good professional qualification or experience.
What does Julind think of professional education ? – You may know the recent story of the doctor, who killed the patient by giving the wrong medical attendance, he says. It was in the news. That is professional education today. These people either buy diplomas or go to the responsibilities at once. You have professional training for so long in the western world, he says. Julind believes that is almost 20 years in the medical domain, or perhaps 40. But here ŠThey buy their diplomas and then “sell” you your illnesses without curing them. It’s such a big luck he got operated so long ago, in the other epoch, as he says.
Concentration of schooling and training facilities as a problem
Though they are present throughout the country, schooling and training facilities are as a rule in over-numbers and in a competitive situation only in the central part of the country. Tirana drains to itself the largest and most prestigious schooling and training facilities.
Julind was born and has lived in Kavaj묠at short distance south-west from Tirana, and few kilometers south of Durr쳮 While he attends school in the outskirts of Tirana, he stays with his grand-mother in Fush뮋ruj묠few kilometers north-east of Tirana. To go to his professional training courses, he leaves Fush뮋ruj묠goes to central Tirana and then catches a bus to go to the outskirts. He does the trip back, to go home. His training will last three months. He will then consider if he goes to the nine-months course. With him comes a friend that starts from Durr쳬 reaches central Tirana and takes the bus to go to the school’s quarters in the outskirts of the capital city. Few comparable educational possibilities are offered in their home-towns. Wherever these possibilities exist, they do not face competition, bringing better and more affordable qualifying opportunities.
