For several years, the students of the Turkish community have not been provided with textbooks in their own language compiled according to the new curriculum.
Recently, the Ministry of Education has translated textbooks for students of this community and they have been adapted to the curriculum of the education system of Kosovo, but representatives of the school “Motrat Qiriazi” say that they have not yet been distributed to all generations. They also express their dissatisfaction regarding the translation of some textbooks, for which, the Ministry of Education declares that it is in the phase of waiting for comments, in order to avoid mistakes.
The fourth-grade teacher at the elementary school “Motrat Qiriazi” in Prizren, Leyla Celina told KosovaPress that they have a problem with textbooks, as they have not yet received the textbooks compiled according to the new curriculum.
“We have problems with textbooks. We are working with the new curriculum, but we have not yet received the textbooks compiled according to the new curriculum. We are hoping to receive them as soon as possible. The first and second grade textbooks compiled according to the new curriculum have already arrived, but these textbooks only came to us in the second semester. We hope that next year, from September, we will continue to work with the new textbooks. We are trying, to be provided with additional materials through the internet in order to offer our students a better-quality education”, she said.
They have the biggest problems with math textbooks; this is also a difficulty for children attending Turkish language classes.
“We mostly have problems with math textbooks. The books they have given us have not been well translated. Children are having difficulty understanding these problems. Also, since the children of the new generations are smarter, they are more focused on understanding problems and understanding everything else, and in order to adapt to them we need to have more exercise books”, said Celina.
This is also confirmed by the deputy director of this school, Eroll Kala. The representative of the Turkish community in “Motrat Qiriazi” says that there are over 380 children attending classes in their mother tongue. But, as he points out, most of the parallels are still learning with the old curriculum.
“For four or five years, there have been no textbooks in Turkish with the new curriculum. After we switched to the new curriculum, we did not have textbooks with the new curriculum because there were no translations. This year, a little late, in fact, translations of the textbooks started a month ago. Not all, but some of the textbooks have been translated and given to children. But we still have a problem with textbooks because they are not complete. Except that they are not complete, there are also translation errors. As far as we have noticed, translations are being done with Google translate. We have translations that are literally not matching. Especially in Mathematics and in fields like mathematics where the children do not understand the questions and they cannot give the answer either”, he said.
Regarding errors in Turkish translations, the Ministry of Education is in the process of waiting for comments, as the textbooks have recently been distributed. The head of the Division for Community Education, Nazan Safqi says that they have not yet received such complaints.
“The textbooks have just reached the hands of teachers and students and we are waiting for comments from schools regarding new textbooks or any remarks they may have about new textbooks, translations or other omissions that may have occurred. So far, we have not any response from them, or request and complaint about the texts, officially in writing. We are waiting, we have informed the schools. We told them to record all the omissions that are in the new textbooks and send them to MESTI so that together with the publishing houses we can make the correction and maybe republish the textbooks again”, said Safqi from the Ministry of Education.
In addition to the textbook problem, Turkish community MP Fidan Jilta demands that teaching in their language be made possible also in areas less populated by Turks.
“In areas inhabited by a Turkish majority, teaching is conducted in Turkish, we have requested that teaching in Turkish be enabled in areas where Turks live in smaller numbers, and we have addressed this request to the relevant institutions, the Committee on Education, and the Ministry of Education, and we think this will be something very useful for our students. In addition, we have noticed some errors in the books printed in Turkish compiled according to the new curriculum. For example, there are some errors in translations”, she said for KosovaPress.
In pre-university education, there are over 2,700 children of the Turkish community, who attend classes in Turkish language. Whereas, the total number of people from all communities is over 13 thousand.
This article was realized within the project “Identification of challenges in the learning process of children of non-majority community as a result of the Covid-19 Pandemic” implemented by the Center for Innovation and Development/CFID and funded by Slovak Agency for International Development Cooperation/SlovakAid.
