On Monday, the 2025–2026 school year begins, and the Municipality of Prishtina has expressed readiness for a smooth start to the process. Beginning this year, full-day classes will be implemented in seven additional schools in the capital, five of which are located in rural areas.

The Director of Education in the Municipality of Prishtina, Samir Shahini, stated that all necessary interventions in schools have been successfully completed, including teacher recruitment and the admission of children into preschools and kindergartens.

“Necessary interventions have been made, with many processes completed earlier—for example, we successfully completed the recruitment of the required staff for the new school year, admissions of students according to the needs of primary schools in specific areas, as well as admissions to preschools and secondary schools. These are extremely important and large-scale processes. Regarding infrastructure, renovations have been carried out in more than 12 school facilities across the capital, with a few set to be finalized this weekend… We are fully prepared and on Monday, together with the mayor, we will visit several schools to congratulate students and teachers,” he said.

The Municipality of Prishtina plans to extend full-day classes to seven more schools during the 2025–2026 school year.

According to Director of Education, Samir Shahini, full-day classes has also had a positive impact on household economies.

In an interview for KosovaPress, he explained that the schedule for grades 1 and 2 lasts until 14:30, while for grades 3, 4, and 5, it extends until 15:30.

“We are adding seven schools to full-day classes this year. From five last year, the total now rises to 12. Another positive development is that two schools are moving to full-day classes for all grades, from first through ninth: ‘Ali Kelmendi’ in Barileva and ‘Ditët e Minatorit’ in Kishnica. Furthermore, five of the seven newly added schools are in rural areas—Barileva, Kishnica, Mramor, Grashtica, and Llukar—joining five existing schools in the urban area of the capital. The other two newly included schools in the city are ‘Pjetër Bogdani’ and ‘Zenel Hajdini.’ This program has eased household expenses, saving families millions of euros annually by covering the full-day stay until 15:30 and providing free, nutritious meals through the city’s central kitchen for all students without distinction. Additionally, in the five rural schools I mentioned, meals will be provided to all pupils, including grades 6–9 who are not yet in the full-day program this year but are expected to transition to full-day classes next year,” Shahini emphasized.

To ensure the program eventually becomes part of all schools across the country, Shahini stressed the urgent need for the Ministry of Education to draft an administrative instruction that secures funding to support municipalities.

“Starting this year, or next, it is urgently necessary for the ministry to prepare a special administrative regulation that provides for partial funding to support municipalities—particularly in terms of food safety, necessary materials, and easing teacher recruitment. This would make implementation much more manageable for municipalities,” Shahini said.

For the past three years, the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology, and Innovation has subsidized families for the purchase of textbooks, unlike earlier years when books for grades 1 through 9 were provided free of charge directly by schools.

However, according to Shahini, this method of subsidizing book purchases has been both wrong and harmful.

“This form of subsidizing books is extremely burdensome—not only for the education directorates and schools, but especially for parents, causing them unnecessary difficulties… It is not a solution; the model is completely wrong and damaging. We’ve seen that for three years now, and in each of these years, there have been cases where not only in late September or October, but even at the start of the second semester, some students still do not have their books,” he stressed.

Textbooks and other school materials for grades 1 through 9 are still financed by the Government of Kosovo this year.

As in the previous year, money has been transferred directly into parents’ bank accounts, so that they can purchase textbooks themselves for their children.