A high 57,3 percent of Macedonian citizens believe that the country has low-quality education, and 35,6 percent are convinced that it has quality, according to the latest public opinion survey conducted for Detector by the Institute for Political Research Skopje (IPIS).

The data from the survey show that the citizens' dissatisfaction with education is higher today than in 2019, when 51,6 percent of the surveyed citizens were dissatisfied with education.

If we look at the education of the respondents, the survey shows that the higher the education of the respondents, the greater their dissatisfaction. So, 67,2 percent of citizens with higher education believe that education in the country is not of high quality. Those citizens who have completed secondary education have a similar opinion - 61,3 percent believe that we have low-quality education.

Primary education together with secondary education is rated the lowest by the citizens. On a scale from 1 to 5, primary education has an average score of 2,65, and secondary education has an average score of 2,64, while the average score for higher education is 2,73.

Compared to the 2019 Detector survey, citizens at all levels of education dropped their grades. So, the average grade of primary education dropped from 2,85 to 2,65, from 2,73 to 2,64 in secondary education, and from 2,84 to 2,73 in primary education.

Citizens are most dissatisfied with the quality of textbooks. As many as 64,8 percent of them expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of textbooks, while only 19,6 percent declared themselves satisfied.
There is also great dissatisfaction with the curricula. Even 56,8 percent of the citizens said that they are not satisfied with them, and 22,1 percent are satisfied. 44,8 percent of those surveyed are not satisfied with the teaching staff, while 36 percent have no problem with the teachers.

Compared to five years ago, the majority of citizens believe that we have worse education today. 56,3 percent share this attitude against 25 percent who do not see any change.

Only 9,6 percent of those surveyed say that today's education is at a higher level compared to the situation five years ago. The same question was asked in the survey four years ago, and then 48,9 percent believed that education had become worse in the last five years, against 28,8 percent who saw no changes and 18,3 percent who then believed that education was at a higher level compared to the previous five years.
According to the research, 49 percent of the respondents say that the quality of the educational process in our country is worse compared to the countries of the region. A quarter think that it is similar, and only 5,7 percent think that Macedonia has better education than the countries of the region.

Detektor indicates that here, too, the comparison with the IPIS survey from 2019 shows that perceptions have worsened. At that time, 40,1 percent thought that there was better education in the region, close to 30 percent did not find any difference and 10,4 percent thought that the country has a better educational process compared to the countries of the region.

- According to the citizens, the main reason why Macedonia is in the lowest places in the world measurements for the quality of education is the bad curriculum, a view shared by 19,2 percent of the citizens. 15,5 percent believe that the main reason is inadequate teaching staff, 12,7 percent see the problem in low-quality textbooks, and 11 percent in poor conditions in schools, the conclusion reads.

The survey of the Institute for Political Research Skopje was conducted from February 28 to March 3 this year on a representative sample of 1.107 respondents.