From external testing, through the "Cambridge" program, to the Concept of Basic Education, for more than a decade the competent institutions have not been able to establish a stable educational reform, which will not need to be abolished, but only upgraded.

A new government in Macedonia also means changes in education, and with every change in the composition of the government, the promise is that there will be reforms in education and that the standard of students will improve.

And the new Minister of Education and Science Vesna Janevska announces changes in education, and as she says, they will soon prepare a document - determination, declaration or maybe with another name, but with clearly defined goals and directions for achieving the goals related to the quality of education in the long term.

- The document will be offered to all political entities in the country, i.e. through the Parliament, it will be sought to reach a national consensus on the general education policies, from which no minister will be able to deviate from and implement "his" reforms - say the Ministry of Education education and science for "Free Press".

In the meantime, the Ministry of Education and Culture announces a revision of the existing Education Strategy and an analysis of the activities and goals achieved so far. Considering that it is valid for the period 2018-2025, the new strategy will be drawn up next year and valid from 2026.

- The focus will be quality curricula and textbooks for primary and secondary school students, improvement of the educational infrastructure and equipment of schools, digitalization, inclusion, strengthening of the capacities of higher education institutions and greater support for them and for scientific research activities and so on. In order to achieve the goals, a gradual increase of the budget for education is planned in the next 4 years, from 3 to 4 percent of GDP, while for science from the existing 5 to 0,3 percent - added the Ministry.

Janevska points out that the new reform they are implementing for primary school students is for students to be in schools as long as possible and to acquire knowledge in different ways.

– The reform is for teachers to become functional in favor of knowledge, competences, skills. This is a whole strategy. It is common knowledge that we in the country have a surplus of teachers and less and less children, but we need teachers to raise the quality of knowledge. We are last in all international tests and domestic tests show that our students lag behind their peers in Europe - she says.
She adds that the students will not be over a book all day, the idea is to implement something that has proven to be effective abroad.

Educational reforms have no end

The professor Tatjana Aleksic in conversation about Free Press says that there have been reforms in education since he knew about himself.

- There have been educational reforms in our country since I can remember myself, since I was a high school student. Then it was introduced as a medium-oriented one, while all the countries of the former Yugoslavia were abolishing it. Then they introduced high school classes at the expense of vocational schools, which began to be reduced. Now, Serbia has started to introduce dual education, so we also want to rehabilitate something that we destroyed before. The core of every society is the vocational school, trades are valuable. Then we all saw how we fared with the external, because it went in the wrong direction. It was a well-thought-out model to prevent link ratings, but it served other purposes. We also have the Cambridge system, then online teaching that has created irreparable gaps in knowledge. We constantly have some reforms - says Professor Aleksic for "Sloboden Pechat".

She considered that the provision of textbooks is to be welcomed, and she also considered the one-shift operation of schools, which was introduced by Minister Janevska, as a positive reform.

– There is no time and space for mistakes in steps. Everything must be designed and the reforms must be for the prosperity of the children. Every year we have fewer and fewer students, the teachers will have no one to teach. There must be some reform with which we will keep the students here and have good working conditions - she adds.

Free Press also talked to Philip Ivkovski, the president of the National Youth Union of Macedonia.

- In general, we have witnessed that since we know ourselves, Macedonian education is in constant reform, each new government comes with its own ambitions and desires to do something better, that is, so far we have not had tangible, solid results to say that a certain reform has produced results and what kind of results it was them - he says.

Ivkovski believes that education and educational reforms should be placed in one framework, which will meet a political consensus in the long term.

- We know that young people are functionally illiterate in all researches, that the quality of knowledge and practical skills is decreasing and education and educational reforms should definitely be placed in a single framework, which will find a political consensus on a long-term plan and that plan will last as long as we do not see the real results - he adds.

Following the example of the best?

When we look at the countries that top the list for the best education, probably the first question we ask ourselves is why we can't "steal their ideas" and transfer them to us. But that is not the case in practice.

According to Ivkovski, we are far from those countries, but when we see that someone succeeds in something, we should transfer that example to our country, but in accordance with our capabilities.

- When we see that someone succeeds in something, we need to translate that idea into our system, but we forget and take over things mechanically - as it is there, we copy it here. It must be put into a local context, what this society needs, what it is ready for, staffing, the needs of young people, attitudes of parents... Everything that is in a foreign context, the system will normally reject it - he says.

Professor Aleksic adds that we cannot translate the ideas of Finland and Denmark, because we have a different mentality.

- I am not nostalgic for Yugoslavia, but I think that the educational system of Yugoslavia was perfect. Our students were excellent everywhere, so there was nothing wrong with that educational system. So that euphoria that we need constantly new textbooks, that we need to follow other examples, is not quite the case. We should buy something, but adapt it to our conditions - she adds.

She believes that we cannot introduce a project like "A computer for every child" while there are children living in places where there is no electricity. The professor adds that people who really know the job and want to learn should work in the Ministry of Education and the Education Development Bureau.

When asked if it is difficult for them to get used to constant changes in education, the professor says that "a living person gets used to everything".

– If there are no textbooks, the teacher will find a way to improvise from his own knowledge or from other resources – we are an adaptable category, but we protest when we see that something is not good. So that "long live the reforms", but not so intensively and not so experimentally. It is good to move forward, but not at any cost and to improvise on the backs of the students - said Professor Aleksic.

This school year started with old, but also with new challenges. The Ministry of Education and Science provided textbooks for all subjects, except for foreign languages. More than 140 primary and secondary schools started teaching in one shift, and Minister Janevska announced that in the coming years they will work on adapting all schools to single-shift operation.

The Ministry of Education and Culture temporarily stopped the Conception for the seventh, eighth and ninth grades and announced a revision of the existing Strategy for Education and an analysis of the activities and goals achieved so far.

With this text, the Free Press joins the initiative for increased transparency of the institutions that the Institute for Communication Studies implements in cooperation with the media within the "Use Facts" project, which is supported by the British Embassy.