Panel: Decentralization of Education – Opportunities and Challenges

The cooperation between the authorities and schools will contribute for a better education

On 3rd of December, in the frames of the 4 Forum of civic society in Macedonia, in organization of the Center for cooperation in the education, a panel titled “Decentralization of Education – Opportunities and Challenges” was held.

The topic of the panel was the future competencies that will pass over from ministries to a local level. Aferdita Imeri, the representative from the Education Ministry, said that municipalities should take concrete tasks, and schools should bring strategic decisions. She even mentioned a possible manner of financing would be the financing by every student separately. 

Saso Pirganovski, the mayor of Prilep municipality, mentioned that Prilep, being one of the biggest municipalities in Macedonia, is ready for the decentralization of education taking on its account the tasks and the challenges. However the municipality administration is not ready for it, since there is lack of personnel to govern the administration. In fact what is needed is the education and training of personnel.

The present audience has agreed that there won’t be fall in the educational system in 2005. It’s a process that will continue gradually. The total decentralization will not come immediately.

The mayor of Prilep municipality said that the first change to happen is the election of the board of directors for the schools. The way it will function has to be decided by the schools themselves. The municipalities will vote for the yearly accounts and plans of the schools and they will influence the selection of managers, and at the same time they will be responsible for the functioning of the school’s network. The schools are property of the municipalities. Any debts schools have, should be solved by the state. The property-legal relations should also be solved. The fiscal decentralization will occur in about three or four years.   Slave Hristov, the mayor of the municipality Vasilevo (Strumica) said that the educational process is tremendously important segment in the process of the building of the basic values. We should be very carefull with the passing of the competencies from central to local level. Wit the bringing of the Law for Education from 2002, the competencies for the elementary education has been transferred from central to local level. The possible problems that may occur regarding the school’s property, the school is under the ownership of another territory, were also the topics discussed at the panel. Local resources should be used for a successful financing. The state should pay a special attention to some schools, in terms of modernization of the school process, providing the necessary equipment for some schools. If one central school is in the Prilep municipality, and the regional unit is in Krivogastani, it is normal for that school to belong to Krivogastani.

Marija Taseva, professor at the philosophy faculty in Skopje, said that decentralization is long started in the schools; there is usage of more than one book for one subject. She expressed her scepticism in the field of the lesson plans and programmes.

Zoran Uzunov, a secretary in   board of directors in Kosenikovo, mentioned that his capacity as a parent is not used in the schools. The law for elementary education from 1995, predicts a council of parents. They should follow the educational process and also give their opinions. The council of parents is only accepted declaratively. The school board is the body that conducts an interview with a possible candidate for manager. He stated that there should be a kind of partnership, volunteerism and cooperation between the parents and the school. Suitable and proper solutions should be found for the way of building of the trust between the parents, the school representatives and the local self-government representatives in the school council, since the possibility of resistance is not excluded.