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Kosovo schooling faces great challenges |
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| Thursday, 2 September 1999: As children around the
world head back to school this month, youngsters in Kosovo have also begun
attending classes, but UNICEF said today that much remains to be done to return
normal schooling to the children of the war-torn province. The official opening of the 1999/2000 school year in Kosovo will be November 1, but up to 250,000 children were expected to be attending catch-up classes by this week, to make up for schooling missed during the mass evacuation from the province last spring. Classes are being held in a variety of locations -- some in repaired or nearly repaired school buildings, some in other structures and some simply outdoors, where moderate weather still prevails. According to a UNICEF survey covering all school districts, 668 of Kosovo's 1,000 schools were in need of repairs, with 45 per cent severely damaged or destroyed, following the conflict in the province. The majority have suffered looting or the destruction of school furniture. In addition, many schools have not yet been checked for landmines and unexploded ordnance. UNICEF is undertaking the rehabilitation and rebuilding effort with dozens of partner organisations, including UN agencies, NGO's and local authorities. Work has already been completed on 34 schools and repairs are currently being carried out at 263 others. Reconstruction will soon begin at most of the remaining 371 facilities. UNICEF is supporting a push to have all of the province's 310,000 children start a new school year on November 1. Among the aims are a fresh curriculum, repaired school buildings and new desks, chairs and blackboards provided by the children's agency. UNICEF is presently shipping 60,000 chairs and 30,000 desks for students, 2,000 desks for teachers and 2,000 blackboards. In addition, 135,000 "student kits" are being supplied, including school bags, writing tools and notebooks. For communities where school repairs will not be completed by November 1, UNICEF is also bringing in 700 double-layer winterised and fire-retardant tents, each with wooden flooring and a stove, to be used as temporary classrooms. Throughout the province this September, all available school premises are open to all children from all ethnic groups -- a significant change from past practice, when schools were often physically divided between ethnic Albanians and Serbs. The Dardania School in Pristina, for example, was once divided by walls that were erected in the corridors to separate Serb and Albanian children. Those walls have now been knocked down. To accommodate the language differences among students, schools operate on a time-share basis, with Albanian-language instruction for half the day and Serbian instruction the other half. |
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| Please email media@unicef.org with comments or requests for more information, quoting CF/DOC/PR/1999/35 |
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