WHAT DID I LEARN TODAY IN SCHOOL?
Did any of the institutions or other people responsible for youth consider talking to us? Our voice to be heard when we share our problems. Did they think that no one else knows our problems better than we do?
Illustration: Argjira Kukaj
As children we grow up with loving words and support as we begin our education journey in school. We start the first grade with smiles and happiness. But why doesn’t this smile last throughout all of our studies? Why do the happy faces of first graders turn into sad faces a few years later? Do we really feel good in school? Are schools fulfilling their function?
We have schools as objects, but they are empty in the aspect of not even respecting our basic rights.
From the moment I leave to go to school I feel a kind of stress and anxiety. I will not be assessed with a grade, but I will be judged from the moment I walk in the hallway. At the entrance of the school, I easily climb the stairs, but my friend on a wheelchair wouldn’t even be able to enter. I walk into school and there is no one to smile and tell me good afternoon, good job for coming today! The first class begins and 20 young people have to listen to the professor say how girls are for house work and cannot possibly get high positions in society- I get terrified.
The second class begins and the other professor doesn’t let my friend express her opinion and lowers her grade because she is different—I get scared to show my true self! In the next professor’s class, no one can make a sound, because he will make us leave class, offend us, punish us on our grades and even cause physical violence—I am scared to breathe too much because I am afraid, I am next! I wasn’t prepared for the other class; I couldn’t learn the formulas without having them explained to me and only reading from the book. I am in front of the blackboard and I don’t know how to explain them. The professor says I will fail this year and embarrass my father—I feel worthless because I don’t know how to do anything, I am even disappointing my parents. I get sad, go to the bathroom to freshen my face with water and maybe calm a little—the smoke of cigarettes and narcotics take my breath away—I run out. I built the courage to go to the director to make a complaint—they tell me I’m a kid and no one to say a professor is wrong. I leave the classroom and go to the library to get a book, the door is closed—I don’t understand, who are they keeping those books from? Close by I see a classroom with the psychologist’s sign at the door – I get very happy and I ask about it and they tell me the sign has been there for 2 years but no one is hired.
I go back home. What did I learn today in school? I learned that I shouldn’t express who I am, but I always need to hide. I learned that I as a girl need to stay at home and work. I learned that if somebody wants to voice their opinion, I should offend and beat them up! I was told that I am not capable of learning a single lesson and my parents are unlucky to have me. And in the end they told me that I can’t complain because the professor knows better than me.
If these are the things my professor knows, I do not want to learn. If school will continue to teach me these things, where is the education? The school, an educational institution, which is supposed to give me warmth, education, knowledge, and inclusiveness is actually becoming the most discriminatory, non-educative place and it is not even offering quality teachings.
So, we can assume the answers of questions like: why don’t we have motivation to study? Why does our generation have certain problems? Why do we have lower self-esteems? Why do we as young people want to leave the country? Why are there no jobs in Kosovo? Why are 16 year olds stabbing and beating each other? Why aren’t we improving?
We can also add another question here.
Did any of the institutions or other people responsible for youth consider talking to us? Our voice to be heard when we share our problems? Did they think that someone else can know our problems better than we do?
If teachers would be careful on the ways they treat their students; if school leaders actually cared about how a class was being held and now warm is the school environment; if the Directories of Education carefully picked the right people for these positions and create mechanisms which would support students; if the Ministry of Education would co-create with young people, inclusive plans and monitor if these decisions are being implemented in schools, the happy faces of first graders would appear on the faces of all graders. Our academic achievements would peak, and our country would be proud of us! The health and welfare of young people would reach a higher level! The future of our country would be enlightened. So, our education system, and schools as institutions need to be restructured. No matter the person or governing party, these points should be on your work plans!
About the author: Puhiza Shemsedini, 16 years old from Prizren, follows classes in High School.
This grant is supported by the Balkan Trust for Democracy, a project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States
