| Miftar Kurti Institute of History “Ali Hadri”, Prishtina (Kosovo) [miftarkurti@hotmail.com] ORCID: 0009-0005-0599-1944 Nuri Bexheti University of Prishtina “Hasan Prishtina” (Kosovo) [nuri.bexheti@uni-pr.edu] ORCID: 0009-0004-1235-3521 Ardita Hajdari Institute of History “Ali Hadri”, Prishtina (Kosovo) [ardita.hajdari@hotmail.com] ORCID: 0009-0002-1910-040X | Download https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18078166 |
PRIMARY EDUCATION IN THE PARALLEL SYSTEM OF KOSOVO (1990–1999)
Abstract: Kosovo became part of the Socialist Republic of Serbia within the Yugoslav federation at the end of the Second World War in 1945. A unified curriculum was introduced across Yugoslavia by the Federal Law on Elementary and Secondary Education in 1958. The 1963 Constitution further devolved educational powers to the republics, and the 1974 Constitution elevated Kosovo to an autonomous province with its own education-making bodies. From the mid-1970s, Kosovo’s provincial assembly regulated elementary and secondary schools under an eight-grade compulsory system, and the University of Pristina operated with growing autonomy.In March 1989, Republic of Serbia, within Yougoslavia revoked Kosovo’s autonomy and imposed Serbo-Croatian as the sole language of instruction, leading to the dismissal of Albanian-language teachers and the collapse of Albanian-medium classes. From 1990 to 1999, Kosovo Albanians established a parallel education network to preserve continuity and prevent the illiteracy intended by Serbian policies. This paper examines how primary education functioned under those extraordinary conditions: the parallel curricula and teaching materials used, the financing mechanisms, and the challenges encountered by students, teachers, parents, and school leaders during this period.
Keywords: Kosovo; Albanian education; albanian language; parallel system; Yugoslavia.
- Declaration by Authors
- Ethical Approval: Approved
- Conflict of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.