The Center for Civic Education (CCE) announced today that on the occasion of International Education Day, it warns of the continuous decline in the quality of education in Montenegro.
"Although progress has been made in infrastructure investments in the past period, key problems such as overcrowded schools, inadequate equipment, poor working conditions for teachers and a lack of focused learning remain unresolved. Additionally, and very importantly, education is still predominantly viewed as a resource for strengthening party and/or ideological structures, and such an education system is not focused on students, learning and teaching, nor does it contribute to the integrity of the teaching profession," the CCE statement, signed by Snežana Kaluđerović, senior legal advisor, states.
CCE added that the findings of their research, which also include corruption in the education sector in Montenegro, show that the majority of citizens - 55,4% - recognize a medium or high level of corruption in education, while 45,5% state that it is a low or very low level.
"At the same time, the perception of corruption increases with educational levels, being lowest at the kindergarten level and highest at universities. There is a predominantly negative attitude towards the effectiveness of anti-corruption measures - 56,5% of respondents express dissatisfaction with anti-corruption efforts in education. There is also a strong perception that employment and advancement in education takes place through political (35,7%) or friendly and family ties (34,7%), and there are significantly fewer who believe that this is done legally, based on knowledge and abilities (17,8%)," the CCE statement highlights.
CCE said that "the education system does not prepare pupils and students for the labor market due to overly extensive and outdated curricula, as well as an assessment system that focuses on memorization and mere reproduction, instead of developing critical thinking, cognitive skills and competences."
"Teachers function more as stewards and assessors than as true teachers and mentors. Platforms such as the electronic diary are not used to their full capacity, while frequent teacher changes and stressful assessments negatively affect students. In addition to the numerous things that are missing from the education system, we should also remember the practice of non-domestic spending of funds on items that are not an urgent need in education, such as financing religious schools. The State Audit Institution (SRI) issued a negative opinion on the compliance of financing secondary religious schools with the General Law on Education, which is why the CCE filed a criminal complaint with the SDT against unidentified persons who paid 2019 million euros to finance secondary religious schools in Montenegro in the period from 2023 to 4,9, contrary to the legal procedures for financing institutions that provide publicly valid educational programs," the CCE said.
The non-governmental organization (NGO) said that growing peer violence in schools across Montenegro has raised serious questions about the safety and well-being of students, such as the example at the Niko Rolović Gymnasium in Bar, where a student was stabbed in the schoolyard.
"The CCE survey among the general population warns of a strong perception of occasional or frequent presence of peer violence among 65,7% of respondents, while at the same time 58,2% of high school students state that peer violence is present in their schools or environments. In addition, cases of sexual harassment by teachers are clearly not recognized as a problem until the wider public is involved, as indicated by the case in the Podgorica 'Slobodan Škerović' Gymnasium. Although the adoption of key laws and strategies in the field of education is expected, it is not evident from the proposed documents that significant reforms will occur that would enable a modern and efficient, student-centered education system," CCE states.
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