CHALLENGES OF COMPETENCY-BASED EDUCATION IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS OF KOSOVO
Belgizare KRYEZIU
Abstract
Competency-based education (CBE) has gained recognition as a progressive approach to teaching and learning, emphasizing the mastery of specific knowledge, skills, and abilities. Competence-based education began its implementation in Kosovo ten years ago. It has become a main topic in all pre-university education, including primary education. There are almost as many parents, teachers, and civil society organizations claiming to have a clear definition of competency-based education and then implementing it in the classroom by teachers as there are practitioners. The most important characteristic of competency-based education is that it aims to measure and assess learning rather than time. Unfortunately, this is not happening due to several factors, but an important one is that professional development activities are more supply-driven than demand-driven. These issues challenge not only our technologies, but our educational institutions, values, and way of living and interacting. Competency-based education is supposed to deal with very complex problems and to be successful and productive requires innovative, practical solutions that can be modified in the light of experience and feedback on the ground. In this direction, this study analyzes appropriate literature and official reports on Kosovo's achievements in the education system as well as in the rest by surveying nearly 650 teachers from all regions of Kosovo, analyzes and evaluates the current challenges of supporting and accepting the new curriculum of based on competences (CBE - Competence Based Education). The results show that although the majority of teachers accept the new curriculum (CBE) as a challenge and a positive change, for some of them it is burdensome and unclear as well as inaccessible, but again most of them practice modern methods and techniques for the purpose of development of the appropriate competencies of students. Furthermore, the trainings organized by MEST are the most current and frequent forms through which support for the new curriculum (CBE) is provided, on the other hand, modern forms and methods of teaching (reorganization, monitoring, ICT, others ) are partially present in the learning process for the implementation of the new curriculum (CBE) / Teaching programs by teachers in primary education in the Republic of Kosovo.
Pages:
107 - 116