Symposium: Challenges and prospects of developing future teachers

Symposium on challenges and prospects of developing future teachers was held

On October 25, the QATEK project held a symposium with relevant stakeholders on the current challenges and prospects of developing future teachers.

The symposium started with an opening by Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Education, Prof. Dukagjin Pupovci by pointing to several challenges for developing quality teachers, as well as offering a way forward on what the Ministry of Education can do to address such challenges. He asserted that accreditation processes carried out by the Kosovo Accreditation Agency should be seen as a mechanism for balancing the existing demands for future teachers in line with approving the needed teacher education programs across public teacher education institutions in Kosovo.

The Dean of the Faculty of Education (UP) Prof. Blerim Saqipi also raised some important issues and elaborated each thoroughly, including (i) trends of interest for the teaching profession, (ii) challenges in terms of quality teacher education, (iii) mechanisms to address quality teacher education.

The stakeholders involved in the symposium were: representatives from the Ministry of Education, the Pedagogical Institute, and management and academic staff from all public Universities preparing future teachers. Stakeholders provided feedback on current realities and agreed on the following recommendations: (1) changing program review culture, (2) harmonisation of teacher education programs, and (3) aligning teacher education to MESTI teaching standards. The symposium concluded with all stakeholders agreeing to continue these forums regularly.