I think the Albanian educational system breaches basic human rights, but I don’t know where to start to make a change

I don’t mean a particular school, or teacher, I mean the entire system. Also, some might say from the description it doesn’t sound like that bad. It feels like that to me, so that’s why I used it. At the very least I think it lacks the basic rights of mutual respect between students and teachers, and human dignity. But if I misused or overreacted, I apologize in advance.

Let me explain a typical class hour: it starts with a military-like salute when everyone stands up from their seats when the teacher enters and doesn’t sit down until the teacher says so; and boy, there are teachers who love to abuse that power, especially if they are angry for something unrelated and make the students suffer for it. The implication is clear: the teacher is more powerful than the students and they have nobody to stop them from using that power. Of course, the justification why this is done is to instill discipline in students.

• this is extremely different from US education system I’m familiar with too, because I also went to school in Michigan. Teachers do not have this ritual at all, students don’t need to stand up in a military formation to be quiet when the teacher enter, they just become quiet because they can understand respect without being forced on them.

After students sit down, teachers open their grade books, take absences and begin the dreaded part of their schedule: we call this ‘ngritje në mësim’. They search through the gradebook and randomly pick 3-5 students who will be questioned in front of the entire class about a) the last chapter they discussed in class (and by they discussed I mean the teacher talked about the remaining 10 minutes of last time they saw each other) and b) oral pop quiz from the last 10 or so chapters. When the professor starts looking through gradebook, every student in class starts shaking out of stress reviewing the chapter for one last time

• this ritual doesn’t exist in the US school system at all either. The professor uses this time to check if everyone has done their homework, and if they didn’t, asks why. If the reason is they didn’t understand the question, then it sits down with them and explains it again to them personally. If many people don’t get it, then it explains it in front of the whole class.

After the 3-5 students have been chosen, the rest of the class relaxes, they are safe from this hour. Now, those 3-5 students must give answers that should be long enough that the professor is satisfied with them for them to count as good answers. And if they are not perfect, they can forget about getting a good grade. And the teacher will make sure not only them, but no one in the class forgets. It’s public embarrassment time and they have the right to execute this power. Only in the last like 10 minutes of the class they let students free so they can teach the new topic.

• US public schools never question students in front of their peers for all to hear. In fact, professors keep their voice low when they explain something to students to not embarrass them publicly. And if they need to say something negative to them, usually in terms of grades (this always after exams because they don’t have oral questioning) they pull the student out of the class where no one will hear, so they speak privately and tell them they are available to help and give them a chance to improve. The most negative thing to say is constructive criticism, not this power trip Albanian teachers have.

In addition, Albanian public schools usually have 40-60 students per class, so for it is difficult for everyone to get their turn at questioning, meaning that grade might be the only one they get one or two chances at whole semester, so that questioning can be worth as much as 25-50% of the students grade. They have very little chance of fixing a bad grade and if they do, it will at best just go from a horrible bad grade to a passable bad grade, with 0 chance of turning that into good grade.

• In the US system, you have a lot of opportunities to fix a bad grade because you get graded often and for less. Think about how it would be getting graded everyday on the same subject: you might get an F some day, but 15 As, and the average grade is an A You have opportunities to change a bad grade when tested often. But when you don’t have these opportunities in Albania, that grade is worth as much as a midterm or final exam grade, and that’s stressful as hell.

The other problem with the Albanian system is that it does not help students learn a thing, only temporarily memorize. If they are done with their round of ngritje në mësim, they won’t study that subject until their turn comes again...months later. They have other subjects to worry about where the same thing happens. 12-14 subjects per semester to be exact. I remember would study for 6 hours a day when I was in fifth grade, with the last hours trying to stay awake, it only got worse over time.

• You get 6 subjects per semester in the US. And what you learn, you remember. I know American citizens criticize their system all the time, and in fact it’s not perfect, but it’s has solid foundations; geared towards learning rather than humiliating students.

The Albanian system is oppressive as hell. Of course it is, we use the same system we used in communist times. I know my parents dreaded ngritje në mësim as much as I did, because they told me. And generally Albanians have this pessimistic view of their future like nothing they do doesn’t matters because only the authority can and should do things. I guess that’s what happens when you spend your formative years in the Albanian school system.

I thought about a human rights investigation, because I saw this article on Norway on something unrelated, but it made me realize might be just the place to start. Then again, I’m not sure if this truly qualifies as human rights violations. Personally, I’m done with school and even the worst of my college years in the US, midterms and final exams, felt liberating compared to what I experienced in Albania. I don’t want this for myself, but for other people who suffer under that system. There is something very wrong with it.

The Ministry of Education won’t change a thing if I write them a letter or something. People have grown to think this system as normal, as how schools should be. But international pressure is different, the government wants to save face when things like this happen or become public.

Submitted September 10, 2019 at 10:19PM by albardha https://ift.tt/2Q0RYKw