The parallel education system in ‘House-Schools’ 

In 1989, following the withdrawal of its autonomy by the Serbian regime, Kosovo lost its executive power over its education system. Decisions on curricula and textbooks were made in Belgrade, while actions from the Serbian government  to prevent teaching in the Albanian language were intensifying.

Pupils, students, teachers and organizers of all levels of the education system in the Albanian language, had already faced many obstacles, from police violence, the imposition of the Serbian language in schools, to the mass banishment of Albanian staff involved in the education.

A severe method that was imposed in the spring of 1990, was the segregation of schools based on ethnic grounds, first by setting up separated schedules, and later by building walls inside schools. During the same year a mass poisonous contamination of students became public in several cities of Kosovo. The poisoning of students was documented on various occasions throughout the year, in schools attended mainly by Albanian students. Although the number of those contaminated reached 8000, the culprit was never identified or punished.

In 1991, the official educational year in Kosovo was scheduled to begin in September. However, that year, Albanian teachers and students were banned from educational buildings.

Resisting the decisions of the Serbian government, they went to school like all the previous years. Instead of a welcoming learning environment, this time, they were met with strict police force preventing them from entering  school premises.

Photo author: Shyqeri Obertinca.

Parallel education, parallel spaces

As a result of earlier events, Albanian students did not attend classes for almost a year. During this time private houses and other spaces were identified, with the purpose of enabling the educational activities that had been banned from the official educational buildings. By early 1992, a whole parallel network of education was established, the infrastructure of which included almost all the necessary educational institutions, albeit the clear shortages of logistics and human resources as well as teaching materials.

‘House-schools’ enabled the creation of parallel spaces for the development of the education process in the Albanian language. Almost ten generations of students of all education levels in Kosovo, attended these spaces while they were banned from official school buildings.

About 3000 private buildings, mostly residential houses, replaced the premises of most high schools as well as the University of Prishtina, that organized all its activities in ‘house-schools’ starting from March 1992.

Everything had to start from zero. A decision was made to rename schools in Albanian, work was put on textbooks and new organizational structures for parallel teaching in Albanian were established.  Everything independent from the Serbian government. Desks, seats and school supplies were all improvised. Thousands of people contributed to enable the continuation of the schooling system. 

In these times of uncertainty, teachers carried a larger burden than simply educating their students. Developing a parallel educational system put their lives, the lives of students, and the lives of homeowners, at risk. Those involved in this system were regularly persecuted by state structures and some teachers were even killed.

In 1996 an agreement was reached between the Serbian regime and Albanian parallel structures to allow Albanian students and teachers to return to school facilities. This decision was never implemented.

The peaceful resistance organized around the continuation of education in the Albanian language culminated in the manifestation of October 1, 1997, which was triggered by the breach of the agreement to allow Albanians to have an education in their native language. Thousands of students took to the streets of Prishtina, demanding the right to education, among other human rights that had been violated. The protesters planned to march through the city, but were confronted with excessive violence by Serbian police forces. This event had a major impact on raising international awareness on the issue, as the violence against peaceful protesters demanding educational rights became more visible.

This era of education in Kosovo ended only after the end of the war in 1999. Allowing the re-establishment of the educational institutions, which were initially under the supervision of the international community.