Kosova Education Centre (KEC)

Who we are

Kosova Education Center (KEC) is a non-governmental and not-for-profit organization founded in 2000 with the idea of focusing on provision of in-service teacher training programs. This still remains an important aspect of its operations, nonetheless, in the course of time, KEC has expanded its scope of work in four key areas: 1) Quality of Education, 2) Human Rights, 3) Networking and participation in policy making, and 4) Education research.

What we do

KEC scope of work covers four key areas:

Improving the quality of education

This category mainly includes training programs for teachers and school managers, but also for other participants. KEC has around 70 such programs through which over 30,000 participants were trained. Most of these training programs have been developed within international projects and are accredited by the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI).

Human Rights

KEC has started implementing projects in the field of human rights since 2003, such as the “Multi-Cultural Education” project, which aimed at creating a new mindset on the role and importance of quality education and education on human for the prosperity of the Kosovar society, and active education for peace as the key precondition for the development of the citizens of Kosovo, regardless of their ethnicity, race, religion or their social, political, economic, gender or any other background and affiliation.  Furthermore, the Academy for Education for Democratic Citizenship (EDC) and Human Rights Education (HRE) that contributes to strengthening the democratic culture in schools by training education professionals and community stakeholders, as well as by further developing their capacity to implement and promote EDC/HRE in their schools and communities.

Other projects in this area are those related to the rights of the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities. These projects ensure inclusion of these communities into society, and improve the quality of educational services provided to them.

Networking and Participation in Policy Making

KEC has implemented numerous projects in networking and policy making with similar organizations from Kosovo and other countries, in order to build the capacity to participate in educational policy making and human rights. Such projects have helped the civil society organizations in Kosovo and other Balkan countries to be active in shaping educational policies at central and local level.

Education Research

Research carried out by KEC is usually of the applied nature. The goal is to analyze certain education and research-related topics from the perspective of best practices or the state of affairs, and provide recommendations for improvements. In this regard, KEC conducts evaluation of projects implemented by third parties, but also the analyses that should inform decision-making on a particular issue.

Our best practices

After School Support for Teens (ASSET)

“After School Support for Teens – ASSET” Programme is designed for secondary schools in Kosovo and their students (grades 10-12) with the aim to develop life and work skills through capacity building of all teachers and students on project-based learning, educational technology usage, career orientation, entrepreneurship and financial education in 16 general upper secondary schools, in 16 municipalities. More information is available on the project website and on the website of KEC.

Action for Reducing Inequalities in Education (ARISE)

The four – year Action is to support the inclusion of students from low socio-economic status (SES) background by building national and regional partnerships of civil society organisations from six IPA beneficiary countries to engage in advocacy and constructive policy dialogue with governments, raise awareness among education stakeholders and pilot interventions targeting low SES students at school level. The project will support schools to develop sustainable practices in that direction, including school staff training, school projects, school policies, community involvement. More information is available on the project website and its Facebook page.

Kosovo Education and Employment Network (KEEN)

KEEN was a strategic coalition of four civil society organizations focused on the field of education, employment and social policies. KEEN aimed to provide input to improve the employability of disadvantaged groups in Kosovo and their involvement in policy development, decision-making and monitoring at central and local level, by supporting and facilitating the dialogue between the institutions of education and training and business.

The project prepared 20 monitoring reports on the field of education, employment and inclusion of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities, 15 monitoring frameworks for monitoring the implementation of local action plans for education and communities, supported over 10 VET schools and VCTs to improve their cooperation with businesses and organized many study visits to learn from experiences of EU countries for cooperation of VET schools with businesses.

Platform for online trainings

Recently KEC through “Together Against Child Abuse” project, has launched the platform for provision of online trainings for students, teachers and parents.

Publications

Numerous publications, studies, research reports on issues concerning education sector in Kosovo are available on the website of KEC.