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7 March – Teacher’s Day
The civil society organizations support the education
By Gramoz Shabani
For several year now, the Albanians in Macedonia celebrate 7 March – The Teacher’s Day. On this day by the end of the XIX century, the first school in Albanian was opened. On that occasion, in the beginning of the school year, several civil society organizations symbolically collect school materials for the pupils facing financial difficulties. In general, the condition with education in Macedonia is rather bad, regardless of the language used for its realization. The conditions in which the Albanian education is performed are also inappropriate, especially in the schools in the rural areas, which not only lack elementary school materials, but classrooms, too. There are a number of instances of pupils attending classes of shorter duration than usual into three shifts. The teachers have to walk to schools which are kilometers away, high in the mountains. Another problem that both the schools and the pupils face is the lack of books. Pupils coming from poor families cannot even provide textbooks from the stores, so they need to either borrow them from older relatives or buy second-hand books. How can they then buy a book they would like to read?
El Hilal in a mission to support the education
For three years in arrow, the humanitarian organization El Hilal has been implementing the action for distributing book as part of its programme activities. On 7 March – The Teacher’s Day, they distributed about 2 000 books and other publications for ten schools in the whole territory of the Republic of Macedonia. The books for this activity which has already turned into tradition, have been provided by 9 publishers who gave a positive answer to El Hilals request, while part of the books were provided by the organization itself. As they said in El Hilal, in this year’s activity, books were distributed in the region of Skopje, in the following primary schools: “Ibe Palikuka” in Bojane, “Skenderbeg” in Aracinovo, “Naim Frasheri” in Studenicane, “Nikola Vapcarov” in Skopje, as well as several schools in Gostivar, Kumanovo, Bitola and Veles.
On 6 March, at about noon, we set off together with the El Hilal activists towards our first goal – the primary school “Skenderbeg” in Aracinovo, where the books were supposed to be delivered. The pupils were curiously looking at us to find out what we were carrying. Inside the school, we were welcomed by the principal who expressed his gratitude for our support.
Agus Abazi, the school librarian, told us that their book fund is about three thousand. The sent a request to the Ministry of Education for more books, but they have not received any reply yet. Thus, last year, on the initiative of parents and pupils, they bought books for the school library.
From there, we headed for Studenicani. We passed the settlement Dracevo, and then through a mountain road we reached the village. On the narrow roads, we saw the pupils walking back home, with the heavy bags on their backs. In front of the school we were met by the El Hilal activist from Studenicani. Although it was raining, we noticed several pupils playing football at the school playground, as if they did not mind the rain. Entering the teachers’ office we could not but notice the stove. We greeted the present and the El Hilal representatives informed them on the purpose for our visit that day. They were very grateful concerning the gift. As the librarian told us, there were about seven thousand books in the school library. However, more then half of them were of Marxist and socialist content, which is of no interest to today’s generations. Full of dust they wait on the shelves for someone to open them.
“We have plenty of books at the library, but many of them are not interesting at all for us. Of those that we have, I prefer to read short stories. I also write sometimes. I usually read at school after classes or at home when it is quieter, which is not often the case, since we are many children. Children are happiest when they get a book as a present, since we don’t have computers at home, so the books and the magazines are the only ways to find something more about the world”, told us Hajrie, a fifth-grade pupil.
About 1 000 pupils go to the primary school “Naim Frasheri” in Studenicani. Sometimes the electricity in the village goes off, so the classes need to be shortened. We said goodbye to our hosts wishing them success in the future.
“With this humanitarian help we tend to approach the books to the pupils through their teachers, especially books treating various issues of our social life. In that direction, El Hilal has been awarding scholarships for the best pupils for several years now”, said Behixudin Shehabi, El Hilal’s president.
Activities in Kumanovo, Bitola, Prilep and Tetovo.
The Union of Albanian Teachers, that is its branches in Kumanovo and Lipkovo, marked 7 March with different activities. On that occasion, a number of literary, art and sport contests were organized. The best pupils and teachers were awarded different prizes.
El Hilal joined the manifestation through which presents were given to 15 orphans.
The Union of Albanian Intellectuals, the branch f the Union of Albanian Teachers and The Youth Forum have also organized manifestation on that occasion in Bitola and in Prilep, where certificates of gratitude were given to the veteran teachers from that region for their long-term contribution for the development and promotion of Albanian education in this part of Macedonia.
The primary schools from Tetovo, in cooperation with the Tetovo municipality, organized a solemn ceremony at the Cultural Centre in Tetovo.
Books against poverty
The reader is primarily interested in the book so that he/she can enrich his/her culture, learn new things, feed the soul. However, in order to read, there is one condition that needs to be fulfilled: you have to own it, that is, buy it. There is another option – you can get it from a library. Unfortunately, our libraries do not always possess he books that readers are interested in. There is a third option available, not so popular and not so practical – renting the book. So, as I said in the beginning, in order to read the book, one has to have it. We came to the most important issue: how can we buy the book if we know that it is a product like every other, and the products are meant to be bought, not given away. Do our finances allow us to buy books, at times when our society is dominated by material poverty? Does our financial condition allow us to buy books which are getting more and more expensive every day? And, as a consequence, we are left with the fact that our people read less and less, and there are more of those who want to educate themselves, but lack the necessary conditions.
Anyway, the main factor here is the poverty. It influences the cultural development of the society to a great extent, and the basis of that society is, of course, the book.
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