Language Research

Pre-school and primary education is available in the Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish, and Serbian languages. In 1995, extracurricular instruction was started in the Vlach language. In 1996, optional education in the Romany language started at four elementary schools, although there has been no call for a full curriculum. There are optional courses organized in Romany to train teaching staff in this language.

Secondary education in Macedonia is not compulsory. Instruction at this level is carried out in Macedonian, Albanian and Turkish. The number of ethnic minority students who receive secondary education in their mother tongues is increasing. Still, most students from ethnic minorities do not go on to high school.

At the university level, ethnic minorities are under-represented, but there has been much progress in increasing the number of ethnic minority applicants and students since 1991. Albanian and Turkish-language university education exists, but there remains a lack of qualified teaching staff. Additionally, it is possible to study Serbian as a subject. At the higher levels of education there is a significant lack of minority females. The Albanian population exemplifies the relatively small interest in continuing education in the minority groups.

TV and radio broadcasting exists in all minority languages. Newspapers and magazines are also published. There is a Theatre of National Minorities in Skopje where Albanian and Turkish drama is still active. Cultural Associations funded by minorities are partly State financed.

Members of national minorities participate in State administration (the Armed Forces, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Education) and in the judiciary as well. Although provisions towards complete and effective equality between minorities and the majority is not always satisfactory from the minority point of view.

Representatives of minorities are elected to the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia. A total of 15 political parties represent the interests of the national minorities (1997).

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Updated (September 2002)

The Macedonian national TV has just launched a multiethnic channel, which will broadcast programs in the Albanian, Turk, Vlach and Roma language for twelve hours a day. The new TV channel allows Albanian speakers to watch ten hours daily in their mother tongue while Turkish and Roma minority get two hours of broadcasting daily in their language.

Source: Eurolang, www.eurolang.net, Brussels, August 29, 2002, by Margret Oberhofer

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Updated (May 2003)

THE ALBANIANS

The Albanians are the biggest national minority in Macedonia. According to the internationally monitored Census in 1994, the Albanians constituted 22.7-23.0 percent of the total population. The Albanian political leaders do not accept these figures and claim that the real number of their ethnic brethren is between 441,000 and 443,000 people. This discrepancy is caused by a very restrictive Citizenship Law, which requires 15 years of permanent residence in Macedonia, thus denying citizenship to approximately 100,000 ethnic Albanians. This law affected many Albanians previously living in other parts of former Yugoslavia. Because of that, these people are not eligible for citizenship and, thus, cannot participate in censuses and elections.

The Albanians in Macedonia enjoy a number of political rights. Since Macedonia's independence, Albanians have been constantly represented at the central governmental level.¹ As for the local-government level, in the municipalities where the Albanians make up the majority of the population (Tetovo, Gostivar and Debar) there are only Albanian mayors.

The cultural rights of the Albanians in Macedonia have also been protected. Albanians can attend the public primary and secondary schools in their language. As far as university education is concerned, the state faculties of pedagogy, linguistics and drama at Skopje University offer their programs in Albanian. Recently, the Albanians have been given the right to establish private universities in their mother tongue so the tri-lingual Southeast European University was established in Tetovo (see also below).²

Until the constitutional changes of November 2001, the Albanians had the right to defend themselves in courts in Albanian, to register for birth and marriage certificates in their mother tongue, as well as to use Albanian together with Macedonian as the official language in the municipalities where they constitute the majority. With the new constitutional changes of 2001, the use of the Albanian language has been extended to Parliament and to communication with the central government.

THE SOUTHEAST EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY IN TETOVO

The first private university, the Southeast European University (SEEU), started operating on November 20, 2001 in Tetovo. This happened only several days after the constitutional changes based on the Ohrid Framework Agreement. In a colloquial language this university is called "the Max van der Stoel College" after the name of the OSCE's High Commissioner on National Minorities, who for three years dedicated a serious amount of energy to develop this project.

Source: Center for Documentation and Information on Minorities in Europe, Southeast Europe (CEDIME-SE), Minorities in Southeast Europe, Albanians of Macedonia, April 2002, http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/pdf/cedime-se-macedonia-albanians.doc

¹ Either the Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP) the participant in a coalition with the Social Democrats (former communists) until 1998, or the more radical Democratic Party of the Albanians (DPA) a coalition partner of the Macedonian nationalist VMRO-DPMNE

² The Southeast European University in Tetovo, the first private university offering classes in Albanian, Macedonian, English and other European languages, was opened in November 2001.

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Updated (February 2004)

TETOVO UNIVERSITY

Prior to Tetovo University was founded in 1995, the only opportunity for ethnic Albanians to acquire higher education in their language had been Pristina's University in the neighboring Serbian province of Kosovo. However, the regime of Slobodan Milosevic did not support Albanian-language education. In 1991, the number of ethnic Albanians from Macedonia attending higher education institutions in Serbia dramatically decreased.

The opening of Tetovo University in 1995 was marred by violence. When the Macedonian police closed the University two days later, violent clashes erupted, bringing 5,000 Albanians to the streets. One person was killed and 15 others were injured. Following the demonstrations, a rector Sulejmani was sentenced to two and a half years in prison but released nine months later.

As the university was closed, classes continued to be held in private buildings arranged by wealthy local Albanians.

Some 500 students have already graduated from Tetovo University though with unrecognized diplomas. They were promised that once the government granted the official status to Tetovo University, their diplomas would become legitimate. The Macedonian government; however, has indicated that the diplomas will not be recognized until 2005, after being evaluated and compared with the existing state educational programs.

THE PROCESS OF RECOGNITION

For nearly a decade the debate over the legal status of Albanian-language Tetovo University has been one of Macedonia's most divisive issues. Finally in June 2003, the government had agreed to recognize this institution as the country's third state university. However, a December seven-day marathon session in the Parliament ended without the final solution. The government's decision to recognize officially and to finance Tetovo University should have been approved at that session but the Parliamentary President Ljupco Jordanovski interrupted it by the statement that this controversial issue had been blocking parliament's other work long enough. The session was resumed on January 15.

Opponents of this idea say legalizing the Albanian-language Tetovo University is tantamount to condoning segregation, while proponents argue it promotes equality.

The university has been the symbol of the ethnic-Albanians' struggle for their rights since it was forced underground by the government (immediately after its opening in 1995). For Albanian students, the ban on the University meant denying their right to higher education thus further prevented them from occupying the posts in the country's governance.

On the other hand, ethnic Macedonians saw the University as a dangerous center of separatist indoctrination promoting the "ghettoization" of the Albanian minority. They also argued that the quality of education offered at Tetovo University does not meet the standards of Macedonia's two other state universities.

According to Ganka S. Cvetanova, a representative of the largest opposition party, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE), the party is not against higher education for Albanians in Macedonia, but it is against faulty education.

Amid this controversy, the government partners, the Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski (Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM)) and Ali Ahmeti (the ethnic-Albanian Democratic Union of Integration (BDI)) agreed to grant official recognition and state funding to Tetovo University.

UNIVERSITIES IN MACEDONIA

In 2001, the South East European University (SEEU) in Tetovo has been opened. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Macedonia established the university in an effort to meet both Albanian educational needs and government requirements.

The SEEU is a private university funded by donations from Council of Europe member states and private foundations. Ninety percent of the school's approximately 3,000 students are Albanians, although enrollment is open to all ethnicities, and courses are conducted in English, Albanian, and Macedonian.

Under the former VMRO-DPMNE government in the mid-1990s, Albanian students were also integrated into the two existing state universities, the Skopje-based St. Kiril i Metodij University and the Bitola-based St. Kliment Ohridski University. A quota system was established in 1997, requiring the universities to enroll 20 percent of ethnic-Albanian students, even when that meant lowering admissions standards for them. An Albanian-language section was also established at the Education Department of Skopje University.

Tetovo University aspires to be the third state university, with 100 percent Albanian enrollment and courses offered only in Albanian.

Those who do not support legalization of Tetovo University said that minority rights for higher education have been assured with the establishment of the SEEU and the quota system in the two Macedonian state universities.

Throughout the recent parliamentary debate, ethnic-Macedonian students protested outside the Parliament, declaring the final day of debate "a day of mourning for Macedonian education." According to the protesters, the SEEU meets sufficiently the needs of minority higher education.

Arguments to the contrary include the fact that the SEEU is a private university that charges tuition so many ethnic Albanians cannot afford it.

THE MONEY

Another question that needs to be answered is how the Macedonian government will fund Tetovo University. Currently no one is willing to estimate how much money Tetovo University would require.

SEEU Rector said he did not expect the official recognition of Tetovo University to pose a financial threat to other educational institutions, adding that the existence of two primarily Albanian-language universities would lead to a healthy competition.

However, St. Kiril i Metodij University Rector said that if this newly recognized university demonstrated a financial threat to other universities, he would pull back his support for the process.

Source: Minelres News, by Biljana Stavrova, Skopje, Macedonia, January 17, 2004, http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/2004-January/003146.html

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Updated (May 2004)

BROADCASTING

The Broadcasting Council proposes some concessions specifically for broadcasting in minority languages.

There are 43 broadcasters that broadcast in minority languages (33 private and 10 public) when 13 are private Albanian television stations, 1 is state television channel (MTV's 3rd Channel, which is mostly but not exclusively Albanian-language), 12 are private radio stations in the Albanian language, 1 is state Macedonian Radio's third channel (mostly but not exclusively Albanian) and 7 are state-owned local public radio stations.

For the Roma language there are only two private television stations (BTR and SHUTEL) and three private radio stations.

No television station broadcasts exclusively in Turkish, although some private stations have Turkish programs. The four state-owned local public radio stations (Struga, Tetovo, Gostivar, Debar) also have some Turkish programming.

Source: Minority-language Related Broadcasting and Legislation in the OSCE, Program in Comparative Media Law and Policy (PCMLP), Center for Socio-Legal Studies, Wolfson College, Oxford University & Institute for Information Law (IViR)(http://www.ivir.nl/index-english.html), Universiteit van Amsterdam (Study commissioned by the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities), April 2003, edited by T. McGonagle (IViR), B. Davis Noll & M. Price (PCMLP), http://www.ivir.nl/publications/mcgonagle/Minority-language%20broadcasting.pdf

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