Report of the situation of children's rights in the field of education

4. Discussion4.1. IntroductionThe opinion poll was conducted in two selected regions: Pristina and Prizren region. In bothregions were selected 15 target urban and rural schools as well as 15 comparison schools,which in the demographic aspect are similar to the target group schools. These schools havebeen selected from two municipalities of each region: Pristina and Fushë Kosova/KosovoPolje (Pristina region); Prizren and Dragash/Dragas(Prizren region). The selected samples arerepresentative, in terms of representing all targeted categories and specific ages (11-15 yearolds), as well as representing the overall number of pupils, parents and teachers involved inthe survey. Unfortunately, despite the efforts, the schools teaching in Serbian language werenot included in the survey.4.2. Freedom of expression and freedom of associationMore than half of the surveyed children and parents consider that they are completely free toexpress their opinion during classes, meetings and leisure activities, and that they areencouraged by teachers to do so. From the analysis of the sub-questions in specific schools,we can notice consistency in all their answers, e.g. the number of answers provided on thesub-question: “I can express my opinion freely during classes” is similar to the number ofanswers provided on the sub-question: “Teachers have encouraged me to express my opinionandask me what I think”. Similar trend can be noticed in other questions as well.Despite the encouraging results, around 15% of pupils and 11% of parents have answeredwith Rarely or Never on the question if their opinion can be expressed freely. A similarpercentage of pupils of around 15% consider that their opinion is taken into considerationRarely or Never. In both cases the teachers opinion is different, while only 2% of them thinkthat pupils cannot express themselves freely, up to 3.5% of them think that opinions are nottaken into consideration. Such difference of opinions between pupils and parents from oneside and teachers from the other side, are evident in other subjects covered by the survey, aswell.Around half of the pupils are satisfied with specific aspects of the functioning of theirrepresentation organs, including their possibility to influence decisions. However a categoryof 22-24% of people included in this survey thinks that there is still room for improvement ofthe “internal democracy”. Other part from 15-18% of pupils are not satisfied with thefunctioning of their representative organs, therefore there is a big number of answers “I don’tknow” on this question of around 9.3-11.1%. There is no doubt that this is one of the fieldsthat needs improvement to increase the inclusion of pupils in their representation organs.4.3. Inclusion in education and school attendanceJudging from the answers provided by the pupils, parents and teachers, the school takesadequate measures to ensure pupils regular attendance. For example all three categoriesinvolved in the survey report that teachers register regularly unjustified pupils absence.Without trying to undermine the answers given, we need to emphasize that low numbers ofreported cases of absence is one of the most acute problems in Kosovo, which encourages nonattendance and dropping school by pupils.When we talk about the existence of optimal conditions for education, it seems that most ofthe children are satisfied with these conditions, while the percentage of those who questionthis statement is around 20-22%. So 13-15% of pupils have stated that they have to work tosupport their families, while other 6% declared that they might have to work to support theirfamilies. This is in compliance with the percentage of pupils who state that their families are113