Our education system, like elsewhere in the world, was also affected by the pandemic COVID-19. Our school “Faik Konica” is located in the center of Pristina and has 1 471 students and 78 educational, technical and managerial staff.

Since the distance learning was never in place before, the creation of the online platform was a new challenge for us. However in close cooperation with the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, the Municipality of Pristina, teachers, students and parents we managed to put in place the distance learning. The transmission of online lessons was enabled through the public broadcaster “RTK”, who transmits classes with a specific schedule. One of the main challenges was the creation of an interactive and user friendly platform, through an inclusive process in order to involve all relevant parties. Nevertheless, in close cooperation with our educational staff the whole process is reported, trying to eliminate all the difficulties that were noticed during the previous weeks. At the beginning, there were difficulties to synchronize our school curriculum with the one transmitted through the online platform. However, our teachers and students are doing a great job to coordinate in order to address the gaps and achieve the required result.

Another challenge that we faced, was the socio-economic situation of certain students, who lacked proper technology equipment to follow the online classes. Therefore there was a lack of full participation in communication. Thanks to the mobilization of the school management and parents some old laptops that the school possessed were repaired and provided to the students in need. Moreover, there was a great solidarity by different parents who also shared their laptops with pupils in need. Last but not least, if the current situation continues the assessment of students will represent an additional challenge. The Municipal Directorate of Education in Pristina launched the e-school program, which enables interactive communication between teachers, students, parents and management. Although not an ideal solution, it will serve as a tool for teachers for the final assessment of students.

Our school, in addition of conducting distance learning through the public Radio Television platform, has also created groups of all classes with the platforms ZOOM, SKYPE, GOOGLE CLASSROM and VIBER, through which it maintains interactive communication with all school actors. In parallel, we are conducting trainings of teachers for the use of e-school platform.

Contact with teachers and parents is made through the ZOOM platform, in this case I have to highlight that we discuss possible problems during the teaching process and we try to find the best solution in cooperation with management, teachers and parents.

During these weeks, in order to relax from this new way of communication in teaching, we will prepare Music program, as well as Art exhibitions, in order to relax the students by minimizing the stress from the situation we are going through. We hope that jointly we will emerge this unprecedented situation as soon as possible.

Our school “Lekë Dukagjini” faced several challenges as a result of the situation created with the COVID-19. This was mainly because we were not prepared on how to deal with this situation, and there was no clear guidance. There was a sense of insecurity and panic among teachers, parents and community at the beginning. Then the distance learning was put in place, transmitted through the public broadcaster “RTK”. The curriculum transmited online was far behind our school schedule and the students lacked interest to follow.

We firstly focused on the psychological aspects of teachers and students. We urged them to focus on basic subjects in order to leave room to attractive and practical forms of teaching and learning. In our online contacts with teachers, we appeal not to overburden the students with additional tasks. It is sufficient that the regular contact is maintained, that they have access to lessons and there should not be any testing because this may have a negative effect on them and cause the stress levels to increase. We brought together teachers to cooperate and report any problems. We are all aware that home cannot replace the school so the welbeing of children is our utmost priority.