Teacher Shortages Leave Fushë Kosovë Students without Physics and Geography Classes
Nearly a month into Kosovo’s new school year, pupils at Hivzi Sylejmani Gymnasium were still missing lessons in two core subjects, exposing recruitment delays and wider staffing pressures in one of the country’s fastest-growing municipalities.
The 2026–2027 school year began with an unexpected staffing problem at Hivzi Sylejmani Gymnasium in Fushë Kosovë, where students went for weeks without regular physics and geography lessons. By September 23, almost a month after classes began, the shortage (mungesë) of subject teachers had still not been completely resolved. The interruption created a growing instructional gap (boshllëk mësimor) in two subjects that form important parts of the secondary-school curriculum. The situation also highlighted the broader fragility (brishtësi) of school staffing when the departure of only one or two specialised teachers cannot be replaced quickly.
The two vacancies arose for different reasons rather than through a coordinated departure of school staff. The geography teacher entered maternity leave (pushim lehonie) after completion of the previous academic year. The physics teacher left his position to pursue doctoral studies (studime doktorature), creating another vacancy immediately before the new term. School director Amir Pllana said the gymnasium therefore depended on completion of the municipal recruitment procedure (procedurë rekrutimi) before regular lessons could resume.
The school had already received substantial interest from potential replacements by late September. Twelve applicants were competing for the geography position, providing a relatively broad candidate pool (grup kandidatësh) from which the municipality could select a teacher. Nine candidates had applied for physics, demonstrating that the vacancy had also attracted measurable interest (interes) despite the specialist nature of the subject. Oral interviews (intervista) were scheduled for September 24 as the recruitment process moved toward its final stage.
The number of applicants is important because it suggests that the immediate problem was not simply the total absence of qualified people willing to teach. Instead, students experienced a delay while the formal selection process (proces përzgjedhjeje) was completed. Public institutions normally require documented competitions to ensure fairness (drejtësi) and equal treatment among applicants. Yet lengthy administrative lead times (kohë procedurale) can become educationally costly when vacancies arise immediately before the beginning of a school year.
Hivzi Sylejmani was not the only school in Fushë Kosovë experiencing teacher-related disruption during September. At Mihal Grameno Annex 2, pupils from two classes also temporarily lacked their normal teachers during the opening week, creating another example of staffing instability (paqëndrueshmëri). One second-grade teacher had entered medical leave associated with pregnancy, forcing the school to use temporary redistribution (rishpërndarje) of pupils among other classes. Administrators were again waiting for municipal recruitment procedures to produce a permanent replacement (zëvendësim).
The wider municipal problem extends considerably beyond physics and geography. Fushë Kosovë’s Education Directorate said competitions had been opened for around 12 different teaching profiles (profile mësimore) across the municipality. Vacancies affected subjects including biology, Albanian, English, mathematics, history and civic education as well as classroom teaching, revealing considerable breadth (shtrirje) in the staffing challenge. Approximately 400 people applied across the competitions, creating a large administrative caseload (ngarkesë aplikimesh) that recruitment commissions needed to process.
Municipal Education Director Sabit Xhigolli described the lack of education staffing allocations as a problem that has affected Fushë Kosovë for years. He linked the difficulty partly to rapid population growth (rritje e popullsisë) and the corresponding increase in pupil numbers. A larger school-age population creates additional demand (kërkesë) for teachers even when the number of existing schools and authorised posts changes more slowly. The result can be a persistent capacity mismatch (mospërputhje kapacitetesh) between demographic growth and the education system’s authorised workforce.
Fushë Kosovë presents an interesting contrast with parts of Kosovo where schools are losing pupils because of emigration and demographic decline. Local education officials have previously described schools in the municipality as among the most overcrowded (të mbingarkuara) in the country. Some classrooms have contained around 40 pupils, creating greater staffing intensity (nevojë të lartë për staf) than municipalities where enrolment is shrinking. This uneven demographic geography creates a difficult allocation problem (problem shpërndarjeje) because teacher positions and education budgets need to follow rapidly changing concentrations of pupils.
The municipality also faced a bureaucratic problem involving authorised staffing numbers. Xhigolli said officials considered converting approximately 17 administrative positions (pozita) into education posts through a decision of the Municipal Assembly. Discussion of that conversion contributed to a delay in launching some recruitment competitions (konkurse) because the relevant assembly session occurred only toward the end of August. The episode illustrates how administrative reclassification (riklasifikim) can directly affect classroom staffing when workforce authorisations are not settled well before the academic year begins.
While recruitment was underway, schools attempted to use existing teachers to cover at least some of the missing classes. The Education Directorate said internal reallocation (rishpërndarje e brendshme) was used whenever existing personnel could legally and practically teach additional lessons. That approach reduced some of the immediate disruption (ndërprerje) but could not eliminate every missed class. Xhigolli acknowledged that the resulting instructional losses (humbje mësimore) were clearly evident across the affected schools.
Students at Hivzi Sylejmani were particularly affected because physics normally builds sequentially from one topic to another. Several weeks without structured instruction can create a knowledge deficit (mangësi njohurish) that makes later concepts more difficult to understand. Geography can similarly require continuous progression (përparim) through physical, human and regional topics during a fixed school calendar. Delayed teaching therefore creates a problem of curriculum compression (ngjeshje e programit) once a replacement teacher finally enters the classroom.
The municipality has said newly selected teachers will be expected to recover the classes missed during the vacancy period. Such compensation (kompensim) may involve additional lessons or changes to the ordinary timetable after appointments are completed. Recovering weeks of instruction nevertheless creates an additional workload (ngarkesë pune) for teachers and students who still need to complete the normal curriculum. The effectiveness of this remediation (rikuperim mësimor) will depend on whether schools can create enough additional teaching time without overloading pupils.
Simply counting recovered hours may not be sufficient to determine whether students have genuinely caught up. Schools also need to assess pupils’ comprehension (kuptueshmëri) after accelerated lessons replace weeks of missed teaching. Diagnostic tests can reveal remaining learning gaps (boshllëqe në të nxënë) and identify topics requiring additional explanation. This form of educational monitoring (monitorim) is especially important in cumulative subjects such as physics, where later work often assumes mastery of earlier concepts.
The timing of recruitment illustrates why schools need workforce planning before the academic year begins. Maternity leave and postgraduate study are foreseeable forms of staff turnover (qarkullim stafi) rather than completely unpredictable emergencies. Administrators can sometimes create substitute-teacher rosters (lista rezervë) or launch competitions earlier when future vacancies are known. Greater staffing contingency planning (planifikim rezervë) could reduce the length of time between a teacher leaving and a qualified replacement entering the classroom.
Specialist subjects can still be difficult to cover because not every teacher possesses the correct academic qualifications. A mathematics teacher cannot automatically provide physics instruction merely because the subjects share some quantitative content (përmbajtje sasiore). Schools need teachers with appropriate subject expertise (ekspertizë lëndore) as well as pedagogical qualifications. Maintaining this professional specialisation (specializim) protects educational quality but also reduces the flexibility available when a specific teacher suddenly leaves.
The September staffing problem occurred during an already complicated beginning to the school year in Fushë Kosovë. More than 130 pupils in nearby Lismir had lost approximately two weeks of instruction because their school building required urgent repairs, adding another form of educational disruption (ndërprerje) within the same municipality. Those pupils returned after municipal renovation (rinovim) and sanitary approval allowed classes to resume on September 14. Combined with teacher shortages elsewhere, the episode illustrated the cumulative strain (trysni) placed on local education authorities during the opening weeks.
Fushë Kosovë therefore faces two interconnected challenges: physical infrastructure and human resources. Building new schools can relieve classroom overcrowding (mbingarkesë) but cannot solve the problem if sufficient qualified teachers are unavailable or posts are not authorised in time. Recruiting teachers without adequate classroom capacity (kapacitet) creates the opposite imbalance. Effective education planning requires demographic, infrastructure and staffing forecasting (parashikim) to develop together rather than through separate administrative processes.
The fact that around 400 candidates applied for the municipality’s teaching competitions creates an important policy lesson. A large applicant pool indicates that recruitment supply (ofertë kandidatësh) existed, even though students were still missing lessons. The problem consequently involved administrative timing (kohëzim) as well as labour availability. Faster but still transparent processing (përpunim) could reduce the educational cost of future vacancies without weakening fair recruitment standards.
By September 28, the Municipality of Fushë Kosovë had published commission decisions concerning both the geography and physics teaching competitions. These publications showed that the recruitment process had reached a more advanced stage (fazë) only a few days after the interviews. They also indicated institutional follow-through (ndjekje deri në fund) after weeks in which pupils had been without normal classes. Publication of the decisions represented procedural progress (përparim procedural), although the municipal pages alone did not establish precisely when the selected teachers began regular classroom work.
The episode also demonstrates the importance of maintaining reliable information for parents and pupils during staffing disruptions. Families need clear communication (komunikim) explaining which lessons are missing, when recruitment will finish and how lost classes will be recovered. Uncertainty can create unnecessary frustration (zhgënjim) when students repeatedly arrive at school without knowing whether a subject will be taught. Greater administrative predictability (parashikueshmëri) can therefore reduce the social effects of unavoidable staffing problems even before a replacement is appointed.
For teachers already employed in affected schools, repeated vacancies can create pressure to absorb work belonging to absent colleagues. Temporary internal coverage can demonstrate professional solidarity (solidaritet) but may also increase individual workload (ngarkesë pune) and reduce preparation time for existing classes. Excessive reliance on such arrangements can eventually contribute to teacher burnout (rraskapitje profesionale), creating additional vacancies rather than solving the original shortage.
The Fushë Kosovë case also shows why teacher shortages should not be measured only by the total number of educators in a municipality. What matters is whether schools possess the correct skill mix (përzierje aftësish) across subjects, grades and locations. A municipality can theoretically have many teachers while still experiencing severe subject-specific shortages (mungesa sipas lëndëve) in physics, mathematics or languages. Better workforce data can improve deployment (shpërndarje stafi) by identifying shortages before pupils begin losing lessons.
Longer-term planning may require closer coordination between municipal authorities, universities and Kosovo’s Ministry of Education. Training institutions need information about future workforce demand (kërkesë për fuqi punëtore) so that sufficient graduates specialise in subjects likely to experience shortages. Municipalities can simultaneously improve retention (mbajtje e stafit) by providing stable contracts and predictable recruitment. Stronger national and local coordination (bashkërendim) would reduce the risk that each school must solve recurring vacancies independently.
The September experience ultimately turned what appeared to be two isolated vacancies into a wider discussion about education management in a rapidly growing municipality. Students experienced direct learning loss (humbje në të nxënë) while administrative procedures worked toward replacing the absent teachers. The large number of applicants showed that the problem was potentially solvable (i zgjidhshëm) once recruitment reached completion. The deeper challenge is creating enough institutional foresight (largpamësi) to prevent similar gaps from becoming a recurring feature at the beginning of future school years.
Key Albanian Vocabulary
mungesë shortage
boshllëk mësimor instructional gap
brishtësi fragility
pushim lehonie maternity leave
studime doktorature doctoral studies
procedurë rekrutimi recruitment procedure
grup kandidatësh candidate pool
interes interest
intervista interviews
proces përzgjedhjeje selection process
drejtësi fairness
kohë procedurale lead times
paqëndrueshmëri instability
rishpërndarje redistribution
zëvendësim replacement
profile mësimore profiles
shtrirje breadth
ngarkesë aplikimesh caseload
rritje e popullsisë population growth
kërkesë demand
mospërputhje kapacitetesh capacity mismatch
të mbingarkuara overcrowded
nevojë të lartë për staf staffing intensity
problem shpërndarjeje allocation problem
pozita positions
konkurse competitions
riklasifikim reclassification
rishpërndarje e brendshme reallocation
ndërprerje disruption
humbje mësimore instructional losses
mangësi njohurish knowledge deficit
përparim progression
ngjeshje e programit compression
kompensim compensation
ngarkesë pune workload
rikuperim mësimor remediation
kuptueshmëri comprehension
boshllëqe në të nxënë learning gaps
monitorim monitoring
qarkullim stafi turnover
lista rezervë rosters
planifikim rezervë contingency planning
përmbajtje sasiore quantitative content
ekspertizë lëndore subject expertise
specializim specialisation
rinovim renovation
trysni strain
mbingarkesë overcrowding
kapacitet capacity
parashikim forecasting
ofertë kandidatësh supply
kohëzim timing
përpunim processing
fazë stage
ndjekje deri në fund follow-through
përparim procedural progress
komunikim communication
zhgënjim frustration
parashikueshmëri predictability
solidaritet solidarity
rraskapitje profesionale burnout
përzierje aftësish skill mix
mungesa sipas lëndëve subject-specific shortages
shpërndarje stafi deployment
kërkesë për fuqi punëtore workforce demand
mbajtje e stafit retention
bashkërendim coordination
humbje në të nxënë learning loss
i zgjidhshëm solvable
largpamësi foresight
