Over €60,000 Was Wrongly Disbursed Last Year, MESTI Tightens Controls on Textbook Subsidies

For the fourth consecutive year, students in Kosovo will obtain textbooks and school materials through the subsidy scheme.

However, experience from previous years has shown that the money allocated by the government has not always been used for its intended purpose.

Visar Osmani, principal of the “Emin Duraku” school in Pristina, says such cases have mainly involved children from minority communities. According to him, because of difficult economic circumstances, some families used the funds for other needs, while the children returned to school without books, leaving the institution to find a solution for them.

Another problem was also identified in the National Audit Office’s 2025 report. The document revealed that parents who did not meet the criteria had benefited from funds earmarked for the purchase of school textbooks.

According to the report, the amount received by these applicants exceeded €60,000, even though they did not meet the stipulated requirements.

The Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation says measures have been taken this year to prevent such cases from recurring.

The director of MESTI’s Department of Pre-University Education said the subsidy mechanism has improved from year to year. She stressed that, in the fourth year of the scheme’s implementation, verification by coordinators prevents funds from being granted for a student who does not attend classes within the education system, stopping such cases at the review stage.

Last year, the process was also accompanied by problems with textbook supplies and delays during September.

Osmani says three titles were unavailable at the school he leads during that month. Until new editions reached the market, they were temporarily replaced with older editions. He hopes such a situation will not recur this year because, according to him, children ultimately bear the consequences.

The United Education Union of Kosovo has also expressed concerns about possible delays.

SBASHK chairman Rrahman Jasharaj says there may be delays this year as well, although he hopes they will not be as prolonged as in previous years, when September ended without all students having received their books. He also cites as a problem the possibility that not all parents have bank accounts, which would leave some of them without reimbursement through no fault of their own.

MESTI says it is working to ensure that students have their textbooks available on September 1.

To curb misuse, the Ministry has stipulated that the books must be returned undamaged. If the textbooks are not kept in proper condition, they must be paid for.