6 September, 2017 

Mr. Alejtin Berisha, Executive Director of Universum College; Mr. Filip Bošković, Biology student at Belgrade University; Ms. Krenare Gashi, Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO); and Ms. Milica Andrić, NGO Aktiv, speak about their experiences, and views on “How to best cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence in education system of the countries of Western Balkans.”

Interesting views that everything, but school, changed during the last 100 years; that we do not need money but systems; that the current education system doesn’t fit to reality; that we are dealing with basic challenges such as communication and bringing people together; and challenges to cooperation and exchange between the academia and educational institutions.

They talk about the artificial intelligence; computational thinking; how maths and physics are taught, and how when one thinks of physics, thinks of physics teacher, not the subject; the need to change the way people think and how pupils/students are taught; the need to promote the diversity as a value, as well as relationship building, cooperation, exchange of experiences and lessons learned, as a necessity; how could we encourage and support ongoing efforts, and adopt/adapt successful models including learning about IT, critical thinking, research, entrepreneurship; how different initiatives, models (such as Finnish for example), could prove beneficial and have a transformative effect.    

They also emphasize how some people are under pressure from the institutions and other actors, a feeling of being between the rock and the hard place, and how young people get a feeling of being trapped in the Western Balkans.

Their messages about the future are clear: we need to get rid of politics and turn to cooperation; we need to reach out to one another, communicate, and develop partnerships; we need to speak up and say that there are more people that wish to bring on the change then there are those who are maintaining the system; that the solution is in the entrepreneurship, small businesses and start-ups;….

For more, watch the entire video-debate.

Video Debate BALKANICA 1