Author: Dallandyshe Xhaferri
Minister of Education, Evis Kushi promoted in January the online registry, otherwise known as SMIP (System for the Management of Pre-University Information). Introduced as a platform that will help parents and “to be informed in real time in detail, anywhere and anytime, about your children's grades, absences, behavior or extracurricular activities". it didn't take long to realize the impasse. Based on the reactions posted on the "Sinjalizo" platform, it turns out that the problems are present not only for parents, but also for students. All the more so for the teachers who were notified at the beginning of the academic year and found without computers, they have faced tenfold work since the data was not processed or saved at first.
"I can't use SMIP at all because nothing comes up in my system", - writes a teacher in the SMIP 'Forum' window. The complainant is followed by his colleagues who write the same concern, about a platform where not all classes are displayed. "Why don't I get all the classes in the system. Only a few stand out to me", they write almost unanimously.
The Ministry of Education and Sports declares for "Sinjalizo" that "SMIP is a state database registered with AKSHI as a state database with no. identifier 09-01-003, since 2015", but unlike what is shown by the teachers, according to the Ministry of Education, the dumping of students' data in this database started in October of the last academic year.
"In the month of August 2021, referring to the implementation of the system, the training of ZVAP school administrators and the training of vocational school administrators continued. In the month of October 2021, school administrators have started with data collection", - says the official answer.
The truth of teachers
Migena Kapllani, a teacher at the General Gymnasium "Konstantin Kristoforidhi" in Elbasan, tells "Sinjalizo" that "the purpose of this system is for the parent to be aware of the continuity of the child", but it turns out that there were not a few cases where the data given by the teachers were lost.
"In the beginning, many teachers were disappointed when they threw the grades and couldn't find them. What does this mean? That we are tired in vain?"- she says adding,-"This system has had ongoing problems and has been updated every moment after complaints and remarks made on the platform."
The problems in the online register have also been acknowledged by Merita Duka, a History-Geography teacher in a 9-year non-public school.
"Initially, the most frequent problems we encountered was the deletion of learning topics from the system and we had to rewrite them from scratch",- emphasizes the Duke, adding that the problem is already encountered in the grading.
"Now the problem we face is the dropping of grades from the fourth grade of the primary cycle to the ninth grade of the 9-year cycle, due to the works that are still being done on the SMIP site",- she says.
Online… but amortized
Migena Kapllani mentions for "Sinjalizo" that the purchase of a personal tablet to open the SMIP system was the first decision she made immediately after the online registry was implemented.
"In our country, in schools we also have problems with technology. You don't have computers for every teacher", - she claims, adding that,-"As a system it is very good, but the first thing I did when it was installed was to buy a tablet in installments."
At the same time contacted by 'Sinjalizo', the General Directorate for Pre-University Education admits that "There are currently 91 schools with depreciated computer equipment, which are planned to be supplied in the fastest possible time with the available funds (in the procurement process)".
Experts: Infrastructure is urgent
The education expert, Ndriçim Mehmeti, emphasizes that creating the necessary infrastructure for teachers to complete the online register inside the school building is a must.
"The changes made in the middle of the year show a lack of vision, they bring chaos, they bring uncertainty and the teachers have no training", - says Mehmeti.
Meanwhile, the situation is different for teachers of non-public schools, where the infrastructure to work with the online register is enabled within the work space.
"We started collecting data at the beginning of the school year, which means that the time we need to collect data during the day is relatively short", - says teacher Merita Duka, continuing,- "We are lucky that the school is equipped with computers and each of the teachers can use them to complete the online register, based on the relevant subjects",- she concludes.
According to the response of the General Directorate for Pre-university Education to "Sinjalizo", "the number of educational institutions with functional computers is 1090 against 1181 public educational institutions that we have in total". But in response it is added that "in order to help the teachers, some of the computer equipment from the offices of the school leaders have been placed in the teachers' hall, where they can be accessed by the latter during their break hours or free time they have inside the school. "
Meanwhile, Adelina Xhaferi, a Language-Literature teacher at the 9-year-old school in Forina in North Macedonia, tells "Sinjalizo" how this issue was resolved in the neighboring country.
"All the schools in our state have equipped the teacher with a small computer, which will serve him to complete the online register and at the same time will help him a little in explaining the of learning", - concludes Xhaferi.
Migena remembers very well the fear that accompanied her when, in the middle of the 2021-2022 school year, they announced SMIP, the system where the marks would be thrown.
"I had closed the first period, the second period was closing when we were asked this. I, according to them, had to throw away all grades and absences of the entire register, from September",- says the teacher for "Sinjalizo", indicating that the data on the platform was released in this academic year, 2022-2023.
"Until yesterday, the teacher had both a personal register and a class register, which is kept and deposited in the directorate", - says Migena Kapllani, who adds that although it has become possible to remove the teachers' personal register after their complaints, their workload still remains high.
Meanwhile, for the education expert, Ndriçim Mehmeti, teachers in Albania are underpaid and overworked. "In my opinion, three things strengthen a teacher: a good salary, good working conditions, to have technology that is not taught with fingers. Tablets, projectors, pencils, didactic tools, flip-chart, to put the child to work. Also, we need environments, resource rooms that we lackMehmeti concludes for "Sinjalizo".
