Challenging school segregation in Gjakova

At Mustafa Bakija primary school in Gjakova, children were separated from their Albanian peers into different classes. ECMI Kosovo worked with the families and CLARD to challenge that exclusion: first through school visits and complaints, then by supporting parents in court. The case made the right to learn together a matter of public accountability.

From reports to classroom changes

The Gjakova case grew out of wider work against the segregation of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian children. During 2011 and 2012, ECMI raised reported cases with schools and municipalities in Gjakova, Ferizaj and Peja. Written complaints, meetings and follow-up helped secure the dissolution of segregated classes and the reassignment of children to mixed classes. In Peja, an ECMI monitoring visit in May 2012 confirmed that the reported classes had been dissolved.

Our policy brief Segregated Education in Kosovo, published on 3 July 2012, documented these interventions and explained the legal protections against segregation. It also identified a persistent weakness: changing a class arrangement would achieve little if schools could repeat the same practice the following year.

Families take the case to court

In Gjakova, the initial response included a mayoral directive against segregation. Yet at the start of the 2012–2013 school year, parents reported a new segregated first-grade class at Mustafa Bakija. They authorised ECMI Kosovo and CLARD to act. A school visit confirmed the situation, and the organisations submitted a complaint to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

On 16 January 2013, the parents’ legal representative filed a lawsuit against the municipal Directorate of Education, with ECMI and CLARD supporting eight parents. The claim sought to dismantle the segregated class, transfer the children to mixed classes and obtain compensation for the harm suffered. The work formed part of an EU-funded programme supporting vulnerable and marginalised groups’ access to legal protections.

A remedy for the children

The proceedings established that separating the children on racial and ethnic grounds violated their right to education. In June 2022, the Court of Appeals upheld a Basic Court decision awarding damages to three children. Amnesty International recorded that outcome in its 2022/23 report on Kosovo.

The families carried the challenge forward. ECMI and CLARD supported their access to legal representation and pursued the issue with the education authorities. The result demonstrated that discriminatory decisions about classroom placement could be challenged and could lead to compensation.

Beyond one school

The work also reached international scrutiny. In its Third Opinion on Kosovo, adopted on 6 March 2013, the Council of Europe’s Advisory Committee cited ECMI’s Gjakova bulletin. It recognised that NGO interventions had led some schools to close or merge segregated classes, while calling for stronger prevention throughout the education system.

Gjakova showed why a classroom change, a legal remedy and continuing oversight belong together. Today, that experience informs ECMI’s work on school retention and guidance for municipal and school prevention and response teams: listening to families, addressing exclusion early and following up when a child’s right to education is at risk.