As North Macedonia moves to open EU accession talks on education and innovation, university professor Mirjana Maleska warns that reform must start from the ground up. Overloaded programs, outdated textbooks, and resistance to change, she says, keep the country’s schools and universities trapped in the past.
As North Macedonia prepares to open key chapters in its EU accession talks — including Cluster 3 on education and innovation — university professor Mirjana Maleska warns that reforming the education system must begin at its foundation: how children are taught and prepared from the earliest age.
In an interview with the BalkanView.com, Maleska criticizes overloaded school programs, outdated textbooks, and resistance to change, describing them as symptoms of a system “trapped in the past.”
“We suffer from a small-nation complex — we build Potemkin villages in our education system,” she says.
Reforms will work only when we stop pretending to implement them
Speaking about the EU’s education cluster, Maleska says North Macedonia’s progress remains largely superficial. “I haven’t seen what Cluster 3 contains in detail,” she says, “but I’ve seen how our schools actually function. The basic education system is overambitious and unrealistic — and it crushes children under its weight.”
She points to heavy workloads and textbooks unsuitable for children’s age. “A ten-year-old’s school bag weighs up to seven kilograms. That’s a crime against their spine,” she says. Lessons move too fast, leaving little time to consolidate knowledge, while many teachers skip or dictate content to keep pace.
The result, Maleska argues, is formal education without substance. “Only a few gifted children can keep up. The rest struggle, and parents are forced to pay for private tutoring. Everyone passes, but few truly learn.”
Universities frozen in time
The situation at universities is equally troubling, Maleska says, especially in social sciences, law, and administration. “Students still study from decades-old textbooks written by professors who made no contribution to the field. We’ve only modernized course titles, not the content,” she says.
Even when reforms like the Bologna Process were introduced, they were applied only on paper. “We got an inflation of master’s degrees — and a generation of weak academic staff now teaching at universities,” she explains.
She recalls how universities encouraged professors to publish their own textbooks, resulting in “an inflation of poorly reviewed materials written in a hurry.” Exams, she says, reveal the true scale of the problem: “Students write short, shallow answers, often choosing between A, B, or C. Literacy levels are shockingly low.”
Education detached from the labor market
“Universities today are a world apart from the realities of the labor market,” Maleska warns.
She says the economy demands skilled technicians and workers, not just degree-holders. “My daughter, with a master’s and another degree in foreign languages, struggled to find even a trial position in a private hospital,” she notes.
Many graduates, she adds, end up in low-paid online jobs for foreign companies, without social or health insurance. “Employers mainly seek foreign language and digital skills — both underrepresented in our curricula.”
Resistance to change
Maleska recalls a failed attempt to modernize public administration curricula with the help of American professors. “We met in Struga to redesign the first-year program, but every professor insisted their subject was ‘fundamental.’ The discussion turned into an argument,” she says.
“No one wanted to remove their course because it meant losing hours — and income. The result was a compromised curriculum that was never actually implemented.”
This experience, she adds, proves how personal and institutional interests block any serious reform effort.
The Bologna process and lost mobility
Maleska believes student mobility remains limited. “We’ve improved doctoral studies with stricter criteria, but overall mobility is low. You’d need to check the numbers, but I don’t think they’re encouraging,” she says.
She also points out that EU-funded academic projects remain out of reach for many Macedonian institutions. “The application process is complicated and often requires lobbying in Brussels,” she says.
North Macedonia spends less than 1% of its GDP on research and innovation — a figure Maleska calls “disastrous.”
“There are too few research projects, and some have stopped completely,” she says. “We end up with lots of diplomas on paper, but very little real knowledge.”
Digital transformation still out of reach
Asked whether the education system is ready for digital transformation, Maleska is skeptical. “Teachers need serious training, and schools need infrastructure to use artificial intelligence effectively,” she says.
“Students already use technology to learn, but teachers must guide them toward credible sources. Copy-pasting from AI is not learning — it’s just ticking a box.”
Maleska links the ongoing brain drain to weak institutions, low salaries, and political corruption. “Talented young people leave because they see no future here. Until we fix the system, no patriotic appeal will convince them to stay,” she says.
The road to Europe runs through the classroom
Maleska believes that joining the EU is crucial to advancing education and research. “If we were already a member, student and researcher mobility would be much greater,” she says.
“Tuition fees in EU countries are often lower than in Macedonia’s private universities. Integration would allow us to fully benefit from European programs and funding,” she argues.
“Isolation leads nowhere. Saying we’re reforming ‘only for ourselves’ is an excuse to do nothing. The path to Europe runs through our classrooms.”
Professor Mirjana Maleska’s warnings highlight a fundamental gap between North Macedonia’s education system and the needs of both students and the labor market. Without structural reform, digital integration, and better funding, EU integration risks remaining a distant goal while the country loses its most talented young minds.