Pimary Secondary Higher education Postgraduate studies Excellent 15,1% 9,9% 9,9% 10,1% Good 54% 53,7% 42,4% 29,9% Bad 24% 28,1% 20,6% 15,3% Very bad 6,1% 7,6% 12% 7, 6% No answer/ Don’t know 0, 81% 0, 7% 7, 2% 37, 1% Table 13. Perceptions of the youth for the quality of education in the Republic of Macedonia Perceptions of the Quality of the Educational Process The third part of the Youth Aspiration Survey includes the young people's perceptions with regard to the quality of education, their preferences with regard to types of educational systems, their perceptions of the education and labour market in the Republic of Macedonia, as well as their potential for studying abroad. Research data has shown expected trends and opinions, but also the development of new views about certain spheres of the educational aspects covered by the survey. The first part of the survey deals with the respondents' evaluation of the quality of education in the Republic of Macedonia at all educational levels: primary (basic), secondary(high school education), higher education and postgraduate studies. Participants were asked to respond using four options, such as: excellent, good, bad and very bad. As presented in the table below, the perceptions with regard to the quality of education look positive. See Table 13 . From the data presented in the table, it is evident that young people in the Republic of Macedonia are predominantly satisfied with the quality of the education, although it could be concluded that there is a strong negative disposition with regard to certain levels of education. This negative attitude is especially expressed towards secondary education(35.7% of the respondents have a negative attitude), but it is not significantly lower towards undergraduate studies(32.6%). The relatively low percentage of respondents who rated the offered educational categories as excellent attests to the overall presence of scepticism for the quality of education. Also evident is the tendency for young people to be increasingly sceptical towards higher educational levels, and ratings of the quality decrease from primary education to postgraduate education. Accordingly, primary education received a positive rating from 69.1% of the respondents, secondary education from 63.6%, undergraduate studies from 52.3%, and postgraduate studies received a positive rating from 40%. An explanation for these results could be the worrisome level of prejudice that young people have towards higher education, bearing in mind that a very small percentage of young people in Macedonia enroll in universities in the country, that even fewer of them complete their studies, and that there is a very low number of postgraduate students(those who attend special training, master's programs, or doctoral programs). Data from the Republic of Macedonia's Bureau of Statistics 43 confirms this assertion by illustrating a rapid decrease of enrollment at each further level of education. So, for example, in 2005 the data is very interesting. . See Table 14. This worrisome trend indicates that less than 0.1% of young people who start elementary education eventually reach the postgraduate level, and only 2.4% get a university degree. 44 This suggests that the low ratings given for the higher levels of education(undergraduate and postgraduate) are based on superficial impressions alone, and this may partially explain why each successive level receives lower ratings. Indeed, 7.2% indicated that they didn't know how to rate the quality of higher education, and 37.1% reported the same for the postgraduate level. These levels of education seem inaccessible for a great number of the young respondents in the Republic of Macedonia. A lack of motivation among many students certainly is a logical consequence under these conditions. That the problems in the Republic of Macedonia's education system are, to a great extent, located within the higher levels of education is evidenced by another fact: data from the YAS's research, a well as data provided by the Bureau of Statistics, clearly indicates that the higher levels of education suffer from low graduation rates. See Table 15 A lack of participation does prevent young people Educational level Primary education(enrolled) Secondary education(enrolled) Undergraduate studies(enrolled) Undergraduate studies(completed) Postgraduate studies(completed) Number of enrolled/ graduates 218935 95867 48368 5397 198(189+ 9) Table 14. Total number enrolled/ graduates by level of education in 2005. Source: Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Macedonia _____________________________________________________________ 43 Data accessible at www.stat.gov.mk. Remark: in the data are not admitted statistics from the State university of Tetovo and SEE University in Tetovo. They have not delivered information's to the Bureau of Statistic of Republic of Macedonia 44 The correlation refers to the year 2005. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung 35