Youth aspirtion survey in Republic of Macedonia Total number of students that graduated after 3 years (earlier graduation) Total number of students that graduated after 4 years (normal graduation) Total number of students that graduated after 5 years Total number of students that graduated after 6 years 1999 % 2000 % 2001 % 2002 % 2003 % 34 0,9 25 0,7 22 0,6 6 0,1 // 85 2,3 82 2,2 59 1,7 66 1,8 23 0,5 911 24,4 825 22 768 22 763 21,6 1.028 23,3 650 17,4 715 19 626 18 687 19 853 19,3 Total number of graduated students 3.735 3.740 3.480 3.618 4.404 Total number of students that graduated after 7 or more years 2.089 55,9 2.118 57 2.027 58 2.082 57,5 2.500 56,7 Table 15. Tertiary education graduation levels in the Republic of Macedonia during 1999- 2003 45 from accurately assessing higher levels of education – leading to decreasing ratings for each successive level – but, more importantly, it is the very low graduation rates at the high levels that is responsible for handicapping young people with a lack of educational motivation. This certainly affects the capacity of the country on a general level with regard to the wider labour market, and the attitude of the majority of young people in the Republic of Macedonia is that the situation calls for basic or partial reforms in the educational sector. But, before we address the need for reforms in the educational sector, it is necessary to explain the perceptions of young people for the two aspects of the educational process most vital to the economy: learning practical skills and feeling confident that their level of education will be compatible with the labour market. Practical Skills, Labour Market and the Educational Process Although the perception of the quality of education in the Republic of Macedonia could be estimated as generally satisfactory(with a significant percentage of sceptical young people), unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the young people's perceptions of the practical skills offered by the educational process. The general attitude towards this issue could be characterized as unsatisfactory, since 72.5% of the respondents declare that the educational system in the Republic of Macedonia offers limited or no possibilities for gaining practical skills(36.9%- limited possibilities, 35.9%- does not offer any possibilities for getting practical skills). This is a strong consensus on this issue if we bear in mind the equal distribution of this response among all ethnic groups, educational categories, and the rest of the demographic strata of these 18 to 30­year-old respondents. Young people perceive the issue of gaining practical skills as strongly related to their potential for finding a job after graduating. Here they also demonstrate scepticism, which is an indicator of the inadequacy of the educational process and its incompatibility with the labour market, both in the Republic of Macedonia and beyond. So, 54.7% of the respondents consider that it will be hard for them to find a job, and 10.5% are even more sceptical in saying that they will never find a job with their level of education. This amounts to 65.2% of the respondents with a negative attitude towards this subject. It is normal that, when comparing the differenct strata of the respondents, those with lower educational levels(no primary, primary, or secondary) are more sceptical, but the scepticism does not rapidly decrease among those categories of young people with more advanced levels of education. This reveals a general disappointment with regard to the chances of finding a job among all categories of young people, which, above all, is a serious economic indicator. These two tightly-connected indicators highlight another dimension of the educational problem. Namely, only 13.2% of the respondents declared that they should upgrade their education in order to find an adequate job. As a bare statistic it means very little, but in constellation with other data gathered by the YAS's research, it indicates a very serious phenomenon. In essence, 60.75% of the respondents consider that education is very important for promoting greater economic development, and 30.2% rate it as important. Therefore, education is recognized as a necessary factor for the improvement of one's own position and also as an influential factor in a country's economy. This raises the question: why, then, would only 13.2% of the respondents(the greater part with lower educational levels) seek additional education in order to find a better job? A part of the answer is obvious: young people do believe in education, but they are sceptical about whether Macedonia's system of education really increases their chances in the open labour market. If we combine this with the significant reserve the respondents show towards the practical skills offered, the image of _____________________________________________________________ 45 Source: Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Macedonia Friedrich Ebert Stiftung 36