A dispute between the Education Ministry and the management of the “Koco Racin” high school in Veles is taking on an ethnic angle, as the Albanian led Ministry demands that the school accepts Albanian pupils who did not meet the criteria.

Unlike trade schools, the gymnasium style high school such as “Koco Racin” do not admit pupils who fell below 60 points – determined by their grades in elementary school. But the Ministry issued an order that the high school must accept 16 candidates, most of them ethnic Albanians, who had between 41 and 59 points.

We apologize to the parents, it’s nothing personal, but their children fell below the required criteria. The Ministry should change the criteria for all high schools, instead of issuing orders to individual schools, said teacher Marjan Stojanovski, as the Veles city council is discussing the request.

Local Macedonians believe that the Ministry is driven by ethnic politics and wants to add another Albanian language class in the high school. Stojanovski points out to other schools that have been given the same order – all are in ethnically mixed parts of the country and would admit more unqualified Albanian pupils.