The Presheva Valley, home to the largest Albanian minority in Serbia, is facing an alarming demographic and educational decline. Over the past five years, the number of Albanian pupils enrolled in primary schools has dropped sharply. According to Enkel Rexhepi, head of the Albanian National Council, the figures fell from 4,059 pupils in the 2020/21 school year to just 3,650 expected in 2025/26 — a loss of 409 children, or about 10%.
Behind these numbers lies a deeper and more troubling reality. Rexhepi explains that the fall is linked not only to emigration and economic hardship, but also to systemic policies that undermine the Albanian presence in southern Serbia. Among them are the low birth rate, lack of local opportunities, non-recognition of diplomas from Kosovo and Albania, and the controversial “passivization of addresses” — a state-driven process that deletes thousands of Albanians from the official registry, effectively stripping them of residency rights and even the ability to vote.
For many Albanians in the Presheva Valley, these policies are not accidental. They see them as part of a long-standing strategy by Serbian authorities to depopulate areas where Albanians form the majority. Over decades, the combination of administrative obstacles, economic neglect, and targeted measures has created a steady outflow of families, leaving classrooms emptier and the future of Albanian-language education in jeopardy.
The consequences are grave. A 10% drop in primary school enrollment in just five years does not only mean fewer pupils — it means shrinking schools, job losses for teachers, and the looming risk of closures. More importantly, it threatens the survival of education in the Albanian language, one of the few institutional guarantees of cultural and national identity for this community.
“This is not just about numbers,” Rexhepi warns. “This is about whether Albanians in the Presheva Valley will continue to have the right to education in their mother tongue, or whether they will be forced into assimilation and disappearance.”
The trend sends a dramatic message about Serbia itself. The systematic weakening of Albanian education and population in the south reveals a state unwilling to embrace diversity and minority rights. Instead, the policy of erasing addresses and marginalizing schools risks turning the Presheva Valley into a symbol of forced demographic engineering.
If urgent steps are not taken to protect Albanian-language education and ensure fair treatment for the community, the decline in schoolchildren may become a prelude to something far more serious: the quiet erasure of Albanians from a land where they have lived for centuries.