From September, the primary schools „Toso Velkov - Pepeto” and „Dimka Angelov - Gaberot” in Kavadarci switch to single-shift teaching. Mayor Mitko Jancev announced that the change will not mean job losses - teachers and other engaged staff keep their employment.

That is the sentence that makes the announcement news at all. Single-shift teaching is an old idea in Macedonian education; what regularly stops it is not pedagogy, but the question of what happens to the staff and the classrooms.

What it takes to happen

The other two primary schools in the town, „Goce Delcev” and „Todor Micov”, are scheduled to switch in the 2027/2028 school year. Extensions and the construction of an additional 14 classrooms are planned for that.

Fourteen classrooms for two schools - that is the real price of single-shift teaching, and that is why it is not introduced by decision but by construction plan. Every space previously used twice a day now has to physically exist.

The change follows years of investment in educational infrastructure - renovations, new roofs, insulation, building and improving sports facilities. The analysis for the switch to single-shift operation was carried out in cooperation with the Education Ministry.

The school after lessons

Jancev stresses that single-shift operation does not just mean morning classes. The concept foresees schools not standing empty once lessons end - pupils will be able to continue with organised sporting, creative, educational and recreational activities.

According to the announcements, the status of drivers engaged for school transport will also change - they move to full-time contracts.

Where to look in September

Announcements about transforming schools into „modern centres” are easy to write and hard to measure. What will show whether the model works is not the brochure, but three concrete things: whether nobody really lost their post, whether the afternoon activities have staff and a programme or amount to an open door, and whether those 14 classrooms will be ready before the 2027/2028 school year.

Until then, Kavadarci is one of the few municipalities that has framed the shift question as a construction problem rather than a rhetorical one.