Teacher Zarko Blazevski poses outside the school on September 16, 2024 in the village of Kosovo, south of Skopje. Since declaring independence in 1991, North Macedonia has seen vast chunks of its people emigrating amid a stagnating economy. According to the last census conducted in 2021, it has just 1.8 million inhabitants, a drop of nearly 10 percent in less than two decades. A report published in September by the Center for Civil Communications NGO said elementary schools have lost some 10,000 pupils in the past decade. (Photo by Robert ATANASOVSKI / AFP) (Photo by ROBERT ATANASOVSKI/AFP via Getty Images)