Speech of Prime Minister given at the table “Dialogue on Policies for Reform in Education”:

I came here because I consider the cooperation with the World Bank very important in order to have a more complete and a deeper diagnosis of the situation. Moreover, on the basis of this diagnosis, it is important to open together also in this case, not only with the World Bank, but with all institutions, organizations and instruments that we have available or that we can make available, beyond the State Budget, the path to a future that, certainly, at least we can say is based on the restored orientation of education, as a whole.

We are very aware of the situation. It is a dramatic situation, aggravated over the years due to the fact that instead of a radical reform necessary to the system through radical operations in all its levels, a makeup-patchwork-multi partial policy, which practically led us to the situation we are today, has been preferred. Put it simply, the education system in Albania had completely lost its bearings. And I can say that after a year of intensive work, we have re-found our bearings and have set clear points orientation, starting from the foundation.

If we look at the analysis of the situation, it is clear that from kindergarten to university there is failure of comprehensive standards and above all, the system is not coherent. It seems as if there were unconnected pieces of different systems which, when looked at with regard to the progress made by a child through the journey within the system, create a clear idea that there is not a logical line of progression in the system. And, practically, the main goal in the whole package of our education reform is precisely to create that logical system which a child will follow from the age of 3 to the age of 18, and will certainly continue in a logical line until the end of university studies.

With more foresight, work has started from a documentation which describes a harmonized curriculum in the entire core system, including the new curriculum framework. In this respect, the Word Bank’s support is of course extremely important because, on the one hand, the assistance and expertise provided has given us the opportunity to look at things deeply and in an exact manner, but on the other hand, provision of financial resources are necessary in order to set standards in reality and to go through what we have in documents and what lays in the whole cycle of real school. I do not want to dwell in data, but certainly it is worth saying that there is an integrated approach starting from kindergartens, which are now overcrowded educational institutions and that actually meet the needs of only 14% of the total demand in that age group, up to pre-university and university education system.

Additionally, I must say that we are in a transformation phase also as far as secondary education and State Matura are concerned. We have received a very encouraging datum from the first State Matura, in terms of transparency, competition and merit. On the other hand, we are laying the foundations of a transformation that will come, first of all, as result of adopting a new technology in all secondary schools. We have started to pilot several projects, including some large international companies. Starting with Google with which have made ​​a deal for an integrated free platform to be provided to Albania. It will be followed by a number of other companies that will be involved in the whole cycle of transformation, from education through books to education through digital tablets. But this is certainly not enough! On the contrary, it is a challenge in itself, because it concerns the capabilities we have available today and current capabilities of the entire teaching staff, in order to make them measure up with this transformation.

And here we come to the most important and delicate part, I believe, of the reform we have undertaken. It involves the process of the just-started scanning of all profiles of teachers who are currently in the system, and the compatibility of their profiles with the subjects they teach. There is a discrepancy, which I believe is unique in the world, between teachers and the subjects they teach, and which, in certain areas of the country, exceeds the extent of 50%. Teachers specialized in certain subjects, who teach different ones. You can imagine by yourselves what the product of this learning process can be.

On the other hand it is extremely important for us to involve parents in this process of transformation, because without the community of parents it is impossible to transform the education system also into an upbringing system, and it is impossible to use the whole educational process of children, as a process to prepare not only skilled people for themselves, but also citizens that are aware of their community and their country.

Reform of Higher Education is in the process. Law on Higher Education will enter these days the parliamentary filter, since hearings and cooperation with the community of higher education have been performed in an excellent manner, also with the assistance of special expertise and international one. Now we face another challenge, which is the challenge of accreditation. Once control authorities with the force of law have cleaned the higher education body from the metastasis of an aggressive cancer that generated an infinite number of degrees not based on knowledge, all those universities that have successfully passed the test or control of legality will now face the most critical test, the  accreditation test which, as we have promised, will be conducted with a prestigious British agency, member of the European Network of Accreditation Agencies for Educational Institutions. The process will begin at the end of this year. It is a major challenge in itself, not only for institutions of higher education funded by privates but, first of all, for institutions of higher education funded by the state. Because the truth is that we have had a very comfortable political and social position for many years, we have put on the back of private funders all the serious shortcomings and problems of the higher education system. Meanwhile, problems are absolutely identical and the situation is absolutely dramatic also in the education sector that is fully funded by the state. In terms of legality, we saw that after controls of legality were conducted, many institutions of higher education funded by the state closed down, and we will surely see that others as well will face the inability to pass the accreditation test.

However, this reform is delayed as much as it is necessary to stop once and for all this haemorrhage in which higher education has co-existed for years in Albania and has flooded an infinity of dreams and hopes of the youth, who together with their degrees, as Mrs. Goldstein brought to our attention, are now part of the army of the unemployed in Albania.

In conclusion, I want to highlight the fact that we are making a great effort, both with the World Bank and other international institutions, also in the framework of the Initiative for the Integration of the Western Balkans in the reel of projects funded by the Union European, to include education in these projects, to increase financial support for education. Of course, funding for roads is of paramount importance, as well as funding of public services is of paramount importance, but it is useless to say that all this remains totally inadequate in relation to the future, if we do not finance strongly and in a much more quality way education and health. For this reason, even at the Berlin Conference, we, as Albanian party, established as a key priority for the future of the Western Balkans, to focus on vocational education, in order to face all this large wave of unemployment accumulated over the years and give to young people, not only the only one opportunity to spend their parents’ savings to become all lawyers, but give them two opportunities. One opportunity for all those who face competition and succeed based on their merits, and another opportunity for all those who, on the path of vocational education, can learn a skill and thanks to that skill, not only find a job, but also build a business and become much richer, even richer than those who get a degree in engineering or mathematics.

Let me thank once again the organizers and express my belief that under the leadership of the Minister of Education, the process will move forward and reforms will go deeper and deeper, being also convinced that whatever the political cost of these reforms is, this is a one of the fundamental reasons we were elected. I believe that at the end of the day, all parents of this country should feel relieved by this process of reforms, which closes a history of illusions and lies at their own expense, and opens up the new history, where everyone has an opportunity.

Thank you!

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The Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the World Bank held today a seminar on education reform policies. The seminar was attended also by Prime Minister Edi Rama.

The importance of establishing a logical system of education, the importance of transforming into results the skills acquired so that they can meet the demand of the labour market, as well as modernization of the teaching process through new technology, were among the main topics of discussion.

Minister of Education and Sport, Mrs. Lindita Nikolla considered the commitment to build a quality education system a challenge, so that learning outcomes will be translated in skills that meet the demand of the labour market and boost economic growth.

“Let me share with you my own belief but also the belief of the Government, that the steps taken so far enable the design of education in the long-term objectives in the areas of education, training and employment. As in many other countries, our challenge is to build a quality education system, in order to ensure that learning outcomes are translated in skills that meet the demand of labour market and promote economic growth”, Mrs. Nikolla said.

Additionally, Minister Nikolla stressed that investment in early childhood education is the key to a long-term sustainable success. “We cannot plan the future, if we do not make early and quality investments for its formation.” – Mrs. Nikolla continued.