Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama delivered on the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the high school “Qemal Stafa” in the capital city:
It is a privilege to be the Prime Minister of Albania and to be invited to an anniversary of the high school “Qemal Stafa”. This is not a high school like every other high school, but this is the ultimate high school of Albania.
And, precisely because this high school has such an importance for the educational life of our country, and on the other hand being it a privilege so great to attend this anniversary, I decided to prepare something written in order to obtain a fair grade form your audience.
There was a time when the university system did not exist in Albania. Then, another time came when the system that was built in Albania degraded completely in the name of profit, benefit and greed.
But, just as at that time when there were no universities in Albania, and later when universities degraded, high school, the great common school where students acquire the basics notions of general education, has continued to remain the only testimony of the desire and continuity to offer a public teaching service, in order to convey knowledge and to encourage young people towards what the great writer Lion Feuchtwanger called “the hard path to knowledge”.
It is true that Albania had no universities in the years preceding the war and in the years immediately after it. However, who can say that Socrates or Nietzsche were better taught in the universities of neighbouring countries than in the modest premises of the state high school in Tirana? Who can deny that classic culture, philology and history were not conveyed as skilfully and with as much dedication in the French and state high school of Korca, as they were in Louis Le Grand in Paris or in London’s Heaton College?
Who can testify today against the fact that people like Faik Konica, Migjeni or Qemal Stafa himself, and many others who attended state high schools or the Papal, Franciscan or Orthodox schools in Shkoder, Manastir and elsewhere, were transformed and empowered their talents or gifts, because in the school desks they acquired knowledge, they knew the exact sciences along with the religious culture, they were taught rhetoric and logic without excluding the aesthetics of objects of worship, scholasticism and metaphysics?
Therefore, dear teachers and students, dear friends, I say without fear that among the institutions of the sustainability of the Albanian community as such, you the students and teachers of “Qemal Stafa” are part of a school that is the most fortunate and the most blessed in tradition and prestige.
You are the legacy of that state high school of the capital city that gave this country many of the few light-bearers who led culture and education during the dark and difficult times that our society lived in the century we left behind, or who took other major responsibilities in all areas of life.
Likewise, there are other similar high schools and institutions of secondary education in the capital city that continue to be a testimony of the efforts of this society and this country, started long ago, to provide a public service in education by transmitting knowledge and improved skills, preferably without compromise.
To the many professors whose names have remained unknown, to the countless students who have left on the walls and in the other premises of the school – that today host the young generations – indelible memories and impressions, the Albanian government and, I believe, the Albanian nation owe a lot. We owe a lot to the former state high school of Tirana, which became later the high school “Qemal Stafa”.
Honestly, I am very glad that the project to transform the school “Qemal Stafa” initiated when I was mayor of Tirana, is finally being finalized. And today, the premises of the high school are worthy of the ambition of our government and our society, not only in the capital city, but also beyond for the future of the school “Qemal Stafa”.
I’m very proud that thanks to the radical reform of textbooks, a great transformation will take place this year in the high schools that will make the transition from the jungle of Altertekst to the textbooks of Pearson, Oxford and Cambridge. In the coming three years, students of “Qemal Stafa” and those of other high schools across the country will receive from the same source as their peers in Great Britain and many other developed European countries, the broad base of knowledge they will need to continue their studies after completing the secondary school.
This period coincides with the reform of the high school. It is and important and thorough reform of our secondary education system which, like every aspect of the education reform, has been led with vision, with a great dedication and above all with a lot of patience by our Minister of Education in cooperation with the staff of teachers and, of course, in communication with students.
This is a draft reform that has found significant support and has already entered the phase of finalization, and whose beneficiaries will be you, the students of “Qemal Stafa” along with the students of secondary schools across Albania, and obviously the community of parents who have invested their dreams, hopes and all their savings for their children who are attending high school today.
It is worth noting that “Qemal Stafa” is one of the most brilliant examples of the “School as a Community Centre.” A small but meaningful testimony of this was the dancers who started celebrations, who are students of this school and have for sure learned to dance at school.
In many other aspects, the programs of school as a community centre in the high school “Qemal Stafa” have a lot to prove and to transmit, not only to the school community, not just to the community of this age group across the country, but above all for the huge potential that school has as a basis not just to build the foundations of knowledge, but also to prepare the worthy citizens of tomorrow.
As I was entering this hall, I was really excited to meet one of my childhood idols, Agim Fagu, a former student of “Qemal Stafa”. He was one of the heroes of our childhood back then. I will encourage the school principal and the staff of teachers to take advantage of what Agim Fagu can give the students of “Qemal Stafa” today.
Many of you are very young, and may not know exactly what I mean, but I’m telling you that back then, when we were your age, Agim Fagu was able to impress us and make us dream just like Coby Bryan and Michael Jordan, or many others impress you and make you dream today. We didn’t have them back then. You do have them today.
You have today here among you a President of the Republic, a highly respected and dignified man who has left an indelible mark for all those who have followed him in the office of the President, if they really want to be the presidents of everyone, and not just representatives of a party – President Alfred Moisiu.
I’m not going to dwell on this because you have the 75 Martyrs of the Homeland, you have over 20 “Teachers of the People”, and so on. Just consider that you have here a prince who did not attend the high school “Qemal Stafa”. His grandfather had big issues with Qemal Stafa, but the prince has come here to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the high school “Qemal Stafa”.
So, thank you for allowing me to speak first, but indeed we should have started with Agim Fagu, to continue with Alfred Moisiu, then the prince who has come today to embrace Qemal Stafa, and then with me.
Dear friends and students!
You are at a young age, I mean the youngest among you, but your high school is a great-grandfather. It is 90 years old. This means that no matter how indifferent you are, the walls of this high school, the shadow of tradition and the burden of history keep playing their role and make you be part of something that foreruns you and will go on differently from the routine of an ordinary high school, with very renowned names, but also with many others that might not be renowned but who have certainly done admirable things in their lives, and with other names that will continue to be recorded in the big book of the history of the high school “Qemal Stafa”. You are part of a dream team that laid the foundation of the state high school of Tirana which is today a benchmark. Therefore, honour this school and try to give it as much as you can from yourselves, as it is worthy of the great glory of Qemal Stafa.
It is remarkable to have in this room today many who are not students anymore, who are of different ages, for this means that they have come here because of a sense of belonging to a history of efforts, symbols but also friendships and experiences of all kinds, that at the end of the day make them be all together “Qemal Stafa”. Once, there was a big fight in the streets of Tirana among the students of “Petro Nini”, “Qemal Stafa” and “Ismail Qemali”. I belong to the second category, because I attended the School of Arts, but this fight has made a mark in the form of pride of being a student of “Petro Nini”, “Qemal Stafa”, “Ismail Qemali”, and so on.
I want to conclude by quoting the man after whom the high school was named.
“A golden light pierced through the two tired hearts.
Perhaps it was the memory of the fickle moment
That transforms for the first time
Into fear and doubt the sweetest promises.
Maybe it was the memory of the many labours,
The frequent reprimands that life reserved to them.
I do not know. They laugh,
And the dazzling lights of the road sparkle
Like juvenile hopes”.
These are some lines from the “The reprimands of autumn” by Qemal Stafa.
And together with Qemal Stafa, I would like to wish you that your juvenile hopes become the light on your path, and that your path will take further our great and common endeavour to reincarnate a great tradition which, thanks to the high school “Qemal Stafa”, belongs today to the whole nation and challenges us all to succeed in keeping it as a banner in our arduous path towards knowledge.
Many thanks!
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“Qemal Stafa”, one of the elite schools of the national education, celebrated today with a special ceremony the 90th anniversary of its establishment. Being the first public high school of the capital city, “Qemal Stafa” began the journey of the education of the young Albanians in 1925, with 4 professors, 2 teachers and 26 students, under the direction of Dr. Mihal Sherko.
The most prominent personalities of the academic life of the country, as well as some important art personalities such as Prof. Alexander Xhuvani, Prof. Eqerem Cabej, Prof. Aleks Buda, Prof. Skender LUARASI, Lasgush Poradeci, etc. have taught in this school over the years. In addition, this school has formed a large number of students whose names did later become renowned in the fields of science and art.
