The nine-year school  “Neim Babameto”, one of the school buildings reduced to rubble due to the devastating earthquake of Nov 26 in Durres, has turned into a construction site to build a brand new educational facility from scratch part of a post-earthquake recovery and reconstruction program. The new school building is slated to open its doors to 1064 students on first anniversary of the earthquake on Nov 26, with the facility designed to meet contemporary standards for habitability and environmental comfort and provide spaces for contemporary education and become a model of the transformation.

Prime Minister Rama visited the construction site together with the Minister of State for Reconstruction, Arben Ahmetaj, and the Mayor of Durres, Emiriona Sako.

The new school will house 30 classrooms, eight labs, a gym, a library, a teachers’ room and polyvalent halls 1064 students. Construction of new educational facilities will put an end to school’s overcrowding and the two-shift classes system that the school was running prior to the earthquake.

The new school designed to meet contemporary standards for habitability and environmental comfort and provide spaces for contemporary education and is one of the 143 reconstruction examples of the educational facilities being constructed in the country.

The project to build new schools is a massive reconstruction program that meets optimum standards of the European Union, either in the case of the new schools being built through the state budget funds, or in the case of the educational facilities being constructed through the funds from the international donors. The new schools are designed to meet contemporary standards for habitability and environmental comfort and provide spaces for contemporary education, including labs, gyms, libraries and everything else a pre-university education facility needs to be a space for learning, entertainment and a community centre.

“The main goal is that this school here, the most dramatic example of the damages caused by the Nov 26 earthquake, opens its doors on Nov 26 and sets the example of the turning a huge crisis into a great opportunity for radical transformation. The same will be the case with the individual houses and the apartment buildings,” PM Rama stated.

Among others, the government head also highlighted the projects on construction of the individual homes, saying:“Due contract is expected to be signed next week to allow the start of work to construct first group of individual houses in whole territory of the Municipality of Tirana, which will be managed by the Albanian Development Fund. In the meantime, Tirana Municipality has already kicked off construction of first private homes and the collective apartment houses. Likewise, construction of a series of collective and individual houses is underway in Durres too. A new residential neighbourhood will be constructed, including all required services, kindergarten, school, healthcare centre, post office, police station, recreational spaces, parks, sports grounds in Spitalle, where we are closely working to focus the generous donation granted by the Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates.”

PM Rama informed that procedures and the detailed design have already completed and work to construct a new residential neighbourhood in the town of ​​Laç will begin in few weeks’ time.

“All the affected areas will soon become construction sites, but the process will take a little more patience as the new neighbourhoods will be a space for a new life and quality of living for residents. In the meantime, we will sign the individual contracts so that people will clearly know where they will be living and the living space they will benefit,” PM Rama said.

“a thorough verification process of the private and public properties was necessary in the areas that will host the new residential neighbourhoods and due procedures have been carried out to provide complete compensation to owners when properties, while cash compensation has been granted to all individuals and households who have declined to be part of the new buildings and instead have demanded financial compensation. The majority of the quake-affected families have agreed to benefit housing in the new residential neighbourhoods, which will of course feature higher quality and safety standards that their previous houses. All the affected areas will soon become construction sites, but the process will take a little more patience as the new neighbourhoods will be a space for a new life and quality of living for residents. In the meantime, we will sign the individual contracts so that people will clearly know where they will be living and the living space they will benefit,” the Premier concluded.