“Charles Telford Erikson” school in Golem, Kavaja Municipality, a high vocational education institution founded in 1925 by the American missionary, diplomat and historian with same name, is one of the oldest Institute of Agriculture in Albania, alternatively known as the Albanian-American School of Agriculture and Domestic Science. The school he founded, aimed to promote the knowledge of modern scientific agriculture and provide a thorough training for young Albanians. This year, the building of this important vocational education institution was recently rebuilt from scratch, along with its didactic farm, in a state budget investment worth 250 million lek.

Prime Minister Edi Rama visited the newly-reconstructed school building, where some 162 students study in three branches of education, namely agribusiness, veterinary and economics. “The school building has been reconstructed from scratch. The school was originally built in 1925 by the American missionary Charles Telford Erikson and the school has been named after him. The school was reconstructed through an investment worth 250 million lek. A total of 162 students here attend three branches of education, agribusiness, veterinary and economics,” the school principal said.

Although the high agricultural school has no sufficient land area for its production base, the new investment has provided an experimental centre that could serve as a model for other high vocational education institutions. Yet the base has yet to fully complete during a second phase of the investment. The teachers’ demand for an additional investment in greenhouse covering and the didactic farm that would serve as the ground for practical training for students, the Premier said that such an investment can be implemented through the support from the Agricultural and Rural Development Agency (ARDA).  “You should first design the project on the school’s production base and the greenhouse covering. Once the project is ready just submit it to us. We can finalize the investment faster with the Ministry of Agriculture as it includes no high cost and it can be covered by ARDA, just like it was the case of the Agricultural University when we allocated one million euros for the didactic farm.”

“Charles Telford Erikson” school in Golem is attended not only by local students. Young people from other cities and regions across the country, such as Kukes and Librazhd etc., are increasingly showing interest in attending this high vocational education institution. However, the dormitories and student housing facilities, under the administration of the Municipality of Kavaja, remain a serious problem for the school. The miserable state of the dormitories is often an obstacle for the parents who want their kids get a decent education at the three branches this school offers. “The three branches are the best on offer in terms of the vocational education and training. Due to the features of the area where we live, we believe that the three branches of education must be provided at this school as it has historically been the case. Students from other regions, like Kukes, Librazhd, etc. are showing growing interest in studying at this school. Students at agribusiness and veterinary departments are awarded a monthly scholarship. Therefore, their parents are really motivated and urge their kids to attend this school, but their accommodation and housing remains a serious problem. The dormitories are under the Municipality’s administration and they are in a miserable state.”

After listening to the teachers’ concerns over the dormitories, the Premier urged them to design a project and pledged his support for best possible solution.  “A project should be designed for the dorms and include them as part of the school’s administration, or find another administration way because the Municipality of Kavaja and local government authorities have no plans to build school and dormitories. They are involved in constructing apartment buildings at the seaside and they are not to blame as the prosecutors haven’t acted yet here. I urge you to draft the project and if you have already submitted it to the Municipality just withdraw it. We should emerge the school and its dormitory and build a kind of a student campus. We will then examine the project on the primary education school building in Golem,” the government head said.