Prime Minister Edi Rama, accompanied by the Mayor of Tirana Erjon Veliaj, today visited the newly reconstructed high school building for over 290 students in the village of Surrel, Tirana Municipality. With its totally transformed premises after a serious renovation project, the first since 1969, the new school offers now more classroom space, modernized classroom labs and better optimal conditions for teachers and students. Ymer Lala high school in Surrel ranked 12^th in the latest performance ranking at a country level.

Remarks by Prime Minister Edi Rama at the inauguration ceremony of new Ymer Lala high school in Surrel:

I am very glad to see this significant project complete today. We have actually visited this school on various occasions, because the school has also served as polling station with the Surrel’s victories in elections and the school building has really been in a very poor and derelict state. The head teacher told me that no investment has taken place since 1969. Back in’69, I was five years old, my son Zaho’s age. What matters most is the fact that everything has been done with as much dedication and quality as it is always and anywhere the case when Mayor Eri takes matters into his own hands, in a bid to set best examples that can serve as role models not only to create optimal conditions for those attending the school, but also to offer hope and optimism to all of those waiting for their turn to come, as things are done step by step gradually. We seek to make maximum use of every opportunity, but these opportunities are not unlimited ones. We would have wished to do everything all at once, but this is impossible. On the other hand, I very much believe and hope we will also meet some community needs, which we are not going to mention them here since you are our guests today and we don’t want to put you in an awkward position since you are our guests and we are obliged to welcome you. We stay in continued contact to discuss issues concerning this area and we are now morally obliged too. I don’t want to put more pressure as they might say that all projects are being implemented in Surrel. We are patient and we can wait, but don’t mistake our tolerance and kindness as a sign of weakness, don’t mistake our patience as a sign of failure to see and figure out what happens around us. You can’t fool us with these tambourines and accordions, or these tents you put in here. You’ve done it well, but we need more. Beyond jokes that are half meant true, I would like to express my appreciation for the school teachers and education staff. This is perhaps the case to tell everyone that we the Surrel inhabitants read and study a lot. This is the 12^th best performing school at a national level. I had a conversation with the boys and girls of this school and their ambition is to improve performance and rang among the top ten schools in the country. We are not seeking to rank first as we don’t want to humiliate schools in the capital city. All we are asking you is: don’t underestimate us. Take us seriously. We mind our own business, visit each other, show solidarity and patiently wait for the country to develop. We provide our contribution, but don’t underestimate us. We are modest, but don’t provoke us. I would like to thank the Education Department’s director for attending this event together with entire staff of the regional education directorate. Whole education system has undergone a major reform and we are pretty sure we can better handle things in terms of education quality and performance. Incredible progress has been made with the curriculum and the textbooks reform. Oxford, Cambridge and Pearson textbooks have been made available to our schoolchildren, just like their peers all over Europe. On the other hand, the curriculum has been improved and decluttered to make it simpler to understand and to teach in terms of reducing the teachers’ workload and as a result teachers are now increasingly ready and available, as there has been always the case with them, but they now feel safe from the political influence threats and they are not fired or transferred to various schools just on political grounds or other reasons. Teachers now enjoy their deserved respect and their authority has been restored. We know pretty well that we should further hike the teachers’ salary, as well as the wages of other public administration employees and all these are a reason to be optimistic about the future. We still have a long way to go right there where we wish to be, yet if we were to turn our head back one would figure out that great progress has been made and situation is incomparable in no aspect of the past. So, we are always a great support for the city residents and we want you to be friendly to us. We provide you the best advice if you ask for it and we can render you support if you ask for it. We are hard workers too. I would like to greet each and every parent attending this event, especially the grandmothers, who are the strongest pillar of our village and this entire community. And local men in this village know pretty well they are hopeless without their women. So, together with women, mothers, grandmothers, girls, teachers and then all boys we still have a lot to do being confident that the future will be a much brighter one. Thank you very much for attending the event and I would invite you all to visit the agricultural fair and buy some locally grown produce. Fill you shopping bags full and you will find that nothing compares to our olives and our olive oil. Thank you very much!