Best performing high school graduates with grade average point 10 were presented with gold medals for academic excellence during a special ceremony at the Maps Hall at the Prime Minister’s office. Prime Minister Edi Rama, the Minister of Education and Sports Ogerta Manastirliu, the Minister of State for Youth and Children, Bora Muzhaqi, as well as school principals and teachers attended the ceremony.

“The gold medal is the most precious honor you can take home to your parents,” PM Rama said as he awarded the medals to the best performing students.

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Good evening and welcome. I am pretty sure that some of you also are quite aware of the fact that I don’t speak briefly, but really, I won’t keep you up any longer today.

After all, you are here to accept the certificates of Gold Medal and the medal itself and if anyone misses me, although it is unlikely to happen, you would definitely find me on TV screens, on Facebook, and Instagram. So there are a number of various alternatives.

I would just like to very sincerely say that the gold medal ceremony is one of the best moments I experience in my daily life in this building.

It is one of those extremely necessary moments you should be through when you do a job like the one I do, because it grants you the opportunity to gain special energy through the presence of some young and unknown people. It allows you to breath fresh air and gain incredible courage, because – in my view – excelling in school is the proof that nothing can stop a person from achieving the goal when he or she are really determined to do so. I am saying this because anytime such a ceremony takes place, I always think that families of some these girls and boys probably can’t afford providing the optimal conditions for them.

I am pretty sure that some of these girls and boys would have been really excused if they were not to achieve these results. And I am pretty sure that the families of certain students here that work really hard and struggle to make ends meet.

Your gold medal is the most remarkable thing you could take home to your parents and even if that is enough in my opinion for you to feel fulfilled for the short time you have had and you still have a long time ahead of you along this temporary path we are all granted to spend in this world. 

It doesn’t happen often that children at your age are able to present their parents with a gift like the one you were awarded today. It is extraordinary. It’s heart-warming. It is admirable and is a very sufficient motive to tell you that you are heroes.

I would like to conclude by thanking you all also for standing up, as it is actually the first time that people stand up during a ceremony at this very hall. We are not to be blamed for this, but you because your number is higher this year and there are always more girls and than boys excelling in school, but this time there are more boys than in any previous ceremony!

I would like to express deep gratitude for your accomplishment, because it is something extending beyond your capabilities!