“Teacher of the Year 2022” was the thank you party for the most distinguished teachers, the psycho-social service workers and school security officers, who provide their daily contribution toward education of children and young people and improvement of the quality in education in Albania.

Certificates of appreciation were awarded by the Prime Minister Edi Rama, and the Minister of Education and Sports Evis Kushi, to the present teachers with the motivation “Gratitude for the contribution to the education of generations, education of decent citizens and elation of the figure of the teacher.”

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Good evening everyone!

It is a special pleasure that together with the Minister and the Ministry of Education and Sports officials we honour today some of the teachers who have set an inspiring example through their work, their commitment and their performance results.

On the other hand, I would also like to avail myself of this opportunity to underline that today we have all the reasons to feel better than a few years ago about the situation in the pre-university education system, because today the measures and reforms we have delivered have already started to yield their results and obviously the general atmosphere and the space in which all teachers work is noticeably improved. Nobody doubts today about teachers’ inviolability from the appetite of politics, the political parties, clientele, because the whole teachers recruitment process has now been consolidated and everyone knows that the team of teachers and the education workers, administration of all vacancies for teachers go through the web-based Teachers for Albania portal, which has clearly demonstrated the competition and merit-based recruitment process, totally relieving us from the burden and the sense of responsibility and blame because of the continued injustice that had become a system, which many of you have encountered and experienced firsthand.

On the other hand, I am very pleased that this already sounds like a fairy tale, but this was also part of the teachers’ life until just a few years ago. Their forcible involvement in political and electoral activities, the imposition of their free will to vote, even as whole a family for one party or another even against their will and the impossibility of feeling secure in the path of a well-deserved career. Today, not only these are a thing of the past, but we are also doing utmost efforts to set up another performance assessment process within the system itself, in order to reward the best-performing teachers properly.

I would also like to focus on the radical change of the pre-university education system, namely with the competence-based curriculum on the one hand and with the textbooks now meeting the contemporary standards, already part of the normal school cycle. These are two important changes that have provided significant relief to both teachers and pupils, but also parents, who have now replaced that horrible jungle of the seemingly alternative textbooks. All these measures have contributed to a more quality teaching process.

Likewise, support for teachers’ and pupils’ transport has been increased and the government has allocated around $13 million to cover transport costs for teachers and pupils who have to travel from their place of residence, increasing reimbursement for pupils and students by 50%.

The number of teaching assistance has kept growing. As many as 1650 teaching assistants are currently part of the education system, whereas not a single teaching assistant was recruited when we took office.

As many as 500 schools across the country now serve as community centres too, whereas not a single educational facility served as a community centre when we took over and the 66 initial schools cleared the way towards transformation of the educational facilities into community centres, and 2500 clubs have been set up within these communities. I am talking about artistic clubs, painting, theatre, and IT clubs, which have brought together around 49,000 pupils and high school students. But this was not the case previously or one could count just a few sporadic cases of similar gatherings as a result of efforts by certain teachers or school principals themselves. We are preparing to usher in a new phase to include arts and craft programs, as well as the sports programs that have already taken shape all over the country.

As many as 700 volleyball and  basketball teams have been founded in schools across the country and we are optimistic about the ongoing plans on sports calendars and tournaments that will take place throughout the year through the material support we have already provided to the Albanian Olympic Committee. I am confident such policies will help build a completely different atmosphere for the school gyms, sports life and physical education, but also for the energies of the community.

I would like to remind each and every one of the fact that a comprehensive reform has been carried out, with measures in all aspects, and what the teacher highlighted is one of the aspects of the reform, and of course there is still a lot to be done, but the pillars of the pre-university education have been already set.

Improving quality in all aspects is a top priority now and we are on the right path and it is up to the Education Minister and its team, it is up to the education directorates, school principals and the teachers themselves to become increasingly demanding so that the system can deliver a lot more, so that every school day brings more to children and the community.

I would like to thank the Ministry of Education team, the members of the Parliamentary Committee on Education, who are attending this event and who have done their part to support the government and the Ministry of Education initiatives.