“Lasgush Poradeci” school is the newest education facility recently built in the area of Kombinat, Tirana Municipality, now totally transformed into a contemporary facility for over 1200 local pupils in the wake of the devastating earthquake that destroyed the previous school building two years ago.
Construction of the new school and kindergarten was supported through a funding allocated by the State of Qatar and it meets highest standards for habitability and environmental comfort and provides spaces for contemporary education and entertainment.
Prime Minister Edi Rama today attended the school inauguration ceremony together with the Mayor of Tirana Erion Veliaj, Education Minister Evis Kushi, the Minister of infrastructure and Energy Belinda Balluku, as well as representatives of the Qatar Fund for Development. Addressing pupils, teachers and participants, PM Rama said:
Hello everyone! It is truly a pleasure to see everyone coming together here today, including pupils, teachers and school principals, and above all, our friends from Qatar, to experience all the beauty and power of this transformation.
I would like to express gratitude to these friends also on your and your parents’ behalf for stepping forward along with many other friends as we were going through an extremely difficult moment, when our world and the life of thousands of families was turned upside down as they became homeless in a matter of just few seconds, whereas thousands of pupils and students lost their schools and had no choice but move to other educational facilities. For the sake of truth, the vast majority of those worst-hit by the earthquake did not even imagine that things would change soon enough and that the quake-affected families would move into more beautiful and resilient homes, while students would return to schools that can’t compare to the previous ones.
However, things went differently and thanks to the solidarity that ensued, thanks to all the friendships, which we have patiently and persistently strengthened over all these years, including the friendship with the Qatar friends, who have joined us today, and here we are and we definitely have really strong reasons to believe in ourselves and in our future.
Kombinat is one of the hardest-hit areas by the devastating earthquake and the number of affected families is higher than in other areas of Tirana and this is the site slated to host one of the biggest post-earthquake reconstruction projects.
I avail myself of this opportunity to tell the affected families eagerly waiting to return to their homes that they need to be a little more patient because it is one of the biggest projects, if not the biggest and as such it takes a little more time to be built than the single-family homes in certain areas or than the smaller residential areas.
The new residential complex set to be constructed here is designed to meet the same contemporary standards as this school in terms of the transformative impact on the lives of those families that were affected but on life of the entire community. I would like to assure everyone that work continues around the clock together with the Municipality of Tirana to make sure that the houses and all other units, from commercial units to social and administrative ones in the area of Kombinat, will be delivered as soon as possible.
On the other hand, since we are here to inaugurate this new school, I would also like to tell all the pupils attending this ceremony, as well as to all of those watching us now, that we need to look way beyond the new infrastructure and we must substantially engage, starting next year, under the next year’s state budget already approved by parliament, but also in the coming years, we will increasingly commit more and more funds and place higher attention to the youngest to transform schools, not only into reconstructed spaces in terms of education infrastructure, but also into spaces to host social, cultural and sports activities, and all these new spaces, gyms, sports facilities and halls like this one here, will serve a new life at school and positive energy of the class and after class time.
It is a considerable long time that worries parents a lot and also creates deficiencies for pupils, as they currently lack the opportunities to engage in activities to generate their mind and body, cherish their talent and skills and the physical health. Therefore, by employing more attention and energies we are committed to totally overturn the legacy of all these tough years, considering the fact that we can now afford doing so.
It would have been very difficult for us to properly organize given that we had very little worthy space available to host sports events, arts, and theatre and so on while such opportunities are being created now, allowing us to usher in this new phase for school, for children, for communities in every school and near every school.
To conclude, I would like to say that as we have normally seen, construction of the new education facilities, no matter how strong and beautiful their walls and premises are, they are still insufficient, just like it is insufficient building of classes alone if no school libraries are also built, if no labs in line with best standards are not built and if we fail to provide all the support needed for the education process through the supplementary infrastructure, which doesn’t merely feature walls, desks, or doors, but also the entire supplementary infrastructure that serves further development through experiments, after class activities about all aspects of theoretical learning.
We are committed to deliver a fundamental change in terms of the school labs starting next year, as the government has allocated a significant state budget funding to support this project.
We will deliver a fundamental change to the information technology teaching and, just like we have introduced English language starting in first grade, we will do the same by including IT in the school curricula starting in the first grade, providing pupils the opportunity for a direct access to a practical learning and not simply theoretical learning, by employing technology tools, a whole technology learning system, so that we can train a much higher number of young boys and girls to access the huge global market, where one can access and take up very high-paying jobs without having to walk out their houses at all.
In the meantime, we are also committed to seriously invest in building genuine school libraries. The existing school libraries are now genuine, but they are partly or modestly filled bookshelves, while it is entirely possible for the school libraries to turn into genuine libraries, not only for students and pupils, but also for the community.
I would like thank again our friends from Qatar!
Whole post-earthquake reconstruction drive is an incredible process in terms of the synergies it has already created. The reconstruction process is being funded largely by the Albanian government itself, but it would haven’t been possible if so many friends and partners, namely the European Union, the Republic of Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the government of Qatar and the governments of many other European countries and not only, were not to join and support us in this endeavour. Our friends and partners have taken over funding of many various projects.
I would also like to thank the builder, an Albanian construction company operating in Qatar, which has been picked by our partners to deliver on such a beautiful and excellent project that is being hailed by everyone and it couldn’t be otherwise when it comes to implementation of the projects funded and managed by our partners, ranging from the European Union to the government of Qatar that brought us together today for this amazing project.
My answer to those who talk about billions embezzled by the Albanian government is that no penny of the government investments comes from the partners and no penny of the partners has been administered by the Albanian government. The partners have selected the winners, awarded the contracts while the government and the municipalities have simply assisted this process, guaranteeing that the projects are the right ones. All the rest is a job well done, joining forces and setting very well the boundaries where everyone has undertaken to do some of the work, and has done it in the best way possible.
I would return to the new Kombinat residential complex project which is a 100% investment of the Albanian government. It is all money collected and well administered by Albanian taxpayers. The new neighborhood of Kombinat will be up to standards and a brilliant success just like this school.
Thank you very much!
