Speech of Prime Minister Edi Rama:

I am grateful to our American collaborators. I am grateful also to an American from Albania, Fran Nazi, who was the motivator of the project that, in my view, marks an important milestone. Firstly, because it awakens awareness in all of us that this is the right direction and that, despite financial difficulties, we must insist very strongly in this direction.

As this presentation showed very clearly, and as the figures, facts, results of recent years show clearly, the green economy contains the promise of sustained economic growth and, without the slightest doubt, an extraordinary potential for employment.

As far as we are concerned, we have started this process with our modest means, and as the Minister of Education noted, with absolutely encouraging and stubborn results because this is the only right direction.

In fact, we are witnesses of a difficult history, which is also very significant from the point of view of the cost of errors, of the serious mistakes that have been made in the approach to the whole sector of education at all levels – and we are here to talk about this aspect – mistakes for which as always happens, the poor countries pay a higher price than rich countries at the end of the day. These mistakes are inexcusable in a time like ours, which is not anymore the era when communication used to take place only through traditional channels and the speed of communication was extremely smaller than it is today. By this I mean that the speed, extent and depth reached today by communication and interaction between the human resources of the globe is something too big for poor and underdeveloped countries, for countries that do not need to repeat mistakes made by others before them, in a process where learning from others’ mistakes has become very easy, but certainly a great attention and great determination are required in order to make it happen.

We are convinced that what we have seen in the first pilot project carried out thanks to a concrete cooperation between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Energy has pushed us to go further and put on paper a project, which is the project of a thousand green classes.

We want to guarantee that not a single penny will be invested in educational infrastructure without taking into account the green dimension of the product, be it a new construction, a reconstruction, a public work built from scratch for a nursery, a garden, a school, or a minimal restoring intervention. This will be a standard which the Ministry of Education will decide as a prerequisite, be it for the distribution of investments or the requirements for any public tender that will be made for an investment.

A thousand green classes is a new project that envisages a thorough transformation of a very aggravated situation by overcrowded classrooms both in the Tirana-Durres area due to the increase in the number of residents, and in Kukes due to an alarming lack of school infrastructure.

This project, which is already on the path of transition from a draft to an executive project, will be our best opportunity to make a historic leap in this direction, by creating a basic and compulsory standard for all investments to come.

What our friend presented earlier has a cost. It is not a small cost for Albania financially speaking, but I have been and always remain a blindly convinced partisan of the idea that it is not money that generate ideas, but that it is ideas that generate money; it is not money that is missing, but it is projects; it is not financial resources that have been exhausted in the world we live in, but it is convincing arguments to make a project compelling and turn the impossible into something possible.

I totally believe Walt Disney, who used to be an idol of my childhood and will remain an idol of my old age, and who used to say that “the difference between dream and the project is time”. We all have dreams, but only those who have projects make their dreams come true. And Walt Disney is the heroic witness of the fact that every daydreamer can make their dream come true, but in order to succeed they need to have a clear vision, clear ideas, the right project and the unyielding determination to implement the project.

The Ministry of Education started work with a green awareness, even before “A”, by freeing the areas around schools from informal facilities, taverns, meatball eateries, fancy-goods shops and garbage.

And in fact, today we have a stable situation in each school, without such dramatic display of ignorance in action and power.

On the other hand, the work that is being carried out for increasing human capacities in schools through competiveness, transparency and merit goes in this direction, as goes in this direction the big project of the minister to teach teachers and to train school principals. And in this whole process of teaching and training the huge teaching staff in Albania, the green dimension is an inalienable part.

Turning schools into community centers is an ambitious goal which is now on the road to realization, because in all pilot schools where this project is being implemented results are very impressive; they are a living proof of the fact that the creation of spaces for action and interaction between students, teachers, parents and the community, but also the support provided to them in order to develop these areas, bring spectacular results.

I can tell you loudly that in two high schools in Shkoder and Vlore, which the Minister has put under my auspices, students have shown us some projects that ministries in Albania could not do for 20 years, and they succeeded in doing them in a period of 6 months, from design to development.

It is essential for us to plant firmly and deep in schools the idea that every dream can become real if it becomes a project, and to tell our children that in the world where we want to integrate, in the European Union, it is design skills that make a difference. European Union is not Paradise waiting for Albanians to be eventually freed from any kind of obligation and encumbrance to make a life through efforts and sacrifices. On the contrary, it is a family where efforts and sacrifices are a precondition in order to withstand and move forward.

The history of the European Union countries speak clearly. The history of the funds and the benefits of funds from the European Union speaks very clearly. Developed countries receive more money from the European Union and implement more projects. Less developed countries receive less; not because the rich have greater political power in the European Union, but for a very simple reason, because developed countries differ from less developed countries not for what they have but for what they know. The more we increase the capacity of knowledge, the more we have a chance to get the money that we need, to make everything possible. This means that, despite the first moment when you look at the figures presented by the outcome of this study, the immediate impression is “very beautiful, but how is this mega project be funded?” The truth is that where there is a clear idea, a clear project and a great determination there is also a way to find solutions.

To conclude, I want to say a few words on the project of “1 thousand green classes” which will actually solve the problem of overcrowding in the whole Tirana-Durres area, which is the major wound, but also in the area of Kukes. In addition, these classes will contribute enormously to enhancing the quality of the whole education process; to enhance the quality of life of children and families in this added area, which are a great value of school as a community center; to contribute to the preparation of a competitive work force in the area that we are discussing today as a green economy; to ensure, obviously, great savings in maintenance costs and school administration. Major savings would also mean a drastic reduction of the influence of corruption in the process of maintenance and administration of schools. And obviously, to have in the end not only better results from students, but also a new culture of using energy efficiently, and a new culture of coexistence with nature and with the still unexploited potentials that nature provides us to help us face the problems that we face, and often we face them in a very traditional form.

With heartfelt thanks for the Minister, for her leadership and for her previously unknown skills in leading the Ministry and for establishing a comprehensive climate not only for the administration and the staff of teachers and students, but also for all the resources of expertise or critical objection; with heartfelt thanks for our friends – Geri won’t bear a grudge if I give my special thanks to Nazi – I would only like to bring to your attention a quote I like very much by an American environmentalist who says that, although we keep telling ourselves that we are the most educated generation Earth has ever known, unfortunately we are living on this planet, on our planet, as if we were on vacation, and as if there were another planet waiting for us and we won’t have to come back here on earth. Actually, we are not on holiday here, we will spend our vacations somewhere else. We, Albanians living in Tirana, will spend our vacations in Sharre, and Fran will spend his vacations in a cemetery of the Bronx, while life and the obligation we have toward our children and the next generations are here, and we must fulfill this obligation here with the utmost responsibility as citizens and human beings.

Thank you very much!

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“Green schools” is an innovative project that is being implemented for the first time in Albanian schools. The aim of the project is to include the green dimension in every investment made in educational infrastructure. The project is based on the findings of the study prepared by American experts for MAS, according to which, the construction of “green” schools or the transformation of existing ones in green schools helps the economy of the country, in addition to providing significant savings in maintenance costs and school administration, creating jobs, contributing to the preparation of a competitive work force in the field of what is called “green economy”.

In addition, such investments generate long-term and sustainable development not only from an economic standpoint, they create the conditions to improve students’ performance, encourage the acquisition of a new culture for an efficient use of energy by teachers and students, as well as reduce the emission of gases created by the greenhouse effect.

The project will initially be implemented in 1000 classes, and will be later extended to schools across the country.