On Teacher’s Day, the Government launched two new initiatives to empower schools as community centers. Prime Minister Edi Rama and other government members met with school principals and teachers from schools across the country. The first initiative urges every member of the government to take a school under their wing. The second initiative comes as collaboration with a group of prominent figures of Albanian basketball who has committed to take under their wing the gymnasiums of schools and make them available to parents and children who want to learn basketball.

These initiatives aim to provide support for schools transformation as community centers. Education Minister Lindita Nikolla said that this project is now a success and its performance has exceeded expectations. 30 schools were piloted when the project started, but thanks to the contribution of community, business partners and the Ministry of Education, the project has been extended to 180 schools in Albania. “This is a novelty for Albanian schools, because I believe we share the same idea that the sooner we open our schools to the community, the sooner we invest in schools and make them the cradle where citizens of the European Albania have their education, the faster ours will be a European society.”

Deputy PM Niko Peleshi, showing his full support to become part of this project, said that the focus of this patronage is the community. “We will deal more with the community, to give everyone a new space, a new horizon through projects that will arise from this collaboration. There are many talents among students who cannot emerge during the limited school hours, but they need another space for these talents to emerge.”

In the end, the Prime Minister and ministers symbolically took the key of the school of which they will take care. Prime Minister Edi Rama will have under his wing the general secondary school “28 Nentori” in Shkodra and the general secondary school “Ali Demi” in Vlora.