Every beginning of fall, the arch-tragedy of Albanian education stages the eventual sad acts of performance in the public stage. This early September there were many of them, confusing, irritating and despairing all of us. First of all the restart of the investigative shows of the season pulled back the curtain on two public universities: the University of Shkoder and the Agricultural University of Tirana (in Kamez) and revealed professors and intermediaries that were seeking money or sexual favors in return for the grades, promotion opportunities, etc. Then as a dà©cor there were the scenes of Albanian parents queuing and fighting or buying the books for their children, packages of texts whose costs seem to be rising exponentially every year. Stories of abuse with selecting the publishing houses followed as usual. However the most piquant episode was that of the demonstration of high school graduates rejecting the results of the selection procedure for the university admissions. Hundreds of them claiming that their high school results and averages were close to perfect scores, protested in front of the Prime Minister’s office, the Parliament and at the special hearing with the Minister of Education.
There is really no added value in attempting to explain the reader what is the latest scheme of selection from the officials in the education ministry. During these years the arrangement has changed so many times and has yielded so many problems that the accumulation of the previous results was doomed to be a failure once again. From incorporating the average of the grades of school years into other times when this factor was excluded and priority was exclusively on end of term exams, from a set of fixed exams into another scheme of alternative subjects, the system has been inconsistent, perpetually subject to experiments and dauntingly difficult to follow.
In the latest years the complexities have been increasing with the onset of the private education institutions which left unchecked for many years created a criminal pyramid of diplomas. The positive step of the current government to close many of them and suspended some others is for the moment unclear in its impact assessment. Many of the private universities seem to be rehabilitated in the current new education legislative framework that incorporates and them in public funding and in the overall selection system for high school graduates as well. In the meantime the process of accreditation by a British agency has not yet yielded final results.
One wonders about the dark absurdity of the situation: parents and students despaired to enter a system where they shall be confronted with corruption abuse and even harassment. Yet they try and they comply, paying the fees for the grades and for passing the exams, preparing a future for their children where corruption and interference and nepotisms become the norm for their career. The vicious cycle continues strong as steel. The lucky few escape to school abroad paying hefty fees, encouraging the young never to come back. Official institutions facing the state of affairs with cold indifference: sending their kids to study abroad and telling those who stay here to become plumbers and electricians because that is what the market request. On the sidelines party leaders still making space in the public administration for those who have a diploma and show proper militants during the elections. This in turn produces the obsession with having a degree from the public university. On and on the wheel turns crushing many under its weight.
The national drama of education in Albania is swallowing everyone in a cruel display of hopelessness: professors, secretaries, ministry officials, teachers, book sellers, parents, students. Not only those who pay to get grades, who forge documents, who harass students. In this grim reality everyone seems to be guilty.
Yet it is paramount that authorities come up with a well-thought simple and efficient solution not to hold the future generations as hostages. Because yes, that’s exactly what they are doing now.
