How much do we need foreign schools?

By Lutfi Dervishi
In the media frenzy that ushered in the new academic year, the silence that shrouded the founding of the “Peter Mahringer” Austrian School in Shkodra brings to mind an expression of Bernard Shaw, “Sometimes reporters fail to make the distinction between a bicycle accident and the collapse of a civilization.” There can be shortcomings in any comparison, but the founding of the first foreign school by a Western European country, ever since the time of the French Lyceum in Kor衬 certainly deserved far greater media coverage, locally and nationally, both as an item of news and as an opportunity to open a debate on the usefulness of such incentives. The Austrian school, “Peter Mahringer,” is a five year school (3+2), bilingual (German-Albanian), for Information and Communication Technology (TIK), where there will also be a focus on learning English. On the Website of the Ministry of Education, there is ample information on what will be achieved through this school.
Pupils are qualified through three years of vocational schooling, focused on practice, as computer technicians (electronic data processing). The school’s diplomas will be recognised in Austria, and subsequently in all the EU countries. (The idea to create this school was first raised during a visit to Albania of the Austrian Minister of Education Ms. Elisabet Gehrer, in November last year).
Businesses in Tirana are always complaining about the lack of technical specialists and managers on the market. Foreign companies, especially banks are always advertising vacancies in the newspapers for computer experts. The market in this field is empty, but what is of even greater importance for the present and future is the fulfilment of the growing demand on the home market and the possibilities of penetrating the European labour market. The founding of this school, once again emphasizes the need for education to gravitate more towards secondary vocational schools, to increasingly narrow the gap between theory and practice, so that a pupil does not go to school merely to obtain a diploma, but to acquire a more clearly orientated and secure future. Today, there is talk about the initiative, “Albania in the era of the Internet,” – the founding of the “Peter Mahringer” school is an outstanding event, because the pupils who go through this school are eligible for a market, (technology of information), which grows by the hour, and for which the economy of the country will always have a great need. The founding of this school in Shkodra is also an opportunity to encourage the debate, at local and national level of the indispensability of more schools like this one in Tirana and other cities of the country too.