New education minister faces issues on school start

TIRANA, Sep 16 – New Education and Sports Minister Lindita Nikolla started her first day together with Culture Minister Mirela Kumbaro visiting Jordan Misja high school lyceum to congratulate students on the start of the new school year.
Some 630,000Albanian children and teenagers started the school year this Monday in the elementary and high schools countrywide.
The minister reassured that the best and the talented would be better evaluated and compensated.
“It is a special day and a privilege that the first day of the school year coincided with the first day of the new government,” said Nikolla.
And the minister held the first meeting with a group of parents to listen to their complaints of the closure of an elementary school in the capital. That issue was first made known at a private television station. The next day the minister also went to that school herself and assured the parents that their children will have the school and teachers back.
At a time when over-population of the classes at the public schools remains a main issue of concern, it was strange to see how a school in the capital had remained without registered students. Their parents complained many of them were told on phone to move to other schools.