New school year starts for elementary, high schools

TIRANA, Sep. 17 – Some 640,000 students of elementary and high schools in the country started their new school year Monday causing traffic jams in the main cities due to the cars taking children to the schools.
Police took special steps to prevent such traffic problems by placing teams near the schools on the first day.
During the school year policemen will be stationed in the high schools mainly to prevent drug trafficking inside.
As usual the school year was followed with the problem of securing the text books noted in long queues at the capital Tirana.
Schools in the main cities have had problems to cope with a greater influx of students as their population has siginificantly increased during the post-communist period.
On the other side, the government pledged to make another pay hike for the teachers, though it did not mentioned when they would come. The executive has pledged to double their salaries at the end of the four-year mandate.