Today, Minister of Education and Sports Ogerta Manastirliu, participated in the inauguration of the new school “14 Nëntori” in Durrës, a project supported by the European Union’s “EU4Schools” program and implemented by UNDP. This model school serves a community of 53,312 residents.
Arbjan Mazniku, State Minister for Local Government, Emiriana Sako, Mayor of Durrës, Hubert Perr, Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation in Tirana, Fiona McCluney, UN Resident Coordinator in Albania, and Monica Merino, UNDP Resident Representative in Albania, were also present during the inauguration.
Minister Manastirliu emphasized the importance of opening this school, which offers modern student and teacher conditions. “Today we are here for another school, renovated and with increased capacities, which has been open since September 9, providing quality education to more than 750 students and more than 40 teachers. It is a school that offers the best standards of education. In addition to improved laboratories and modern classrooms, it has a new gym and sports fields, to be used not only during school hours, but also after hours too,” said Minister Manastirliu.
The Minister highlighted that educational infrastructure is a priority for the government to ensure that teaching is conducted with the same modern standards in both urban and rural areas.
“For us, the government and the Ministry of Education and Sports, educational infrastructure is essential. Just on September 9, with the opening of schools, 25 new and rehabilitated schools are now operational. 40 construction sites for educational facilities have been opened throughout the country, and 100 schools have been rehabilitated this year, thanks to investments of the Albanian government, municipalities and the European Union program.”
In addition to investments in educational infrastructure, Minister Manastirliu emphasized the importance of support for teachers and two innovative new roles for this new academic year, aimed at increasing quality in schools and discovering talents among students.
“The National Teacher Training Program is restarting, focusing on the training and continued education of science teachers, chemistry, physics, biology, primary education teachers, and ICT teachers, to train them on the most effective teaching methods. On the other hand, to further support quality in schools, a call has been opened for the selection of 320 teacher-coordinators for quality assessment in schools and 320 teacher-coordinators for career guidance in schools—two new positions that will impact not only the quality of education but will also support talents throughout the entire education cycle,” said Ogerta Manastirliu, the Minister of Education and Sports.
The “14 Nëntori” school is among the 18 reconstructed schools in Durrës, as part of the “EU4Schools” program and now has 32 classrooms, 4 science laboratories (two for IT, alongside biology-chemistry and physics), a gym, two sports fields, and other spaces such as a nursing room and a psychologist’s office.