The public consultation with parents, teachers, and support staff regarding the school/family/community collaboration to increase the safety of students and adolescents, both inside and outside schools, continued with its second meeting at an educational institution in the city of Fier.

This series of consultations, prompted by the tragedy of the murder of a 14-year-old by his peer, brought together parents, representatives from the national and regional parent councils, teachers, and school leaders in an extensive exchange of opinions on further strengthening cooperation and creating a unified front against all forms of violence, including bullying on social media.

“We need to hear your opinion, but also discuss how we can enhance the cooperation and coordination of actions between schools, families, and the community to further increase the safety of our children, both inside and, above all, outside the school perimeter, meaning everywhere. What we must continue to do together, is to make an even greater commitment among the vital triangle that guarantees exactly the safety, protection, and better education of our children, which is the teacher, student, and parent triad. Therefore, it is very important that all parties involved work together to intensify this communication,” said the Minister of Education and Sports, Ogerta Manastirliu, during the meeting, which was also attended by Prime Minister Rama.

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Prime Minister Edi Rama: Greetings to everyone! I want to share a few thoughts, which are, in a way, a reflection of the first conversation we had with the Minister in Tirana, with a group of representatives from the parent councils of schools in Tirana, and of course, also with those I’ve been able to listen to here.

What stood out to me most from that conversation was the stark contrast between the serious concerns expressed by those at that meeting—mothers, fathers, and also people who, as part of the parent councils, had a broader perspective on the parent community as a whole. These concerns are reflected in all media platforms, whether on screen or online portals. The difference is like night and day.

Night and day in terms of the approach, and also in the way of communication. More than one parent, speaking about social networks, particularly TikTok, raised the concern that the external pressures from these platforms are severely amplified by the influence of domestic media platforms as well.

Teachers, like all other citizens, are also under this pressure. And in this overloaded atmosphere, which is a highly distorted reflection of reality, it’s not that reality doesn’t have problems; in fact, reality may have deeper problems than those being discussed. However, the fact that real issues are not being addressed creates an artificial tension in society. Still, it’s tension, and it eventually leads to difficulties in all relationships. And here, in this vortex where everyone is involved, children enter, who, among other things, live in two completely parallel worlds, social media and real life.

Moreover, we are in a situation where time creates a dependency similar to the one created by drugs—it’s the same kind of addiction.

TikTok, which is in China as well as the Western world, operates differently in China. In China, TikTok doesn’t operate in the same way it does in the West, because while the same algorithms are in place, the platform does not feed those algorithms with the same content that it exposes children and adolescents to in the West.

Now, having said all this, the other problem is that, from a technical standpoint, these platforms are practically unstoppable, even if we want to.

Australia passed the first law in the world just two days ago, and I’m referring to democratic countries, as there are other countries where social networks aren’t accessible at all. Australia passed the first law in the world that bans all social media for children under 16. They have no access. However, they don’t have the mechanism to enforce this fully because setting up filters requires identification. And identification requires a mechanism that the platforms don’t provide. For this reason, they have given a special institution 12 months to figure out the mechanisms for online security, etc

Now, sports were mentioned here, and of course, sports are undoubtedly one of the key remedies. Sports are one of the best solutions for a thousand reasons, which we won’t get into right now.

In terms of safety, if you listen to foreigners who visit, or even Albanians living abroad, Albania is considered one of the safest countries. What occasionally happens between criminal groups is unrelated to the general public. Albania is one of the safest countries, and this is one of the main reasons why tourists love it.

Another component we have considered are the teachers.

We have found teachers to be unprotected by the state. In what sense? No teacher had job security.They were forced to resign because someone else, with connections, would replace them. Where was the merit-based hiring of teachers in schools?

Another issue is teacher training and other factors. I believe what I heard in the previous meeting, ‘Teachers are extremely important.’ But, let me say, school principals are equally important, and this cannot be debated.

Now, let’s move to security. We placed security officers in schools; there were none before. We increased the number of security officers. However, my conviction is that in a world where technology has become an opportunity and not just a problem, with technology, we can solve issues that we could never solve before. In fact, by December, after a year of working on this project, we will finalize the agreement with the UAE government for a school security program, which is one of the greatest successes of technology. It’s an extraordinary success story in that country, with the digital monitoring of schools—every classroom, every corridor, the entrances, and exits.

With this program, they have practically reduced bullying to minimal levels, because being in a classroom under the gaze of the entire public naturally changes the behavior of those involved. This is a program that has protocols in place and it has led to a major transformation in relationships and behavior. It focuses attention where it needs to be, instead of having it distracted by the idea that children everywhere are carrying knives, phones, etc.

Regarding mobile phones, this is still an ongoing internal discussion. We have banned phones in schools. Generally, the level of compliance is higher than I personally expected, but it is certainly not a foolproof standard of security. This helps mitigate various concerns. Lastly, I want to touch on other programs, because the space between school and home, between the classroom and home, is an area that, if we don’t fill it, will be filled with something else.

These are the key points, and to conclude, I would also like to mention that we have completed a project for an institute for children in conflict with the law, which is a democratic model for re-education schools. These re-education systems have their challenges, but this program, strongly supported by the European Union, represents a new model for dealing with children in conflict with the law. This includes minors who commit either minor or serious offenses, and, if they were of age, they would be sent to prison. However, because they are minors, they cannot be incarcerated. This institute offers specialized programs and pedagogies designed to help these children avoid trauma that could deepen over time, steering them away from a path of further wrongdoing.

Our number of such children is significantly lower than in many other developed countries, relative to the total population, just so you know.

Everyone must play their part in their respective positions—whether it’s the schools, the principals, the inspectors, or the inspections.

Thank you very much!