The consultative meeting with parents and teachers, focused on the shared challenges of ensuring the safety and protection of children and adolescents—especially in the digital realm of social media—continued today at the “Halit Çoka” school in Kamëz.

Prime Minister Rama and the Minister of Education and Sports, Ogerta Manastirliu, engaged in a discussion with parents, teachers, and support staff to strengthen mechanisms for preventing all forms of violence, including bullying on social media.

During the meeting, ideas and opinions were exchanged on what could be improved regarding safety in schools, as well as the restriction or complete banning of access to certain social networks for children and adolescents.

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Prime Minister Edi Rama: Thank you very much for being here. I want to start by saying that participating in these discussions with the representative parents has given me, personally, many reasons to be very optimistic about the situation and the potential we have together to further improve things.

I am optimistic about the situation because it is clear that there is a huge difference between the political and media portrayals of what happened, which led to this process, and the perception and concerns of the parent community. The community’s concerns are much more grounded in the everyday reality of schools and are more closely tied to what truly needs to be improved.

First and foremost, I believe Kamëz is the perfect place to confront the reality of school infrastructure development and the improvement of school conditions.

I want to highlight one parent’s testimony that stood out to me, when they said that what is happening today in terms of things that shouldn’t happen is only 2% of what used to happen until recently. However, it didn’t receive as much attention or cause as much noise because, in some way, people had become accustomed to a situation that seemed hopeless. In reality, when we started— and I want to emphasize this, above all, thanks to the determination and will of the mayor, who would have been great to have been here today due to his pivotal role in transforming the entire pre-university system and infrastructure in Kamëz.

Today, the situation has changed dramatically, not only the schools in Kamëz but also the kindergartens, which now meet the same standards and have the same conditions as new schools—similar to the new schools in any European capital, and I say this with complete confidence.

However, we are still facing a problem that is relatively new to society, not only Albanian society but to human society in general.

Today, our children, especially the youngest ones, are not just with us, with teachers, and with their friends.

Today, they have another “friend,” whom unfortunately they prefer more than us, more than their teachers, more than their friends, and much more than the books. This “friend” appears when they open their phones and go on social media. Particularly on TikTok, but not only TikTok, they have a friend who tells them the exact opposite of everything we may say to them at home, everything a teacher may say to them in class, or everything that is related to their responsibilities, from the duty to sit down and read books to the obligation to write by hand.

And if we talk about TikTok, the problem is that TikTok in our countries is based on an algorithm that promotes all the things that should not be encouraged.

Some measures have been taken in the administrative and legal aspects, but there are still no technological mechanisms in place to set filters and distinguish who is a child, who is an adult, who can use it, and who cannot. This is because social networks accept anonymity, and once anonymity is accepted, nothing is clear anymore.

We are studying all the aspects in these discussions because we tend to believe that a complete ban on TikTok, for a number of other reasons as well—such as the issue of the Albanian language, and the inability to apply the same criteria and standards as other countries—would be a good way, even if just for a period, to see what others do, how others find other mechanisms, and in fact, to take away “a very bad friend” from the hands of children and have a bit more control over the moment when they go through those labyrinths.

One of the main reasons why many developed countries are fighting, and trying to tackle this phenomenon, is precisely the mental health of children. The creation of a schizophrenic situation between reality and the virtual world, and the subsequent emergence of behaviors that attempt to bring the virtual world into the real world which is sometimes leading to serious criminal acts. It essentially extends the screen experience into real life, turning individuals into characters who may even commit murder without realizing the consequences of their actions.

However, while it is a small step, it is certain that, at the end of the day, blocking TikTok may provide some help, but it is not a solution. There is no solution unless there is greater direct involvement from the family, the school, and both together—parents, teachers, and of course, other institutions—working to increase, expand, and strengthen safety measures.

We have also built an information system for parents, but this system needs to be expanded. It’s not just about attendance and grades. Parents need to receive, periodically and frequently, information about their child’s behavior, any potential issues (such as health concerns), which could be real or fabricated. But the parent needs to be informed. For example, today the child might say they’ve been absent or have a stomachache. It could be true, but parents need to know.

Security issues are becoming an increasingly serious concern in the capitals and major cities of developed countries, to the point where women and girls cannot walk alone at night in any corner of Milan and this is simply not possible because there is no security.              In London, in many parts of the city, both men and women, when they go out, leave their watches and bags at the hotel or at home because it’s not safe to get out with them. This is the reality.

And while, of course, there are murders in Albania, today we have an average annual murder rate that is approaching the average seen in other countries.

But to conclude, I want to tell you that we’ve been working for about a year on a project that I believe will be a great help to all of us such as the Ministry of Education, school directors, teachers, and parents. It’s a high-security school project using intelligent camera systems. Thanks to our collaboration with the United Arab Emirates, where this system has been successfully implemented with extraordinary results, there has been a sharp decline in violence, bullying, absences, and behavioral issues because everything becomes transparent. We will have the ability to monitor all students and teachers. Naturally, the system will be managed according to clear protocols, but any parent who wishes to check on their child’s behavior in class, or if the child has done something that needs to be addressed, will have the opportunity to do so.

And likewise, teachers. Teachers will be both monitored and protected, both at the same time. I have great confidence in this system because it is the latest in technology.

We are now finalizing the funding agreement by December. The project is ready, and we will begin installing the system early next year. This will give us a significant boost—a major boost—in having a clear view of what is happening and allowing us to monitor even simple rules, such as no phones in the classroom. However, we can’t claim that this will be enforced 100%. Nevertheless, it will certainly be a great help in monitoring exams.

So, I am very optimistic about the future developments.

Today, we also received excellent news from an international test conducted in various countries to assess students’ skills in mathematics and science. The students tested from Albania—selected randomly, not by us, but chosen at random by a highly credible international organization that is trusted by many countries—have significantly improved Albania’s ranking in terms of the quality of pre-university education in mathematics and science. This is incredibly encouraging news for us. It proves that the actions we are taking are leading to improvements. It shows that our teachers are more motivated and engaged.

Thank you very much for your attention.