You may have noticed photos of protests circulating on your news feed today and yesterday, you may have even had your travel disrupted due to roads being closed and more traffic than usual, but there is actually a very good reason for this.
Students in Tirana have been protesting proposed governmental changes to the way that they receive their education. These students were the joined today by other students from Durres and Korce, amongst others. Thousands of them lined the streets of Tirana today to voice their displeasure at the changes that are planned that will ultimately be of detriment to them.
The protests started yesterday when students from several faculties including Engineering and Architecture boycotted their classes and marched on the Ministry of Education in protest against recently imposed tariffs of 700lek per credit for exam retakes, meaning that fees for a single exam could reach 6000lek. Since Lindita Nikolla became the Minister of Education, a number of price hikes have been seen but without any improvement to infrastructure or the services offered. Another bone of contention was the fact that private universities would be allowed to compete for government funding, taking much-needed money away from state educational institutions.
Furthermore, the proposed fees come on top of the already high university fees meaning that those attending state institutions are now expected to pay a similar amount of money as if they were attending a private university. With the government funnelling public funds to private institutions and the level of education deteriorating as well as the recent plagiarism scandal including ministers and educational professionals, it was no wonder that the students were up in arms.
Students protested back in January against such tariffs and then in October, several students were forcibly removed for protesting during a speech of PM Edi Rama.
Today the protests intensified with numbers of protesters increasing drastically as students from all over Albania attended, as well as others from the faculties of Medicine, Natural Sciences, Physics, Law, Economics, and Humanities in Tirana.
The following demands were made to the Minister of Education:
- Cancellation of the extra fees as defined in VKM 288, charging students for retaking classes
- 50% reduction in university fees
- Improvement of the facilities at the dorms
- Addition of a student representative to the university board, to arrive at an equal number of university and Ministry of Education representatives, as required by the Higher Education law.
The Ministry finally responded by reversing the plan to charge extras fees, but whether the students will continue to protest for the other points, remains unclear at this stage.
Follow The Balkanista!
