The student’s protest entered its 15th day, while the Government, despite public pressure, has not changed any of the contentious policies

Tirana, December 19, 2018 – For more than 15 days, students from all Public Universities in Albania are protesting to force the Government to improve quality education, abolish taxes, and improve the conditions of the higher education in the country. Albania, a country with about 3 million people, has 12 public universities, where study about 120,000 students, mainly concentrated in the largest urban centres.

The student protest started about two weeks ago in front of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, but because of the government’s failure to react, it moved to the Government Building on the main boulevard of Tirana. Discussing student demands in the Albanian Parliament has become almost difficult because of the parliament’s boycott for nearly six months by the two main opposition parties.

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Students, who are joined by many high school students in Tirana, have addressed a petition with 8 requests to the Albanian Government and the Ministry of Education, for which the students stated that they are non-negotiable.

The main requirements of students are to increase the budget for education by 5% of GDP, reduce the study taxes, denouncing corruption in universities, improving the quality of education and auditoria infrastructure.

Since the beginning of the protest, the Albanian Coalition for Education has publicly supported the student’s demand for budget increase to 5%, a coalition request since 2014 to the Government and the Ministry of Education. About 31 organizations joined ACE’s public statement to the Albanian Government to support students to seek 5% of GDP for education in the country starting in 2019.

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For more information, please contact:

Linda Pino, National Coordinator of Albanian Coalition for Education This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) is a civil society movement that aims to end exclusion in education. Education is a basic human right, and our mission is to make sure that governments act now to deliver the right of everyone to a free, quality, public education.