INVA HASANALIAJ
In the middle of December 2021, Prime Minister Rama spoke of bringing back areas around facilities of pre-university education with parcels of agricultural products. Faktoje’s fact-checking showed that in the middle-term budget of MoES there are no specific funds allocated to this initiative, whereas the Ministry explains that this initiative is part of the “Arts and Crafts” program which will be implemented in September 2022 and is actually still in its brainstorming stage.
During a visit in two schools in Tirana Prime Minister Rama warned of significant changes during the third mandate and he emphasized that grass in the school premises will be substituted by agricultural products. Rama said that only by doing this students will disconnect from technology and will understand the real value of nature and the land.
“There shouldn’t be areas around the schools which serve no purpose. The idea of agricultural parcels should become a reality, all the areas around schools can’t just be areas of grass, grass is nice but it requires great effort and continuous maintenance. Here within school walls, there is room to cultivate vegetables and give students the opportunity to come into contact and obtain a basic knowledge of the land and its value.”- stated Prime Minister Rama on December 16, 2021, while inaugurating the 9-year school “Vaçe Zela” and the “Kristo Frashëri” high school in Tirana.
Part of the Prime Minister’s speech during the inauguration on 16.12.2021, Source: kryeministria.al
Based on this statement Faktoje sent a request for information to the Prime Minister’s office to learn more details on the implementation of this initiative:
Request for information addressed to the Prime Minister’s Office on 28.12.2021
In its response to Faktoje, this institution informs us that our request does not refer to a document through which we can request information, such as a DCM, Order or Guideline, thus not answering our question.
Response of the Prime Minister’s Office
We also sent a request for information to the Ministry of Education which we asked if they are aware of this initiative and how do they predict to implement it.
Request addressed to the Ministry of Health
In its response, this institution states that the Albanian government has started the National Program “Arts and crafts in pre-university education”, which is still in its brainstorming stage. The implementation of this program is happening with the coordination of the Ministry of State for Youth and Children.
Full response of the Ministry of Education
According to our research in the budget of the Ministry of Education for the plan of 2021-2024 there are no items related to the “Arts and crafts in pre-university education”.
Part of the budget of the Ministry of Education 2021-2024
On 17/08/2021 the Minister of Education and Sports Evis Kushi published an “Instruction on the new school year 2021-2022 in the pre-university education system”. In the notification of the official webpage of the Ministry of Education it is stated that the implementation of the new program for arts, crafts and sports is included in this instruction.
Official notification from the Ministry of Education
In the instruction that was published the only programs which are related to arts, crafts and sports are the ones in oriented schools where such programs are already established.
Part of the instruction for the 2021-2022 school year.
In the second case, the only program was related to a collaboration memorandum between the Ministry of Education and Culture from 2016, which does not specify any such initiative as described by Prime Minister Rama
Part of the instruction for the 2021-2022 school year.
From the information we have gathered, the initiative does not have a sound basis of development, as stated by the Ministry of Education which foresees that the implementation of the initiative will begin in 2022.
