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Education in Albania

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Elementary education is compulsory from years 1 to 9, but most students continue at least until a secondary education. Students must pass the graduation exams at the end of the 9th year and also at the end of the 12th year in order to continue their education. The academic year is divided into two semesters. The school week begins on Monday and ends on Friday.

The 'School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)' of Albania is 16 years. The nation ranks 25th out of 167 countries. In 2015, the overall literacy rate in Albania was 98.7%; the male literacy rate was 99.2% and female literacy rate was 98.3%.

The Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI) finds that Albania is fulfilling only 87.4% of what it should be fulfilling for the right to education based on the country's level of income. HRMI breaks down the right to education by looking at the rights to both primary education and secondary education. While taking into consideration Albania's income level, the nation is achieving 86.3% of what should be possible based on its resources (income) for primary education and 88.5% for secondary education.

Pre-communist period

As late as 1945, the literacy rate of the country was raised to about 40%, and in late 1946 the illiteracy rate was 60%. This low percentage was principally because schools using the Albanian language had been practically very low in numbers in the country before it became officially independent in 1912. That is because Albanians didn't feel the need of a mass education in their language in the schools system due to them being mostly employed as officials and mercenaries/soldiers in the Ottoman Empire and also due to Albanian tribalism.

However, during the second half of the nineteenth century, especially during certain periods in Abdul Hamid II period, the Ottoman rulers had prohibited the use of the Albanian language in schools. Ottoman Turkish was spoken in the few schools that served the Muslim population. These institutions were located mainly in cities and large towns. The schools for Orthodox Christian children were under the supervision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The teachers at these schools usually were recruited from the Orthodox clergy, and the language of instruction was Greek. The first school known to use Albanian in modern times was a Franciscan seminary that opened in 1861 in Shkodër, though there are mentions of Albanian schools by Franciscans since 1638 in Pdhanë.

From about 1880 to 1910, several Albanian patriots intent on creating a sense of national consciousness founded elementary schools in a few cities and towns, mostly in the south, numbering to a dozen, but these institutions were closed by the Ottoman authorities in 1905 due to the Sultan Abdul Hamid II being scared this might have triggered an Albanian separation from the Ottoman Empire. The advent of the Young Turks movement in 1908 motivated the Albanian patriots to intensify their efforts, and in the same year a group of intellectuals met in Monastir to choose an Albanian alphabet. Books written in Albanian before 1908 had used a mixture of alphabets, consisting mostly of combinations of Latin, Greek, and Turkish-Arabic letters.

The participants in the Monastir meeting developed a unified alphabet based on Latin letters. A number of textbooks soon were written in the new alphabet, and Albanian elementary schools opened in various parts of the country. In 1909, to meet the demand for teachers able to teach in the native tongue, a normal school was established in Elbasan. But in 1910, the Young Turks, fearing the emergence of Albanian nationalism, closed all schools that used Albanian as the language of instruction.

Even after Albania became independent, schools were few in numbers. The unsettled political conditions caused by the Balkan Wars and by World War I hindered the development of a unified education system. When World War I broke out (1914), Albanian education in Albania was scarce. Apart from the Ottoman educational institutions, the local schools were mostly Greek- and a few Aromanian- speaking:

The foreign occupying powers, however, opened some schools in their respective areas of control, each power offering instruction in its own language. A few of these schools, especially the Italian and French ones, continued to function after World War I and played a significant role in introducing Western educational methods and principles. Particularly important was the National Lycée of Korçë, in which the language of instruction was French.

Soon after the establishment of a national government in 1920, which included a ministry of education, the foundation was laid for a national education system. Elementary schools were opened in the cities and some of the larger towns, and the Italian and French schools that had opened during World War I were strengthened. In the meantime, two important American schools were founded: the American Vocational School in Tirana, established by the American Junior Red Cross in 1921, and the American Agricultural School in Kavajë, sponsored by the Near East Foundation. Several future communist party and government luminaries were educated in the foreign schools: Enver Hoxha graduated from the National Lycée in 1930, and Mehmet Shehu, who would become prime minister, completed studies at the American Vocational School in 1932.

In the 1920s, the period when the foundations of the modern Albanian state were laid, considerable progress was made toward development of a genuinely Albanian education system. In 1922, with the request of the intellectuals of Shkodra, the first secular, state gymnasium was established, known as "The State Gymnasium" (Albanian: Gjimnazi i Shtetit), recently known as "28 Nëntori" Gymnasium. In 1933 the Royal Constitution was amended to make the education of citizens an exclusive right of the state. All foreign-language schools, except the American Agricultural School, were either closed or nationalised. This move was intended to stop the rapid spread of schools sponsored directly by the Italian government, especially among Roman Catholics in the north.

The nationalisation of schools was followed in 1934 by a far-reaching reorganisation of the entire education system. The new system called for compulsory elementary education from the ages of four to fourteen. It also provided for the expansion of secondary schools of various kinds; the establishment of new technical, vocational, and commercial secondary schools; and the acceleration and expansion of teacher training. The obligatory provisions of the 1934 reorganisation law were never enforced in rural areas because the peasants needed their children to work in the fields, and because of a lack of schoolhouses, teachers, and means of transportation.

The only minority schools operating in Albania before World War II were those for the Greek minority living in the district of Gjirokastër. These schools too were closed by the constitutional amendment of 1933, but Greece referred the case to the International Permanent Court of Justice, which forced Albania to reopen them.

Pre-World War II Albania had no university-level education and all advanced studies were pursued abroad. Every year the state granted a limited number of scholarships to deserving high school graduates, who otherwise could not afford to continue their education. But the largest number of university students came from well-to-do families and thus were privately financed. The great majority of the students attended Italian universities because of their proximity and because of the special relationship between the Rome and Tirana governments. The Italian government itself, following a policy of political, economic, military, and cultural penetration of the country, granted a number of scholarships to Albanian students recommended by its legation in Tirana.

Soon after the Italians occupied Albania in April 1939, the education system came under complete Italian control. Use of the Italian language was made compulsory in all secondary schools, and the fascist ideology and orientation were incorporated into the curricula. After 1941, however, when guerrilla groups began to operate against the Italian forces, the whole education system became paralysed. Secondary schools became centres of resistance and guerrilla recruitment, and many teachers and students went to the mountains to join resistance groups. By September 1943, when Italy capitulated to the Allies and German troops invaded and occupied Albania, education had come to a complete standstill.

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