Changes to Albanian School Boards Alarm Experts

   School in Tirana. Photo: LSA/Malton Dibra

Government plans to change the law on public education and transfer the power to employ teachers from school boards to school directors has alarmed civil society groups.

They call it a step back towards politically motivated appointments of teachers.

The current law empowers commissions that include teachers and representatives of parents' associations to hire staff in schools.

Established in 2012, the system aims to limit the powers of government officials to affect the employment of teachers.

The current Socialist government proposal wants hiring and firing decisions to be given simply to the school director.

While the Ministry of Education declined to comment on the proposal to BIRN, Dritan Nelaj, an education expert from the Open Society Foundation in Tirana, said the plan increases the risk of arbitrary appointments.

"There is great concern about the quality of public education and about the quality of teachers. In the past, we had numerous allegations of political intervention in the decisions," he remarked.

"The current system decentralizes the decision-making process by allowing teachers in the school and as well as parents' associations and other institutions to have a say in firing and hiring, minimizing the power of political intervention or recommendations," Nelaj observed.

The public education system employs some 30,000 people in Albania, which is almost one fifth of all employees in the public sector.

Parliament approved the current law on public education in 2o12. Although the law clarified the employment process in the education system by ceding power to school boards, allegations of politically motivated appointments in schools have continued.