6 May 2008

Experts from the Ministry of Education, teacher community, trade unions, local government and students and parents representatives were part of a round table on enhansing transparency in pre-university education and promoted the code of ethics of teachers in the context of a Soros-led project.

The education budget represents the biggest component of public expenditure in Albania, and many financial actions are carried out with no transparency while the interest groups such as teachers, students and parents are not part of the decision-making process. For this reason, corruption in education appears in bids on school rehabilitation, delivery of licenses, favoring of nominations of teachers in certain schools, private teaching of students in evening hours, etc.

During the project implementation attention was cast on the activity of the Ministry of Education, some educational directorates including 50 other schools, particularly in the sub-urban zones. Participants proposed several recommendations on narrowing the corruptive spaces and submitted a draft of the code of ethics, which shall undergo a mass discussion and shall be implemented in the entire pre-university education system in the future.