Teacher education in Albania : history and current issues

Abstract

This chapter will explore the interaction between educational systems and national economies, focusing in particular on teacher education. In doing so, several issues will be addressed, including: the structure and quality of the curriculum in teacher education institutions in Albania, the legal and qualifications framework governing teacher education and training, institutional arrangements in meeting needs as they relate to initial teacher education and in-service teacher training, quality assurance mechanisms, and the problem of high rates of attrition which leads to the increase of unqualified teachers. Albania, a country of 28,748 square kilometers and a population of 3 million people, lies in the West of the Balkan Peninsula. Albanians are the successors of Illyrians, an autochthonous population, and the history of the Albanian people is the history of a series of painful conquests. In the Middle Ages, after George Kastriot's death in 1468, Albania fell under Ottoman rule having resisted invasion for twenty-five years. At that time, education was delivered by priests in churches and monastries, with Latin being used in north and central Albania, and Greek in the south. During Scanderbeg's era, the Albanian language was used as the language of communication within the principalities (Dosje kombetare, Arsimi ne Shqiperi, 1997). Education was based on religion and was entirely influenced by the Ottoman education system. For five centuries Albanians had to fight against the Ottoman Empire, thus becoming a big obstacle to the Ottoman army trying to invade Europe. This conflict had a negative effect on the development of national language and culture. The teaching of Albanian language was forbidden. Until 1887 Albania did not have its own schools. There were only Turkish, Greek and Latin-Italian schools in Albania (Historia e Shqiperise, 1954). In the 1830's an organized movement known as the National Renaissance-one of the most brilliant periods in the history of Albaniastarted. It reached its climax with the foundation of the political organization Lidhja Shqiptare e Prizrenit (Albanian League of Prizren, 1878-1881). This was a vast political, cultural and educational movement that ended with the proclamation of the independence of the country in November 1912. It aimed at liberating the country from the Ottoman rule, unifying the country into one independent state and developing national education and culture. In order to revive the culture, to bring unity among the people and to educate them, enlightened individuals made tremendous efforts to teach the Albanian language, which assumed special importance in this period. These efforts started with the publication of the first Albanian ABC book by Naum Veqilharxhi in 1844. Later on, two other publications appeared, one in 1867 and the other in 1868, in the Gheg and Tosk dialects respectively. As the efforts to teach Albanian language were inhibited by invaders, a clandestine way of teaching the language was employed. Despite prohibitions, the so-called 'wondering teachers' started teaching the Albanian language to the people, making use of homes, shops and so on to teach. Even prisons were used as places where Albanian language could be taught to the komite (outlaws) illegally (Kraja, 1993). Foreign historians have been so impressed by this remarkable effort of Albanians that the press wrote: 'Nje popull qe meson karte pa shkolle', meaning 'a people is learning without having a school' (Dodani, 1930, p.32). The period of Renaissance in Albania is different from that of Europe. While European countries were progressing on the road of civilization and doing away with dogmatism and scholasticism by setting up an education system where the development of the personality of the child and its mental, physical and spiritual development were central, the Albanian people were still embroiled in a struggle for independence. Given these circumstances, the opening of the Albanian school and the teaching of the Albanian language in an organized way, in order to bring unity amongst the Albanian people and to educate them, became imperative. Thus, on March 7, 1887 the first Albanian national and secular school with a democratic character (Mesonjetorja e pare shqipe) was opened in Korca, in south-east Albania. It had both Moslem and Orthodox students, but was non-denominational (Xoxa & Xhango, 1963). In the years that followed, other schools were opened in several parts of the country, including Pogradec, Kolonje and Prizren. Due to the support of the people, the Mesonjetorja e pare shqipe managed to survive for fifteen years, till it was severely attacked by the Greek Orthodox church and the Ottoman government and was finally closed down in 1902. During the Ottoman rule Albania was divided into four vilajets (administrative divisions in the Ottoman Empire). Due to the Turkish and Greek influence, ti was not possible to have a unified education system, and consequently there was no unified teacher training. There were also no teacher training colleges. Teachers were either prepared in Turkish schools called dar-yl-mualimin, or in the Greek normal schools. As nationalism took root, the need to prepare teachers where Albanian could be taught became increasingly pressing. Efforts to set up a teacher training system across the country were made spontaneously, in response to political and social developments over time. The Ottoman government exercised pressure and continuously prevented the opening of Albanian schools. As a result, teachers who could not be trained in the country received their formation elsewhere. In 1891, for instance, the Normal school of 'Drita' Association (Shkolla Normale e Shoqerise Drita) was opened in Bucharest. It was supported by the Albanian community living in Romania, and trained teachers for Albanian schools. At that time the Romanian government had started setting up a network of normal schools. There were 20,000 Albanian emigrants living in the Vllahi region of Romania so the school had the full support of Albanian emigrants. The setting up of this school was in line with the interests of the Romanian government as it was taking care of the vlleh population wherever it was located, but it also served to train teachers for schools in the Albanian territory in the Ottoman empire, with students from different parts of the country attending (Osmani, 1998). Teaching was carried out in Albanian and Romanian.