Albania Blends E-Learning With Classroom Education

Albania intends to have a hybrid year with increasing e-learning investment accompanied by physical education infrastructure investment.

The system of education in Albania will undergo a hybrid shift because Education Minister Besa Shahini reported that the educational year will start with the hybrid classes. The relocation is based on the experience gained throughout the pandemic and is indicative of the consistently increased dependence on e-learning in the country as an insurance measure for continuity.

In a press conference held on July 2, Shahini gave a tentative date of September 14, as schools are set to resume, but it is subject to review. She ensured that the RTSH Channel School will remain in action all summer to ensure that the national e-learning infrastructure is completely ready by September.

The Ministry of Education is also investing in physical capacity along with digital education. They have plans to build or rebuild 38 schools with the year-end deadline and anticipated completion of the project at the beginning of the next year. The officials underlined the idea that e-learning is not supposed to substitute classroom education, however.

Known education programs that featured under the ministry have also been maintained, such as the long-running free textbook program and the university pact that subsidizes student fees and scholarships, which benefits more than 90 percent of the student population. Such measures are meant to aid in the fair access with the extension of e-learning in both pre-university and higher education.

Further modifications will follow graduation processes and exams as parents solve issues like standardization of grades in secondary schools. On the whole, the blended approach that became implemented in Albania is an indication of long-term change on the way towards incorporating e-learning into the educational system of the country.