New Upswing, Old Challenges

Monika Mott

I know the city of Tirana very well, because I worked there for three years. But nowadays, whenever I visit Tirana, I feel as if I barely recognise it.

Innumerable new buildings, shops and restaurants are constantly changing the cityscape. Tirana is booming. The economic upswing now seems to have reached even the poorest of European countries. A closer look, however, reveals that certain things have not changed. The prosperity gap between urban and rural areas has, in fact, grown and there are still far-reaching social differences. One reason for this is no doubt the fact that, for the most part, the country still lacks a system of public social security. Ever since the period of economic crisis experienced during the transformation, the major political focus has been on promoting economic growth, while, at the same time, public spending has been subject to stringent austerity measures – also due to pressures exerted by the EU and the IMF. In situations of social need, family and friends have to assume functions that in other countries are the responsibility of the state. This results in the attitude: If I have little to expect from the state, why should I pay taxes? If people have to choose, their loyalty to friends and family is going to be higher than their loyalty to the state, even if they are public servants. All this has foreseeable consequences for the state.

The educational system is in the position of having to institute fundamental reforms with an extremely limited budget. One focus of these reforms is on orienting education and training more strongly towards the needs of the labour market. Another challenge that has to be met is to close the widening gap in access to education – particularly high-quality education. A further question that has arisen is what role education can play in shifting the focus from “economic growth at any price” towards sustainability and, especially, social cohesion. All these issues are being faced not only by Albania, but by all our partner countries – and, in fact, by EU countries as well: witness the current discussions within the Union about the economic crisis and austerity programmes.

Monika Mott/ KKA, Head of Educational Cooperation