Urgent Appeal - Ministry of Education shall take immediate measures to provide free textbooks for all vulnerable children!

September, 3, 2014- Through this public statement Albanian Coalition for Child Education express its concern and wants to draw the attention of the Ministry of Education and Sports in taking immediate measures for equipping with free textbooks all children in need who attend the compulsory education in Albania. 

From our observations and direct contacts with many Regional Education Directorates in different districts of the country, the provision of textbooks for all children in need have encountered many difficulties. Despite the Instruction No. 8.1, dated 04.4.2014 "On selection, distribution and sale of textbooks for the school year 2014-2015", which has set deadlines for the distribution of textbooks, near ALO 116 and partner organizations, parents of Roma, Egyptian minority and other disadvantaged groups, have reported about the impossibility that their children are provided with textbooks. A fact this, that increases the difficulty and denies them the universal right to education.

Albanian Coalition for Child Education through this urgent and public appeal urges the Albanian Government, and in particular the Ministry of Education and Sports and the Ministry of Finance, in view of the progress of the 2014-2015 school year, to take immediate measures and provide in real time free textbooks for all children in need, as according to the joint instruction of the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Education, No. 32, dated 04.08.2011 and Instruction No. 23, dated 08.08.2014 of the MAS "For the new academic year 2014- 2015 of the Pre-University Education in Albania”, which obliges each RED /Educational Office and school leaders to make the process of the delivery and sale of textbooks, a priority of their work so that by 15 September all children are equally equipped with all textbooks. 

For more information please contact Mrs. Linda Pino, National Coordinator of Albanian Coalition for Child Education, e-mail linda.pino@crca,al, tel +355 67 60 75 400