Following meetings with heads of pre-university education structures, Minister Mirela Kumbaro gave several important messages before the start of the new school year to the principals of more than 200 schools of the Regional Directorate of Pre-university Education of Tirana. She focused on the newly issued instruction for the 2026-2027 school year, focusing on the ban on mobile phones during lessons, the code of ethics for teachers and educational staff, as well as on creating a friendly and welcoming environment for all students on the first day of school.
"We all work with the same spirit, we work with the same principles, and the same rules. And we get ready to start a new school year by reinforcing the achievements of last year, but also by learning many lessons from what didn't go well for us and especially to prepare for this year's new rules and guidance programs."
We are returning to the rule of banning cell phones with rigor, starting with teachers. Last year we also approved the Code of Ethics for teachers, security officers, and psychosocial service workers. When I talk about the Code of Ethics, I am not just talking about appearance, but especially about communication. This year's work starts with communication. The first day of school, for the first time through an instruction, has been set in the new instruction for the school year, to be a day of familiarization, introduction to the school, the teacher, books, and classmates," the minister explained.
Further, Minister Kumbaro focused on school safety, clarifying public opinion and the community of parents, whose children study in the schools selected for the "Smart City" project, on the data from the intelligent cameras of this project, which will be monitored by the Monitoring Center at the State Police.
"It was initially advanced as a pilot project in 20 schools in Tirana and Kamza with smart cameras. These are smart cameras that detect dangers from cigarette smoke, objects defined in the catalog as dangerous and the faces of people reported as dangerous persons", further emphasizing that the cameras are an auxiliary tool that does not replace the attention and communication of the education system chain.
This school year, for the first time, the implementation of the "After School" program begins in 408 educational institutions across the country, which aims to offer lower and higher secondary education students quality time, creative and socializing activities, and keep them away from the harmful use of technology.
Meanwhile, the distribution of textbooks has begun in schools, which will be free for lower secondary education, while for grades I-V they will be new every year.
