Pandemic has very negatively affected the education sector in Albania, as official data show that the number of students graduating from secondary education has suffered a significant decrease.

Gross Graduation Ratio (GGR) is the number of graduates, regardless of age at a level of education relative to the typical age population that graduates at that specific level. According to INSTAT data, the GGR reached 79.6% from 84.6% that was before the pandemic.

This means that only 79.5% of 18-year-olds received a high school diploma in 2021, down from 84.6% who received a diploma in 2019, before the pandemic began. In the 2020-21 school year, 31,136 students completed their studies in secondary education and graduated, with a gross graduation ratio (GGR) of 79.6%. 

In addition, many students who have continued secondary education have not managed to graduate, the result as a whole has suffered a significant decline. This was also seen in the results of the 2022 state Matura, where only 4 students in the entire country were evaluated with maximum marks. 

Also in the 2021 matriculation exams, in mathematics, only 4 high school students received an absolute grade of 10 out of 166 in 2020. The results had a similar decline, both in the Albanian and foreign language exams. Teachers and education experts said that the poor results are a consequence of the damage that the pandemic has created in education. 

The education sector has faced consequences even in the most developed countries, even though the restrictive measures were softer and the educational and digital infrastructure is stronger than in our country. The generation of high school seniors who graduated this year have spent a long period of high school education under constraints. The knowledge gained during the pandemic was severely damaged. 

Many students found it impossible to follow online lessons, as they did not have the right tools, say the teachers in Tirana's secondary schools. So the funding indicators for the education sector worsened further in 2021. Public expenditures in the education sector for 2021 were ALL 58.4 billion. 

Compared to 2020, public expenditures on education expressed as a percentage of GDP have decreased by 0.2 percentage points, while public expenditures on education expressed as a percentage of total public expenditures have decreased by 0.3 percentage points.

(Source: Monitor)