Durrës, Budget for Education 2012 consulted with stakeholders. Demanded increase up to 10%

CPII, in cooperation with the Municipal Council of Durrës, organized the public consultation “On education 2012”. The meeting was attended by the chairman of the municipal council, Indrit Hamiti, Deputy Mayor of Durrës, Ardian Çela, Director of the Educational Directorate of Durrës, Filip Gjoncaj and roughly all school directors in Durrës city (a total of 90 participants).

The meeting was specially organized in the concert hall of the Artistic School “Jan Kukuzeli”. This school, though representing the earliest tradition in the education of young generation in Durrës, is facing urgent needs for funding out of the municipality budget for the reconstruction of the very old building. These serious damages were specifically covered in the background information of each person who developed a discussion.

The Chairman of the Municipal Council of Durrës, Mr. Hamiti, expressed his gratitude to CPII for the organization of this meeting which he deemed as essential. “The Round Table for Education we are holding today acquires a special significance. Except teachers and their educators, the educational issues are firstly of interest to our children. Some of them are present today with us in this room, marking a new standard of their participation in the public decision making process directly affecting them, such as the issue of education”, said Mr. Hamiti.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of CPII, Gerti Shella stated in his speech: “Without a well-analyzed budget and contemplated with the education administrators, namely the teachers and the students, no optimal conditions are created to ensure a more qualitative education”.

During the meeting dissenting opinions were exchanged between the chairman of the Municipal Council,  Indrit Hamiti and the Deputy Mayor, Ardian Çela. The latter was also confronted with the “attack” of almost all school directors who were present. This situation occurred as they do not agree with the figure of 6 per cent of the annual budget the Municipality has allocated to schools. The heads of schools introduced emergent requests which necessarily require financing out of the Municipality’s annual budget.  However, the Deputy Mayor, Mr. Çela, recommended them to submit these requests to the governmental authorities. “We are in a year of crisis”. That was the phrase Mr. Çela repeated several times with the Educational Sector representatives. According to him, even the central government has not allocated more than 3 per cent of the state budget; therefore the Municipality will not take into consideration the request of school directors for an increase of the annual budget for education.

The CPII Executive Director, Gerti Shella, compared the figure of 6 per cent foreseen in the draft budget to a miserable mark. “The students of Durrës are making hard efforts to reach 10 and not 6 even at a time of crisis”, said Mr. Shella. Almost all other participating representatives of the Municipal Council expressly stated that the figure of 6 per cent is insufficient for the educational needs in Durrës and that all potential efforts will be made to increase it in the final budget to be approved by the  Municipal Council after a couple of days. “A qualitative education cannot be realized without a qualitative budget”, said the Head of the Municipal Council, Indrit Hamiti, leaving open the challenge with the left-wing administration of Durrës Municipality. He has urgently required the publication of the draft budget from the Municipality so as the parties would be widely informed of the projections for various items and find a way through the reduction of unnecessary items, in order to allocate the funds required from the educational directors of Durrës.

This meeting about the education nearly closed a series of important public meetings organized by the Municipal Council with the interested parties in the framework of the discussion of the Draft Budget 2012, before being voted by the Council. Mr. Hamiti extended his acknowledgment for the constructive assistance provided by the Citizens’ Transparency Office, Durrës, which in this context offered a key partnership to the Municipal Council. He emphasized that the Municipal Council will know how to further develop in the future this newly established tradition. The CTO was established by CPII in May 2011, in the frame of a project supported by National Endowment for Democracy.

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