TIRANA, August 1 /ATA/ Over 250 teachers from more than 20 countries around the world came together for the pan-national workshop with Albanian language and culture teachers in the Diaspora.
This year had the highest participation ever, which testifies to a greater interest and institutional commitment to teaching the Albanian language in the Diaspora.
The workshop, organized by the Ministry of Education and Sports of Albania and the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation of Kosovo, this year is held under the theme “Albanian language and Albanian culture in the Digital Age”, emphasizing the challenges and opportunities that technology brings to teaching abroad.
Minister of Education and Sports Ogerta Manastirliu praised in her remarks to the meeting the great missionary role that Albanian language teachers have in our schools in the Diaspora.
“This workshop is an active platform among you to promote, preserve, and inherit our beautiful Albanian language. What we see is that our network of teachers in the Diaspora is one that is strengthening and growing every year, and this year we have more teachers in this workshop than the year before. You are missionaries who have chosen to work hard to inherit our beautiful Albanian language to children in the Diaspora,” said Minister Manastirliu.
Minister Manastirliu also highlighted the concrete steps that have been taken this year to strengthen the role of teachers in the Diaspora:
“We will continue to support a program that is proving successful and that we have started piloting with Albanian language teachers for Greece, where there are already 50 or 80 teachers who are also financially supported for teaching Albanian to children in Greece. We can extend this program to other countries. Another great support for teachers, but also for students, are the common textbooks that we are multiplying year after year. We have the opportunity today to have common, unified textbooks for teaching cycles up to the 9th grade.”
Minister Manastirliu also said that the focus will also be on continuing training for teachers in the Diaspora.
“Our focus will be on Albanian language teachers in the Diaspora, so that you not only have the ongoing training and education to meet all the standards that teachers must have for continuous qualifications. Therefore, in the Professional Development Program 2026–2028, the Ministry of Education and Sports has designed a special component that will be ongoing education for Diaspora teachers,” stated Manastirliu.
The pan-national workshop for the Diaspora teachers has been held annually since 2007, with the support of Albanian government, and has helped build a strong network of teachers working abroad to preserve the Albanian language and identity. /m.q//r.e//a.f/p.s./
