In a video message, Rama said Albania had recovered from the decline in student performance caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, after a year of work to address areas identified as needing improvement.

“We have performed better than ever in the PISA 2025 test,” Rama said, referring to the OECD assessment, which measures 15-year-old students’ performance in mathematics, science and reading.

Rama said Albania had made “extraordinary progress” since the pandemic, when education systems around the world suffered setbacks.

“Today we are, in fact, first in the region,” he said, adding that the result reflected the government’s ambition to achieve a leading position in every sector.

Rama said the results were a major achievement not only for the government but also for school principals and teachers responsible for educating children.

He also said the results would provide reassurance to parents, who, he argued, had been subjected to a heavy flow of negative commentary on social media.

Rama described Albania’s School of Directors initiative as a clear success story, linking it to improvements in the country’s education system.

He said Albania had not only made a significant gain in its PISA score but had also overtaken several countries that are now members of the European Union.

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