A peer exchange and a joint working group comprised of representatives of the Albanian authorities, Council of Europe experts and Secretariat took place in Vienna on 24-25 April 2024 to exchange views on the recently adopted Council of Europe Education Strategy, the implementation of priorities, including those stemming from the Reykjavik Summit and the CoE-developed toolkit on Education at Times of Emergencies and Crisis with a view to piloting the toolkit in Albania.

The toolkit was developed to support the implementation of the Ministerial Resolution adopted by the Conference of the European Ministers responsible for Education in 2023, to help the member States implement the Six Council of Europe principles aimed at building resilient educational ecosystems, representing the overarching goals of educational systems and communities for policy and actions at all levels of governance, and promoting inclusiveness and the provision of quality education at all times and regardless the type of crisis.

The initial findings from the first pilot that is currently on-going in the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region in Italy were presented by the Council of Europe experts, highlighting the high level of commitment of the regional authorities but also the opportunities that this piloting opened up in initiating new levels of co-operation between the different authorities, private partners and CSOs and, which are also student-lead.

In his remarks, Villano Qiriazi, Head of the Education department emphasised that this work also supports the implementation of the Council of Europe Education Strategy, putting the learners first and that the results of the piloting exercises and experience gained in Albania and in Italy will help improve the toolkit and to adjust it, so that other member States can integrate it easier within their national contexts.

H.E. Ambassador Eglantina Gjermeni highlighted that piloting the toolkit will not only build up more resilient education ecosystems, but, more importantly, will make students more resilient.

The representatives of the Albanian authorities and educational stakeholders confirmed their interest to be a pilot country and the fully fledged piloting is expected to start with the official launching of the pilot in Albania in June 2024, aiming at presenting the results to the CDEDU in 2025.

The implementation of the pilot, mainly funded by the CoE ordinary budget, will also be supported through the framework of the project Strengthening Democratic Citizenship Education in Albania, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) as a part of the action on enhancing the democratic competencies and democratic culture.