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Albanian universities seized by student protests
TIRANA, Dec 7, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Thousands of Albanian students rallied on
Friday for a fourth day of protests demanding lower tuition fees, a hike in
the national education budget and improved campus facilities.
The biggest demonstration was held in the capital Tirana, with other
smaller protests gripping universities in the cities of Korca, Elbasan and
Durres.
Tuition in Albania’s public universities ranges from 160 to 2,560 euros
annually — significant sums in a poor country where the average monthly
salary is around 350 euros.
The student anguish was stoked by a recent government decision to charge
extra fees for re-taking exams.
After several days of protests the government announced it would rescind
the fees.
But that did not stop students from gathering again Friday, with
protesters chanting “A youth who does not protest is a dead youth” outside
the Ministry of Education in Tirana.
“We are students, not customers”, they shouted.
“We are the future of Albania, the authorities must listen to us, we want
tuition fees to be reduced,” Florian Kola, a sociology student, told AFP.
Earlier in the week Prime Minister Edi Rama angered students by writing on
Facebook that taxpayers were footing the bill for those who missed their
first exams.
But on Thursday he tried to highlight investment in education posting a
video showing a 18.8 million euro university campus project that will be
funded with help from Germany. “It’s a project that will become a reality,”
he wrote.
BSS/AFP/RY/1848 hrs