Census 2023/ Students attending pre-university education are 9.3% less than they were registered

The 2023 Census data revealed that the number of individuals +6 years old attending pre-university education was 317,213 students, while in the same school year (2023-2024) INSTAT, referred to the Ministry of Education, reported that 349,827 students attended pre-university education +6 years old .

The number of students attending education from the first grade to the completion of secondary school was about 27 thousand students less or 9.3% lower than the official figure that was referred to at the beginning of the academic year.

The data of Cens 2023 have shown a drastic decrease in the number of students in schools. For example, INSTAT reported that in the academic year 2023-2024, more than 258,000 students attended 9-year education, while according to the 2023 Census, this level of education was attended by about 231,000 students.

Also Cens referred that at the moment when the survey was conducted, only 86 thousand people were attending secondary education, while according to official data, in the academic year 2023-2024, 91 thousand students were enrolled in secondary education, or about 5 thousand less than official registration data.

Census data shows that basic education is either facing dropouts, or the Ministry of Education has reported inflated data on the number of children enrolled.

Unlike the previous censuses, INSTAT has not yet published the population living in rural areas with the 2023 Census data, but the reality shows that hundreds of schools in rural areas of the country have more teachers than students.

The number of students in schools has declined rapidly in recent decades as a result of high immigration and declining births, but the number of teachers has not kept pace.

The improvement of the student-teacher ratio has not affected the improvement of students' skills.

Reforms in education in recent years did not serve to improve quality, referring to the results of the global test of knowledge of 15-year-olds "Pisa 2022" where Albania saw the biggest drop in results compared to the 2018 test.

In the school year 2023-24, the number of teachers in 9-year education is 24,109, among whom 78.0% are women.

The pupil-teacher ratio in public primary education is 15.1 and in private primary education is 15.2. While in the higher cycle of 9-year education, the student-to-teacher ratio in public education is 7.9 and in private education 8.0.

The number of teachers in higher secondary education is 8,307, of which 69.6% are women. The student-to-teacher ratio in upper secondary education is 11.5 in public education and 9.1 in private education./MONITOR