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Children are dropping out of school due to the VKM, their transportation is not reimbursed

Politiko 2025-06-20 21:30:18

Children are dropping out of school due to the VKM, their transportation is not

A worrying problem was addressed this evening on the investigative show "Fiks Fare", where the focus was on the children of the village of Jubë in Durrës, who risk being left without education due to a lack of transportation.

The parents of 28 students living in the Grykëderdhja e Erzenit area have raised the alarm that since the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year, they have no longer been offered free transportation for their children, a service that they have benefited from for years. The reason? Decision of the Council of Ministers no. 119, dated 01.03.2023. This decision has limited the right to free transportation only to those students who do not have any public educational institution within their administrative unit, regardless of the real distance that the children have to travel every day. In this specific case, the “Juba” school is located about 4 kilometers from the homes of these children, while the “Rinia” school, in the Rinia sector, is located 3 kilometers away, but outside their administrative unit.

Parents, who currently pay 5 thousand lek per month for each child traveling by private van, say that they can no longer afford these costs. “If this situation does not change, the children will either walk or leave school, we have no other choice,” they say with concern. Even the director of the “Rinia” school, Ms. Irdajina Llapushi, has confirmed to Fiksi that this is actually the closest institution for these children. Meanwhile, the Local Educational Office and the Regional Directorate of Education in Durrës state that according to VKM no. 119, these children do not meet the conditions for benefiting from this payment.

DRAP Durrës, in its official response to “Fiksin”, states that students “are not in a position to benefit from the coverage of transportation expenses”, referring to the Decision of the Council of Ministers No. 119, which excludes from the benefit all those students who have a public school in their place of residence even if this school is located more than 2 kilometers away. This means that if a child has a school “formally” in a village or neighborhood, but has to walk 2.5 or even 11 kilometers to reach it, the state does not recognize their right to transportation. Children walk in the rain, on unpaved and unsafe roads, while the authorities turn a blind eye. Worse still, no educational institution, including the Minister of Education himself, has taken the initiative to request a normative act to review this VKM./ Top Channel