TIRANA, ALBANIA     To improve educational and life opportunities for children, as a part of the Planning and Local Governance Project, USAID partner Tetra Tech is assisting local municipalities take on new responsibilities for the administration and regulation of early childhood education.

 

To prepare municipalities for January 2019, when they become responsible for financing early childhood education, Tetra Tech worked with the GoA’s Ministry of Finance and Economy (MoFE) and the Ministry of Education, Sport and Youth to ensure the transfer of this responsibility from the central government is accompanied by an adequate, transparent, and sustainable financing system.

 

The MoFE will allocate funds primarily based on the number of pupils (versus the current system - based on number of teachers) to better reflect the Albanian legal framework, social, demographic, infrastructure developments of the past 25 years, and international best practices.

 

In the 2019 annual budget proposal, the MoFE increased funding for preschool teachers by 9.1% compared to the previous year. This will allow for the hiring of 440 new preschool teachers for Albania’s 32 municipalities with the most urgent need.