Students and school staff of the elementary pilot school “Fan Noli” in Tirana presented on 30 October a programme on the occasion of their Anti-Bullying Open Day, which focuses on the concept of bullying and its consequences in students’ lives.

The Deputy Minister of Education, Sport and Youth, Mr. Shpat Kolgega who attended the Open Day underlined the importance of implementing this project in 21 pilot schools in Albania and the crucial role of community engagement as well as school-parents-students cooperation to tackle bullying in schools.

The Director for Pre-University Education, Mrs Zamira Gjini emphasised that these awareness-raising activities organised in 21 pilot schools in Albania as part of the European Union/Council of Europe Horizontal Facility Action “Fighting bullying and extremism in the education system in Albania” are a very effective way on improving knowledge of educational professionals and pupils on what bullying is, how it impacts life of children, what its consequences are and how to jointly prevent it.

The Project Officer of the Action, Ms Delina Cici, highlighted the need to create a new school culture based on human rights and democracy to eradicate bullying from schools, underlining the importance of active community engagement of different stakeholders in the fight against violence and bullying in school.

The day’s activity included painting exhibitions, student essays, recitals on human rights, poems, songs and class discussions. Paintings and messages by students of all grades were hung in each classroom.

From 17 to 31 October, 21 pilot schools all over Albania opened their doors to parents and the local community to inform and raise their awareness on the consequences of bullying and extremism in schools and ways to prevent it.

Each pilot school has planned to organise a number of different activities on conveying the general message that bullying and extremist behaviour is not tolerated among peers in school. Informative sessions with teachers, students and parents, showing films about bullying, street parades against bullying, talking with local media about these issues, open debates, artistic events and performances are some of the activities that took place during the open days in 21 pilot schools across Albania.