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The Minister of Education, Mirela Kumbaro, appeared in a parliamentary interpellation following the request of opposition MP Ina Zhupa to clarify an instruction approved in February 2025. This instruction stipulates that teachers graduated before 2011, but employed after this year, must take the license exam.
The debate focused on the impact of this decision on experienced teachers in the system. MP Ina Zhupa criticized the measure, calling it unfair to those with years of work and qualifications acquired over time.
"With one instruction, they remind you and say that after you have been a teacher for 15 years and after you have contributed to education, after you have gone from a qualified teacher to a specialist, when you need to get qualified as a master teacher, they tell you to become a student again and take the license exam," says Zhupa.
Minister Kumbaro argued that the guidance is based on the existing legal framework and does not constitute a fundamental innovation. She referred to the Law on Regulated Professions, in force since January 2011, which sets out the criteria for exercising such professions.
"Articles 7 and 8 of the Law "On Regulated Professions in the Republic of Albania" which entered into force on 12 January 2011, stipulate that a person seeking to exercise a regulated profession must have completed the relevant accredited study programme and/or professional qualifications in that profession, which are certified by official documents, issued within or outside the country and recognised in the Republic of Albania, in accordance with the legislation in force.
"It is also very clearly defined in the law that teachers who were employed in the system before 2011, before the law on regulated professions came into force, are exempt from this obligation! Because the law does not have retroactive effect," said Kumbaro.
The opposition also raised the issue of costs and institutional organization. Zhupa linked the decision to the draft law on the creation of the National Agency for Educational Services and warned of financial consequences for teachers.
"You are destroying the security in the workplace, the acquired right, the legal security of teachers, who are not few, there are 2 thousand teachers. In addition to having to learn, they also have to pay 100 thousand lek for the application. Today we have another point, this educational services center that issues licenses, to be taken over by the private sector. 200 million lek are from this obligation alone. An agreement to enrich themselves at the expense of teachers ," said Zhupa.
In response, Kumbaro explained that the 2025 guideline does not change legal obligations, but refers to them directly and aims for clearer implementation.
"It is important to clarify that this process does not aim to create uncertainty or penalize anyone, but to build a fairer and more sustainable system in the long term. And above all, I want to say it very clearly: no one is being fired! But we are also providing communication and training to those few teachers who have not yet fulfilled this legal obligation, without compromising legal or professional security, which I don't know where you came up with," said Kumbaro.
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