Migen Qiraxhi, a member of the Civil Resistance, said for Euronews Albania that a recent study conducted by them showed that a considerable number of students have faced problems with internet access during online teaching, while 49% of them say it is not an efficient method.

Qiraxhi compared it to the system of Kosovo, which took only three days to get adopted to the new online teaching system. He says that universities had enough time to carry out projects in Albania, but they did nothing.

“We were unprepared in April, but now the pandemic is no longer a surprise. Universities should have found the time and the financial means to make online teaching possible. Kosovo adopted within three days. we haven‘t heard any concrete measures except for declarations”, he said.

The activist said that despite the possibilities, online teaching has increased the financial costs for students. Not only they paid a full fee for an academic year that operated only in half, but they also had to buy technologic equipment to access online teaching. For this reason, he thinks it is within their right to demand lower fees.

“I think students should use protests to demand lower tuition fees since universities are not addressing this issue”, Qiraxhi said.

Just two years ago, students launched a large protest which grew bigger each day, in front of the Ministry of Education. They demanded better conditions at school and in dormitories, which forced the government to sign a pact. One year after the pact the government had started some improvement projects for dorms and other promises made through that pact, but many students claimed that many of the promises were not kept.