Prime Minister Edi Rama participated today in the presentation of the OECD report on the results of TALIS, the Teaching and Learning International Survey, and, as usually happens, the good news came with self-congratulatory notes: Albania among the first countries!
Sounds nice, doesn't it? As nice as "Albania champion in transparency", "Albania pioneer in digitalization", or "Albania regional leader in innovation".
In this case, as always, the problem is not the report, the problem is the interpretation.
TALIS does not measure the quality of education, nor the level of knowledge of students, but rather teachers' perceptions of their work. In other words: it measures the teacher's mood, not the student's knowledge.
If a teacher in Albania feels happy that he manages to teach 40 students in a classroom without heating, without laboratories, and with a salary the size of a European electricity bill — the OECD says “bravo, dedication!”
But the reality outside the PowerPoint charts is more stubborn.
In Albania, there are teachers who face indifference, bureaucracy, and fatigue every day, and yet find the strength to smile in front of their students.
So, yes, we are among the first in TALIS, perhaps because we know how to lie to ourselves more beautifully.
After all, as the people say:
"The village that seems to have no guide."
But when the village burns, it's a little hard to believe that the light you see is the sun of success.
