“77 security officers certified…”, “112 officers added to schools…”, “Number of officers increases…” – these are headlines that have become commonplace in the Albanian media in recent years. The announcements are repeated, while the process of adding and certifying security officers in schools has been ongoing for several years.
In May 2025, Education Minister Ogerta Manastirliu declared that the number of security officers in schools would reach 400.
By March 2026, according to current Minister Mirela Kumbaro, there are 329 active security officers in the system.
At the same time, the pre-university system numbers 1498 schools.
Minister Kumbaro stated that the expansion of this network remains linked to public funding, emphasizing that: "in the 2026 budget we have increased the number of funded positions and the process of recruiting candidates for security officers continues."
Legal framework
The Council of Ministers' decision of April 2025 sets out the criteria for the distribution of security officers in schools, depending on the size of the institution.
According to this DCM, secondary and vocational schools with over 80 students must have at least 1 security officer, while basic education schools are included when they have over 350 students.
For institutions with over 900 students, the presence of 2 officers is foreseen, while for vocational education this threshold is set at 700 students.
Planning VS Execution
According to the audit of the Supreme State Audit Office, published in 2025, the process of increasing security officers has shown a continuous discrepancy between planning and implementation on the ground.
The project started in 2018 as a pilot in 15 high schools and expanded to 150 schools within the same year. In the following years, the planned number of officers has increased, but has not been met:
In the 2021-2022 school year, 150 officers were planned, while 131 were on duty.
In 2022-2023, the plan increased to 222, while the actual number was 201.
In 2023-2024, 222 remained planned, but 202 were in office.
By December 2024, the plan reached 276, while 212 officers were registered in the field.
At the end of 2024, dozens of vacant positions remained unfilled.
Ongoing certifications
In parallel with the expansion of the scheme, successive training and certification cycles for security officers have been developed, with dozens and hundreds of candidates involved each year.
Only some of these cycles are certified:
-128 security officers in December 2022
-114 security officers in January 2023
-77 security officers in May 2025
-112 security officers in October 2025
SAI
According to the audit of the Supreme State Audit Office, the increase in the number of certified persons has not been accompanied by a similar increase in the number of officers employed in schools.
The report highlights that the recruitment process has proven ineffective and has often failed to fill vacant positions.
The report notes that "those certified as security officers do not show interest in being employed in this position."
In some recruitment procedures, no candidates applied for vacant positions, while in other cases the number of applicants was significantly lower than that of trainees.
The audit links this phenomenon to factors such as the geographical distribution of jobs, lack of position stability, and salary levels.
Voices from the field
Evidence from the field is consistent with the findings of the KLSH report. In a previous article, Faktoje.al also highlighted the pressure, lack of independence, and limited working conditions of security officers.
A security officer at a 9-year school in Tirana says that, for a limited number of job positions, many more candidates are put through training than the system really needs, and, in the end, only a portion of them are hired, while the rest are left out.
According to her, this diminishes interest in this role, especially when the salary does not match the workload and responsibility of the job.
Officer training expert Erinda Bllaca also expresses the same opinion, according to which hundreds of candidates have been trained over the years, but not all have been absorbed by the system.
She says that some remain on the waiting list for long periods, while new training cycles open in the meantime, which shows that the certification process has not been accompanied by the same pace of employment.
Violence in schools
The KLSH audit for the period 2021-2024 directly links this policy to the level of incidents in schools. According to the report, in this interval the following were identified:
892 cases of physical violence
333 cases of psychological violence
186 cases of bullying
178 cases of threats and blackmail
133 cases of substance use
This data, along with violent incidents in schools in recent years, reflects an ongoing problem of safety in school environments.
The Durrës case in December 2025, where 15-year-old Erion Boba lost his life after a conflict between minors, the murder of 14-year-old Martin Cani at the 9-year-old "Fan Noli" school in Tirana by a peer, the conflict with serious consequences in Kamëz near the "Ibrahim Rugova" school, or other incidents involving the use of cold weapons among minors, have repeatedly brought the issue of safety in schools back to the forefront.
conclusion
The process of increasing and certifying security officers has continued for several years, supported by legal changes and continuous training cycles.
The data shows that while the number of certified candidates has increased, their engagement in the field has remained limited, with a noticeable difference between the planned and those covered in practice, consequently categorizing it as a partially kept promise. /Faktoje.al/
