ASH: None of the 13 teachers named the best for 2025/2026 is Albanian

The Alliance for Albanians has expressed concern over the lack of Albanian representatives on the list of the best teachers for the 2025/2026 school year. It issued its reaction on World Teachers’ Day, emphasizing that none of the 13 teachers named for this distinction was Albanian.

According to the ASH statement, the list also includes teachers from Tetovo and Gostivar, areas where large numbers of Albanian students and teachers live and work. The party has raised doubts that the absence of Albanians from the list can be explained merely as a coincidence.

“When Albanians are consistently absent from lists for selection, awards and advancement, this is not an isolated case, but a dangerous pattern of institutional exclusion,” the ASH statement says.

The party also drew a comparison with the admission of students to the Secondary Police School. According to ASH, of the 310 students admitted, only nine were Albanian.

ASH is calling on the Ministry of Education and Science to make public the selection criteria, the candidates’ scores and the composition of the commission that decided on the distribution of these awards.

“Albanians are not asking for gifts or privileges. They are simply asking for a state that sees them, values them and treats them equally,” the statement further emphasizes.

The Alliance for Albanians has also called for a response from the Albanian political representatives in the government. The party asks them how long they will continue to remain silent, as it puts it, in the face of repeated cases in which Albanians are absent from institutional selections.