On Tuesday, 28 May 2019,  in premises of the Center for School Leadership was held the workshop: “Towards a reformed school inspection system and standards for school inspectors in Albania”

There were 20 participants in the workshop from the Directory of Curriculum and Inspection in the Pre-university Education (DCIPE), Agency for Quality Assurance in Pre-University Education (AQAPE), General Directorate of Pre-university Education (GDPE), school inspectors and school principals. Workshop was run by the international consultant Anthony John Richardson, with extensive experience in educational leadership. His recent assignments include educational leadership consultancy to the University College London (UCL), Institute of Education and as the lead associate Education Director for the UK National College for Teaching and Leadership, in the international business unit.

The workshop was organized in two sessions:

• The first session addressed questions on the current situation of the inspection system and standards in Albania; strengths and weaknesses; ways of performance measurement and required knowledge/skills for excellent inspector; support and development of school inspectors in order to improve schools’ and overall system’s quality
• Based on the discussions of the first session, the second session aimed to develop recommendations on a) drafting the working standards for the inspectorate; b) guidance framework for school inspection and c) implementation plan which would include proposals for the professional development of the inspectorate as well.

Active discussions and feedback of all participants in the workshop helped assess the current situation of inspection system and standards as well as contributed to developement of recommendations on new standards and their implementation.

This workshop was followed by meetings of Mr. Richardson with representatives of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS); the Agency for Quality Assurance in Pre-University Education (AQAPE); the Albanian-American Development Foundation (AADF), representatives from GDPE as well as with principals of public middle school “Ali Demi” and public high school “Ismail Qemali” of Tirana aiming to discuss on leadership issues and principal’s standards as well.