Assessing the Perception Index on Right of Education in the Mother Tongue (Pire) for Different National Minorities in Albania

Abstract

Albanian legislation defines the education of national minorities in their mother tongue as a fundamental constitutional right. The judgment for the realization of this right using PIRE and its indicators evaluated for different national minorities in Albania showed that there are significant differences between them. The Greek, Macedonian, and Armenian minorities perceive the completion of the right to education in the mother tongue qualitatively better than Roma, Serbian, Bulgarian and Egyptian Montenegrin national minorities. Bosnian national minority values the completion of this right at the "Moderate" level. Among the component indicators of the index, citizens perceive legislation, desire and opportunities as the most important. This perception is more pronounced among the Greek, Macedonian, Armenian and Bosnian minorities. Citizens perceive more sensitive effects in the fulfillment of the right to education in the mother tongue generated by the factors: (i) the level of their information about this right and the paths they must follow to fulfill it; (ii) population size of national minority and its distribution in the territory; (iii) the level of use of the mother tongue in family communication; (iv) citizen cooperation and with local government bodies; (v) encouraging private initiatives and (vi) increasing capacities in bilateral and regional cooperation.

Received: 25 February 2024 / Accepted: 21 March 2024 / Published: 23 March 2024