Following the official launch of the pilot exercise, an EDURES Enlarged Working Group, composed of the relevant stakeholders at local and national level, met in Durrës and Tirana on 4-5 July to contextualise the EDURES toolkit for the Albanian context. These workshops, which brought together educational policy makers, representatives of local authorities from Durrës and Tirana, the Albanian Red Cross, and the National Civil Protection Agency, facilitated by the Council of Europe experts from the International Institute of Sociology in Gorizia (ISIG), Italy, aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of the EDURES components, including the Conceptual Framework and the Handbook, and to tailor these tools to fit the specific needs of the Albanian educational context.

The first day was dedicated to an in-depth presentation of the EDURES toolkit. Participants engaged in a detailed analysis of the challenges and strengths within the Albanian education ecosystem, focusing on the six principles of Resilience for Education as outlined by the Council of Europe.  On the second day, the participants, who met at the Sami Frashëri high school in Tirana, formed the focus working groups, each of which addressed one of the EDURES benchmark dimensions: Environment, Infrastructure, Society, Economy, and Governance. The session concluded with a plenary discussion where general observations were shared, and feedback was collected by the Council of Europe Tirana Office.

This activity is being implemented within the pilot phase of the Council of Europe’s Toolkit on Education in times of emergencies and crisis, developed to support the implementation of the Resolution of the Council of Europe’s Ministers of Education. The EDURES is being piloted by the Council of Europe’s Education Department and the pilot schools involved within the project “Strengthening Democratic Citizenship Education in Albania"*, with the support of experts from the International Institute of Sociology (ISIG), Albanian experts and education stakeholders.

*The Council of Europe’s project “Strengthening Democratic Citizenship Education in Albania” is financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).