Ida Ismail
The emerging theses, the missing responsibility, and a lost generation.
Every June, the State Matura exams take place, a key moment for young people, which directly affects their further educational and professional journey. But this moment, which was once seen as a symbol of effort and merit, as the crowning achievement of the efforts of students and teachers, is today turning into a farce.
Reason?
The continuous decline in the number of high school graduates, the regular publication of theses on social networks, the lack of responsibility and the collapse of any standards
In 2015, over 45 thousand high school graduates took the exams. Today, in 2025, there are only 27 thousand. So, 18 thousand fewer high school graduates in a decade, a decline that clearly speaks to the demographic crisis, mass emigration, and school dropout.
High schools, in cities but also in the capital, are facing empty classrooms. And those that remain, more and more often, are seen by students from abroad. Like Adela, the high school senior who says:
"I'm thinking of studying law abroad. Here I see corruption and lack of justice."
PISA: Albania at the bottom of the class
The results of the international PISA test (2022) confirm the crisis. Albania ranks among the countries with the lowest performance in Europe in all core subjects:
Reading: 58% of students do not reach the minimum level of text comprehension.
Mathematics: 74% are below basic level.
Science: Over half fail to understand basic concepts.
This is the real picture of the education system. And when organized cheating in the Matura exam is added to this picture, the picture becomes sad.
In the last three years (2023, 2024, 2025), exam papers have been leaked online just minutes after the test began. This year (2025), they circulated on social media just 20 minutes after the test began.
Etleva Doka, a teacher at the "Petro Nini Luarasi" high school, says with concern:
"If schools give inflated grades and exams cheat, then we no longer have a system that measures knowledge. Cell phones are introduced into many schools. The administrators themselves compromise the process. There are even lists circulating with names that 'need help'."
The Ministry reacts as it does every year: "The process has not been violated"
The Ministry of Education and Sports, after publishing the theses in 2025, repeated the usual refrain:
"The exam was conducted under safe conditions and publication after the start does not affect the result."
A statement that offends public intelligence, when it is clear that the process is compromised from the root.
Ndriçim Mehmeti, an education expert, calls this "daylight robbery" and emphasizes:
"We are dealing with an organized crime between the Ministry, administrators and parents who provide children with more than one cell phone. The Matura has been privatized by a small circle of beneficiaries."
Kolindo Vjerdha from the Civic Center raises a fundamental question:
"Why is no one being punished? We have no one identified. The theses are published, circulated, selected, and distributed. This is not just copying, but a robbery of the future of the students who have learned."
Pedagogist and former Deputy Minister of Education, Nora Malaj, proposes a more advanced model:
"In Europe, personalized tests are used, often developed in-house. Even if they come out, there is no point in copying. We simply do not have the will to do this. Copying has become the system."
This year, the Ministry of Education implemented personalized testing for high school graduates with disabilities for the first time and set up 145 testing centers. 640 teachers were engaged for assessment.
A good step, but one that remains a drop in the ocean in the face of a system that leaves most young people without protection.
The merit system, in free fall
When the exam is no longer a competition, but a bargain, when the result is not related to effort, but to connections, when the honest graduate is penalized and the one who has not learned is rewarded, then the system is no longer educational, but deforming.
The prom is turning into a stage where the actors are the same, but the public's trust will be increasingly lacking as the show continues: "let's lie to ourselves."
