MJAFT Was Prohibited from Meeting the Students

MJAFT

09 November 2006

The Chancellor of the University of Agriculture shuts the doors of the auditoriums saying that he was ordered to do so by the minister of education.

Last Friday, November 3, MJAFT! Movement planned to hold a debate with the students of the University of Agriculture to discuss the amended Law on Education. MJAFT had obtained the necessary permission and complied to all requirements. However, the Chancellor of the University closed the doors to MJAFT, and explained that he has received orders to that effect by Genc Pollo, Albanian Minister of Education.

The same thing happened two days ago at the University of Elbasan where the Chancellor, intimidated by the pressure of the Minister, prohibited the activists of this movement to access the university premises and forced them to hold the meeting outside the auditorium.

�We are holding this conference to report and denounce a phenomenon which tends to censure the free expression and to centralize the power. We have noticed this inclination in the ratification of a series of draft laws where the interest groups have been marginalized, being, thus, out of the decision making process. We are sorry to notice that that the same tendency is used in the process of the draft law sanctioning on the higher education�, said Olta Xhacka, MJAFT Policy Coordinator.

MJAFT holds the opinion that one of the major actors in decision taking process of the universities should be the students, but all of them and not just those who adhere to the political forums organized by the party in power. For this reason the Movement has organized a series of meetings in a number of university campuses.

�The activists of MJAFT Movement are pulled in by the police without reason, whatsoever. On the other hand, yesterday we were prohibited from entering the international cultural centre. The same thing is happening in the universities� facilities, thus denying the students their right to freedom of expression which is one of the basic human rights,� said Xhacka.

On behalf of MJAFT she urged Minister Pollo not to censure the media and the free debate but to promote the constructive discussion so that the draft-Law on Higher Education is improved. She also demanded from Pollo to include the students in the process of informing and decision making about the draft.

MJAFT also demanded that the draft law about the higher education be revised because it restricts the promised autonomy of the universities and it does not standardize the contemporary criteria to build up a European model for the higher education just as the principles of the declaration of Bologna requires.