The Coordination Center for Countering Violent Extremism, in cooperation with the Institute for Activism and Change, organized at the Security Academy the certification ceremony of new school security officers on the training received within the program “To identify the first signs of violent extremism by school security officers”. This program is being implemented by the Institute for Activism and Change in cooperation with the Coordination Center for Countering Violent Extremism, the State Police and with the support of the Ministry of Education and Sports.

So far, 203 security officers have been trained from all schools in Albania, through the announcements of each DPAP/ZVA – under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Sports. For this purpose, a Manual has been prepared for use by school security officers. The entire structure of school security officer professionals has been trained in full days of training with a curriculum prepared by senior experts of the Coordination Center for Countering Violent Extremism, the Ministry of Education and Sports, the State Police, the State Agency for Children’s Rights and Protection, security experts, etc. Each training session was followed by testing the knowledge gained in the training.

The Director of the Coordination Center for Countering Violent Extremism, National Coordinator, Mrs. Lejdi Dervishi, Rector of the Ilirjan Mandro Security Academy, representatives of the Ministry of Education and Sports, Mrs. Iva Beliu Ademi, representatives of the OSCE presence in Tirana, civil society and media etc attended the closing ceremony.

The theoretical approach to training is accompanied by the presentation of concrete cases and their discussion by the participants themselves. After each training, a report was compiled, the findings and recommendations of which were agreed upon by all actors present in cooperation with the Coordination Center for Countering Violent Extremism, the State Police, the Security Academy and with the support of the Ministry of Education and Sports.

In her welcoming speech, the director of the CVE Center, Mrs. Lejdi Dervishi emphasized the role of the security officer in pre-university education institutions in Albania as a very important link in identifying and preventing cases of radicalism and violent extremism in academic settings. In its national coordinating role, the Coordinating Center for Countering Violent Extremism has given specific importance to the multi-sectoral approach to each reported concern or case.

This program was financially supported by the US Embassy in Tirana, as well as valuable partnership and support from the OSCE Presence in Tirana.