In the 1945-56 period, that is, before the founding of the State University of Tirana, the government sent a number of students to pursue their education in the Soviet-bloc countries, mostly the Soviet Union. When the break came with Moscow in 1961, all students were either expelled or withdrawn from all these countries. According to documents published by the Tirana government after the break, at the beginning of the 1961/62 academic year there were 1,213 Albanian students already enrolled in Soviet institutions, and an additional 100 were to enroll during that academic year. They were all expelled by the Soviets except for a few who asked for and obtained political asylum. In 1970 an unknown number of students were attending schools in the People's Republic of China (Communist China), and a few in Romania and Italy.

Table 5. Summary of Educational Institutions, Pupils, and Teachers in Albania, for Selected Years

1938/391950/511960/611967/68
Primary and Secondary Education
Schools 649 2,222 2,990 3,597
Pupils55,404 172,831 290,728 455,557
Teachers 1,477 4,942 9,071 16,758
Secondary Professional Schools
Schools 5 17 34 25
Pupils 879 4,818 14,105 21,005
Teachers 34 171 511 638
Normal Schools
Schools (3) (8) (11) (5)
Pupils (675) (2,525) (5,591) (2,708)
Teachers (18) (61) (200) (115)
Technical Schools
Schools (2) (9) (23) (20)
Pupils (204) (2,253) (8,514) (18,297)
Teachers (16) (110) (311) (522)
Higher Education
Institutes— 1 6 6
Students— 304 6,703 12,436
Professors and assistants— 13 288 606
All Educational Systems*
Schools 654 22,240 3,030 3,628
Pupils and students56,283 177,953 311,536 498,997
Teachers and instructors 1,511 5,126 10,942 18,001
* The lower vocational schools are not included.
Source: Adapted from Vjetari Statistikor i R. P. Sh., 1967-68, Tirana, 1968, p. 115.

The chain of command in the organization of the educational system in 1970 ran from the Party Politburo to the education sections in the district people's councils. The Politburo set the general policy guidelines and directives. In 1968 the Politburo created a Central Commission on Education attached to the Central Committee and headed by Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu. The commission's function was to elaborate the Politburo's directives on reforming the school system. When Mehmet Shehu submitted the report on behalf of the commission to the plenum of the Central Committee in June 1969 concerning the reorganization of the school system, it was decided to continue the commission for an indefinite period.

A more permanent body in the Party's Central Committee was the Directorate of Education and Culture, headed by Nexhmije Hoxha, wife of Party First Secretary Enver Hoxha. This body, guided by the directives prescribed by the Politburo, supervised the Ministry of Education and Culture in implementing the Party's ideological and political guidelines.

Table 6. Students Attending Higher Institutes in Albania
(academic year 1967/68)

Total Number of StudentsFull-Time Students
TotalFemaleTotalFemale
State University of Tirana
Faculties
Economics 1,275 271 437 137
Geology 255 10 255 10
History and Philology 1,944 701 984 462
Engineeering 1,259 1391,102 120
Law 504 62 163 29
Medicine 1,034 3781,034 378
Natural Sciences 1,683 5291,262 440
Total 7,9542,0905,2371,576
Higher Agricultural Institute
Faculties
Agronomy 1,234 62 839 58
Forestry 174 10 150 8
Veterinary 324 23 324 23
Total 1,732 951,313 89
Higher Institute of Arts 239 60 232 60
Higher Institute of Physical Culture 191 39 169 37
Two-Year Higher Institute of Pedagogy, Tirana 1,113 458 331 140
Two-Year Higher Institute of Pedagogy, Shkoder 1,206 446 859 316
Grand Total12,4353,1888,1412,218
Source: Adapted from Vjetari Statistikor i R. P. Sh., 1967-1968, Tirana, 1968, p. 125.

The Ministry of Education and Culture was responsible for executing Party policies and for administering the whole school system. It had education sections in all the district people's councils, which administered and, through their inspectors, controlled the teachers and the teaching programs. Party control at all levels was exercised either directly by the Party's basic organizations, as was the case in the higher institutes, or through the branches of the Union of Albanian Working Youth, the Party's most powerful front organization. The majority of the teachers in secondary schools and higher institutes were Party members.

By the beginning of 1970 the regime seemed to have scored substantial progress in the field of education. Illiteracy had been reduced considerably, if not actually eliminated. Through an intensive program to train elementary and secondary school teachers, build schoolhouses, and make schooling obligatory up to the eighth grade, the government had enabled all the country's children to obtain some kind of rudimentary education. It had also instituted a system of higher education and had founded the first university in the history of the country and was thus no longer dependent on foreign universities to train people in the various professions. It had also instituted a widespread network of professional and vocational schools intended to train badly needed technicians and skilled workers.

The whole education network, however, was a one-track system geared to serve the ideological and political objectives of the Party. The Party, through the Central Commission on Education and the Directorate of Education and Culture, both attached to the Party's Central Committee, controlled every facet of the school system: programs, curricula, administration, teaching staffs, and funds. The schools, students, teachers, and professors were so organized as to form a monolithic establishment centrally directed and completely immersed in Marxism-Leninism.