1920s, the period when the real foundations of the modern
Albanian state were laid, education made considerable progress. In 1933
the Albanian Royal Constitution was amended, making the teaching and
educating of citizens an exclusive right of the state. Education was
thus nationalized, and all foreign-language schools, except the American
Agricultural School, were either closed or nationalized. The reason for
this move was to stop the rapid spread of schools sponsored directly by
the Italian government, especially among the Catholic element in the
north.

The nationalization of schools was followed in 1934 by a far-reaching
reorganization of the whole school system. The new system provided for
obligatory elementary education from the ages of four to fourteen; the
expansion of secondary schools of various kinds; the establishment of
new technical, vocational, and commercial secondary schools; and the
acceleration and expansion of teacher training. The obligatory
provisions of the 1934 reorganization law, however, were never enforced
in the rural areas because of the economic conditions of the peasants
who needed their children to work in the fields and because of the lack
of schoolhouses, teachers, and means of transportation.

The only minority schools operating in the country before World War II
were those for the Greek minority of about 35,000 living in the
prefecture of Gjirokaster. These schools too were closed by the
constitutional amendment of 1933, but Greece referred the case to the
International Permanent Court of Justice, which forced Albania to reopen
the schools.

There was no university-level education in prewar Albania. All advanced
studies were pursued abroad. Every year the state granted a number of
scholarships to deserving high school graduates who were economically
unable to continue their education. But the largest number of students
were from well-to-do families and thus privately financed. For instance,
in the 1936/37 academic year, only 65 of the 428 students attending
universities abroad had state scholarships. The great majority of the
students attended Italian universities because of geographic proximity
and because of the special relationship between the Rome and Tirana
governments. The Italian government itself, following its policy of
political, economic, military, and cultural penetration of the country,
granted a number of scholarships to Albanian students recommended by its
legation in