In Korça, in the house where the patriot Diamant Terpo lived, the first Albanian school was opened; today, it is the “National Museum of Education.” The First School in the Albanian language, or as it was then called, “Mësonjëtorja e Parë Shqipe,” was opened with permission from the Ottoman Empire. The patriot from Korça, Diamant Terpo, donated this apartment for the Albanian school. The first Albanian school of Korça was not dependent on or financed by any foreign state or society. It was opened, financed and supported by the people and the Albanian diaspora communities. From the first day, 35 students enrolled in this school. Their number grew and in the second year, it reached 200. It was a secular and national primary school, where all lessons were taught in Albanian. Turkish was taught as a foreign language; French was later introduced. As textbooks were used those which were prepared by Naim Frashëri, Sami Frashëri, etc., and printed and sent free of charge from the Albanian colony of Bucharest. The opening of the Korça national school aroused enthusiasm among patriots inside and outside the country. The outstanding poet of the Renaissance, Naim Frashëri, while greeting the school opened in Korça, wrote full of inspiration: “Hapu, hapu errësirë, / Pa jakë tëhu o dritë! / Se arriti koh’ e mirë, / U gdhi nata u bë ditë… / Lumja ti, moj Korç’ o lule! / Qe i le pas shoqet e tua / Si trimi në ball’ u sule, / Ta paçim për jetë hua!”. The opening of the Korça school became an incentive for the opening of other schools in different provinces of Albania. (In the photo: Exterior view of the first Albanian School “Mësonjëtorja”, 1899.)
Text: The history of the Albanian people – Vol. II , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Toena”, Tirana, 2002, page 251-252.
Photo: © Xhoxhi L., personal archive
Graphic processing: AHCF
