ere closed by the
Turkish authorities. The advent of the Young Turks movement in 1908
encouraged the Albanian patriots to intensify their national efforts,
and in the same year a group of intellectuals met in Monastir (Bitolj),
Yugoslavia, to formulate an Albanian alphabet. Books written in Albanian
before that date used a mixture of alphabets, consisting mostly of a
combination of Latin, Greek, and Turkish-Arabic letters.

The Monastir meeting developed a unified alphabet based on Latin
letters. As a result, a number of textbooks were written in the new
alphabet, and elementary schools were soon opened in various parts of
the country. In 1909, to meet the demands for teachers able to teach in
the native tongue, a normal school was inaugurated in Elbasan. But in
1910 the Young Turks, fearing the emergence of Albanian nationalism,
closed all schools that used Albanian as the language of instruction.

Even after the country became independent, schools were scarce. The
unsettled political conditions caused by the Balkan wars and World War I
hindered the development of a unified educational system. The foreign
occupying powers, however, opened some schools in their respective areas
of occupation, each using its own language. A few of these schools,
especially the Italian and French, continued after the end of World War
I and played a significant role in introducing Western educational
methods and principles. Of particular importance was the French Lycee in
Korce, founded by the French army in 1817.

Soon after the establishment of a national government in 1920, which
included a Ministry of Education, the foundations were laid for a
national educational system. Elementary schools were opened in the
cities and some of the larger towns, and the Italian and French schools
opened during the war were strengthened. In the meantime, two important
American schools were founded--the American Technical School in Tirana,
established by the American Junior Red Cross in 1921, and the American
Agricultural School in Kavaje, sponsored by the Near East Foundation. An
important girls' school was also founded by Kristo Dako, an
Albanian-American, whose teaching language was English. The two top
leaders of the Country in 1970, Party First Secretary Enver Hoxha and
Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu, were educated in these foreign schools;
Hoxha graduated from the French Lycee in 1930, and Shehu from the
American Technical School in 1932.

In the