New York City schools offer instruction in numerous languages and on Thursday — in what officials said was a first in the US — Albanian was added to the list.
There are 60,000 residents of Albanian heritage living in New York state, more than any other state, according to a 2015 Harvard Center for International Development study.
More than half reside in New York City, with the largest enclaves located in the Bronx neighborhoods of Pelham Parkway, Morris Park, Bedford Park and Belmont.
PS 105 in Morris Park will be home to the first dual Albanian-English instructional program. Bronx Councilman Mark Gjonaj, a second-generation Albanian, said he’s proud to have worked on getting the new program.
The DOE will also open new programs teaching Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, French, Italian, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Urdu./New York Post
