With the educational reforms established by the Minister Mirash Ivanaj, private schools were closed and Stafa moved to the public high school of Shkodër. After the death of his father in 1936, his family moved to Tirana, where he studied at the Tirana Lyceum (subsequently named Qemal Stafa High School).
This sequence of events led to private schools being shut down and Stafa being transferred to Shkodër's public high school. Following his father's death in 1936, Stafa's family moved to Tirana, where he studied at the local lyceum, which would later become Qemal Stafa High School.