Twenty schools will be adjusted to the needs of children with special needs within the World Bank-funded Integration of Children with Disabilities into Mainstream Schools Project, which is managed by the Moldovan Social Investment Fund. The adjustments will be completed by this yearend, it is said in a communique of the Fund, quoted by IPN.

“Ramps and balustrades will be built at these institutions. The sanitary facilities there will also be adjusted. Each child deserves to go to a mainstream school and to enjoy the right to integrate into a general school and into society and to have a better future,” said Mircea Esanu, executive director of the Moldova Social Investment Fund. The schools were chosen by the World Bank Country Office in Moldova and the Fund within an event held to sum up the results of the first stage of the project.

World Bank Country Manager for Moldova Alexander Kremer said that 17,000 children with special needs were integrated into the Moldovan schools, which is about 5% of the total number of students.

The goal of the project is to contribute to the implementation of the National Inclusive Education Development Program for 2011-2020. The project envisions investment in infrastructure, training of teachers and mobilization of communities to deal with the problems of children with disabilities.