In Moldova’s schools, the subject of political repression must be analyzed in detail so that the new generation knows the terror of the Soviet communist regime, deputy director of “Liviu Deleanu” Theoretical High School Ana Bîtcă, a historian, stated in a public debate hosted by IPN News Agency. According to her, currently, due to the lack of time, students study insufficiently the subject of political repression at history lessons and the introduction of an optional subject on the issue is necessary.
The historian noted that the history textbooks now do not exhaustively reflect the darkest page in the existence of contemporary Moldovan society – the mass repression committed by the former Soviet communist system. Therefore, it was decided to introduce an optional discipline dedicated to the study of repression.
“The objective is to bring students much more comprehensive information than what we have in the basic textbooks. According to the national curriculum, at the History of Romanians and Universal History, we talk about deportations, repression, organized famine, but we are limited by time and we talk about these things at a small number of hours. The information provided at classes is quite limited compared to what we propose in the optional course. A lot depends on the classes in which these subjects are taught. Some of the classes are more open. They perceive this topic properly because the themes related to repression also have a strong emotional impact. The audience must be adapted, mature so as to perceive the information. Students are told about repression during about four hours a year,” stated Ana Bîtcă.
According to the historian, a new optional discipline is needed in order to cultivate the civic spirit among the young generation and the complex understanding of the phenomenon of political repression.
“Through children, through the new generation, we also seek to educate those who are at home - parents, relatives, the community with which children communicate. We want those who are around the school - because we educate not only children, but also society in general - to better know what happened, to know the forms of repression, to realize that the Communist regime was a totalitarian regime, a regime in which repression was the order of the day. By educating and informing children, we want them to be aware of what happened and not allow such things to happen anymore. If we know what happened, we will intend not to repeat the mistakes of the past,” explained the doctor in history.
Ana Bîtcă also said that, in recent years, the subject of political repression has been intensively examined by historians, with numerous studies and books with accounts of victims of repression being published. The information available on this topic will be systematized and taught to students so that they are familiar with the lessons of the past.
“In the optional subject, for which we proposed the curriculum, we suggest to extensively analyze the events. Project-based research is an important thing on which we insist. We proposed a multitude of topics that can be treated by children in the research process. This will develop in children the ability to distinguish truth from falsehood, students’ ability to understand democratic culture, to understand that what happened must not be repeated. In order not to repeat the mistakes, we need to know them. The teaching material is sufficient and effective to be systematized. We have seen that an increasing number of researchers publish materials that they obtain based on interviews, research,” said the historian.
The public debate entitled “The role of History in forming the person and modernizing society” was the 29th installment of IPN’s project “Impact of the Past on Confidence and Peace Building Processes”, which is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.
