The Government’s decision to create 35 model schools and encourage parents to enroll their children at these schools is meant to improve the quality of education in the Republic of Moldova. According to Minister of Education and Research Dan Perciun, the initiative to invest in model schools does not mean that the other institutions will be abandoned by the authorities. A possible decision to close particular schools that remain with few students will belong to district councils, which are the founding entities of educational institutions, IPN reports.
The official noted that a network of 35 model schools will be set up by 2025. Seventy buses will be purchased to take children mainly to the schools of this network.
“We continue to invest in all educational institutions, but from the angle of our strategy, to ensure access to high-quality education and given that in small schools, in rural areas, seven out of ten children are functionally illiterate, for the sake of these children we believe that we must ensure their access to better education. We can do this by providing them with an institution nearby, equipped according to European standards, a bus, a financial incentive, and from 2025 we will make effort to provide them with free food,” Dan Perciun stated in the program “Resumé with Ileana Pîrgaru” on RliveTV channel.
The minister admits that some of the rural schools will remain with few students, but says that a possible decision as to the closing if these institutions will be taken by district councils.
“It will depend on the decision of district councils because they are the founders of schools. They will be able to choose between continuing to fund that format or possibly reorganizing the institutions. It will be a political decision at the level of district councils. Each situation must be treated individually. If we have an educational institution with ten students and there is a good institution 5 kilometers away, where there are teachers for all subjects and this was recently renovated, children can see an interactive whiteboard there and there is computing equipment, I, as a parent, would opt for my children to travel 5 kilometers by bus to get to that educational institution rather than study in an institution where there are no teachers of biology, physics, chemistry. What we can do is to create certain incentives for people to make decisions, I hope in the interests of their children,” said the minister of education and research.
According to the official, parents who agree to transfer their children to model schools will receive a monthly allowance of 1,000 lei. The money will also contribute to poverty reduction.
“We offer this money to convince them to make this decision. Possibly, there will be other costs incurred. We are aware that children from these localities usually come from socially vulnerable families and we believe that under any scenario, 1,000 lei per month will not be lost and will also contribute to reducing poverty among children. From our point of view, this financial incentive has two roles - to facilitate this transition and to supplement the family budget for whatever needs the child may have,” explained Dan Perciun.
