The education institutions of Chisinau this year planned 8,913 places as part of 329 first-grade classes, but the number of applications to register children in the first grade this year is by over 1,000 higher than the available places. Officials of the Education, Youth and Sport Division assure they will identify solutions so that all the children are enrolled. There could be also opened new classes.

Contacted by IPN for a comment, deputy mayor of Chisinau Angela Kutasevici said such a development is primarily due to urbanization. “An increasing number of parents come from suburban settlements and bring their children to the city. There is also another aspect. The parents have by two domicile addresses. In this case, we have the situation when the mother enrolls the child in one district, while the father in another district and they wait to see where the child was admitted. There are not many such situations, but they exist,” stated the functionary, noting some of the institutions have available places and those who do not have a place elsewhere are asked to go there.

Angela Kutasevici noted the age of children is the key criterion on admission. The children must have turned seven. If the children didn’t attend kindergarten, they are subject to a cognitive, psycho-emotional and motric assessment at the Psycho-socio-pedagogical Center to determine their school maturity.

The number of applications to have children registered in the first grade submitted by parents online through escoala.chisinau.md on July 20 stood at 9,881. The second stage of submissions continues until August 28.