The number of women with at least one child of preschool age on the labor market of Moldova is considerably low. As the school and preschool education institutions were closed during the pandemic, the number of working mothers declined further. Therefore, the Center “Partnership for Development” (CPD) reiterates the necessity of creating alterative childcare services by companies.

Contacted by IPN for details, Alina Andronache, PR specialist of the CPD, said the call by which the authorities are urged to take measures to support families with children is an initiative that comes after a two-year analysis of the possibilities of extending crèche services, including by facilitating the opening of alternative child care services by employers so that the parents with children could work. The analysis was carried out in connection with the changes made to the legislation in 2018, by which the authorities undertook to enroll children in the education system from the age of two.

The CPD suggests four options that can be implemented easier. “We should start with particular concessions so that the employers are motivated to lay out areas for raising the children,” stated Alina Andronache. The Tax Code should be amended so that the costs for organizing and running these centers are made fiscally deductible. The fiscal stimulation measures will encourage the employers to use such a legal mechanism.

Alina Andronache noted that such day centers will first of all benefit the child who will be integrated into the education system at an early age and will be able to socialize and to develop psycho-emotionally. The regulation requirements for day centers managed by the employer will be in line with the child health, hygiene and education standards.

“We initiated a dialog, but things are delayed. We consider that if there is openness from all the ministries, things will move on. In the discussions staged by the CPD, we saw that the private sector is flexible and open to this initiative.”

The CPD recommends developing the national legal framework concerning the opening of private early education services, simplifying the technical procedures for founding an early education institution, reviewing and adjusting the standard regulations on the organization and running of early education institutions and of the sanitary regulations for such institutions or working out new regulations that would contain simplified technical and sanity requirements for day centers, etc.