Future first graders will receive free primers, as the Ministry of Education bought for the school start 34,000 copies of the famous Abecedar and 8,000 copies of Букварь for Russian-speaking kids.

The Ministry payed 42 lei for each Abecedar and 48 lei for a Букварь, with a grand total of 1.8 million lei.

Valentina Gaiciuc, senior counselor at the Minister, told IPN that the number of children starting school this year is not known exactly yet, as the last enrollment stage is yet to finish this month. So the estimates are based on last year’s number of 36,000 children.

The education authorities further estimate that the total number of schoolgoers will not be much different from the 2017/18 academic year, when 334,000 children attended grades 1 through 12. Under a Government decision, all first to ninth graders will receive their textbooks for free, as in the grades of the lyceum tier free textbooks will be reserved for children from underprivileged families.