The number of children from socially deprived families, who received financial assistance from the municipality of Chisinau this year, rose by 300 to 8,000. The figures were made public by the head of the General Division of Education, Youth and Sport Tatiana Nagnibeda Tverdohleb when presenting the results of 2013 at the City Hall, IPN reports.

Tatiana Tverdohleb said that 12 resource centers for children with disabilities have been opened this autumn. The awards provided to talented children from the municipality increased from 1,000 to 1,500 lei. The allowances for organizing the summer vacation of children rose by 2 million to 24.8 million. Twenty education institutions switched to financial autonomy in 2013. About 690,000 lei was used to extend the Swedish buffet project in the municipal schools.

According to the official, the problems faced by the education system of Chisinau municipality are mainly related to the inefficient administration of schools. The places at 32 schools are only 50% filled and these institutions cause losses because of the high maintenance costs incurred. The number of children who went abroad together with their parents came to about 6,000 over the last five years. The equipment of the schools is another problem. The about 200 million lei allocated annually for modernizing their equipment is insufficient. The third problem is the lack of personnel in kindergartens. As many as 167 posts of kindergarten educators are vacant.