The Ministry of Education is considering the possibility of instituting oral Baccalaurean exams. If such a decision is taken, the oral exams will be introduced for ninth graders so that they get used to such types of tests until the twelfth grade, Deputy Minister of Education Igor Grosu said in the program “Moldova Live” on the public TV channel Moldova 1, IPN reports.

According to the official, the oral tests will be in Romanian and in foreign languages as the Ministry’s experts established that besides written competence the graduates also need oral communication skills.

Grosu said that this year the Baccalaureate tests will be based more on skills rather than knowledge. “The efficiency of studies resides in the students’ ability to put the gained knowledge into practice, for example for writing letters of intent in a foreign language or for solving a problem,” he stated.

The official also said that the Baccalaureate tests will not be simplified. He denied the accusations that the tests this year were too difficult.

Igor Grosu informed that the Ministry of Education is working on a strategy to set teachers’ pays depending on the quality of studies, while the Government opened talks on higher salaries for teachers with education trade unions.