The number of children of school age has decreased and the downward trend will continue at least until 2050, the Ministry of Education has said. Effort will be thus made to continue the optimizations in education institutions.

“We will further deal with the institutions that are not used to full capacity. This means that we will continue the optimizations so as not to waste public money that can be used to improve the quality of the education service,” said Minister of Education Maia Sandu, quoted by IPN.

As regards the kindergartens, they are overfull in towns, while in the villages are attended by only 15 – 20 children. “This discrepancy is rather wide. The parents prefer to take the children to urban kindergartens. We are thus considering instituting alternative services,” stated the minister.

According to the Ministry of Education, the district councils decided to close 14 schools and reorganize another 42 during the 2013-2014 academic year. In 2012 there were closed 57 institutions, while 61 were reorganized. As many as 126 schools had beenclosed since 2005 until 2012.