The new academic year will begin with more than two thousand vacancies in educational institutions across the country. The biggest shortage of teachers and educators is in Chisinau, Hâncești, Ungheni and Călărași. Under these conditions, the deficit will be filled this year by retirees, reported the RFE/RL Moldovan service.

Ungheni is one of Moldova’s largest districts, and the shortage of teaching staff is felt here more and more acutely. According to Iulia Pancu, head of the Ungheni Education Directorate, not even 10% of the vacancies have been filled for the new academic year.

The situation is even worse in Călărași district, where not a single young specialist showed up to take the assigned job.

The shortage is the worst for primary school teacher’s positions (226 vacancies) and teachers of key subjects: mathematics (211) and Romanian language (128).

The heads of education departments that talked with RFE/RL said that young people today are not that interested in becoming teachers, and graduates of pedagogical faculties do not want to work in villages because of low salaries. Some of the young teachers go abroad, others choose different professions.

The Ministry of Education and Research recognizes that the problem is serious and has been pressing for years. The authorities promise that they will soon approve an education development strategy, which will contain a package of proposals to solve the crisis of the teaching staff in general education. “All actions will focus on financially motivating teachers, and not just through salary raises. There will be other social packages for graduates as well. To put this strategy into practice, enormous financial resources are needed, but this will be made mandatory”, Valentin Crudu, head of the General Education Department at the Ministry, told RFE/RL.