The Ministry of Education awarded the winners of the tenth national contest “Pedagogue of the year”. Cristina Aparatu, of the preschool institution No. 143 of Chisinau, was chosen as the best educator of 2016. Viorica Morcov, of the Chisinau Theoretical Lyceum “George Calinescu” became teacher of the year, while Valentina Boboc, a teacher of history and civic education at the Chisinau Theoretical Lyceum “Natalia Dadiani” – the professor of the year, IPN reports.

This year’s contest involved 1,100 teachers. The competition was held in three stages: local, district/municipal, and national. Besides the titles of “Educator of the year”, ”Teacher of the year” and “Professor of the year”, the winners of the first stage receive the next teaching rank, 50,000 lei in award and a diploma of the Ministry of Education.

Minister of Education Corina Fusu in the festive event said the task of education is to cultivate the feeling of own value in children, teens and young people and to teach them to enjoy the values of the society in which they live and to play a role in it.

The preuniversity education system includes over 42,000 teachers. More than 4,000 teachers work in secondary and post-secondary technical professional education, while over 5,000 in higher education.