Twenty schools from both banks of the Nistru River will have qualified teachers, teaching aids and equipment needed to study chess from autumn, IPN reports.
During three weeks, the teachers were trained within a project that facilitated the formulation of the first chess curriculum in Moldova, the first qualified training program for teachers and of a methodological guide.
In the ceremony to award diplomas to the trained teachers, the new teachers taught a public lesson in chess in the square of the Metropolitan Cathedral “God’s Birth”.
Political officer of the EU Delegation to Moldova Ekaterina Dorodnova voiced hope that the project “Chess joins us” will help the people from the two banks of the Nistru to work together and to strengthen the relations of friendship and confidence. “The EU supports the confidence-building promotion program. We do everything for the young people, students and teachers to strengthen the contacts and to communicate. Chess is the game that will bring the people closer,” she stated.
According to the president of the National Chess Academy Viorel Iordachescu, as there is no national program to prepare chess teachers, Moldova has only 10% of the necessary number of such teachers. “This training seminar allowed the coaches from the two banks not only to acquire the necessary knowledge, but also to exchange experience. They will contribute to the improvement of the quality of chess in Moldova,” he stated.
“The number of children who will become fond of chess depends on the qualification and professionalism of those who will teach them,” said Vasile Onica, senior consultant at the Ministry of Youth and Sport.
A chess festival and a training session will be organized within the project over the next few months, for children and young people from the two banks of the Nistru.
The teachers were trained within the project “Chess joins us” that is implemented by the National Chess Academy with financial support from the EU-UNDP Project “Support to Confidence Building Measures”.
