“Alexandru cel Bun” high school in Tighina may be closed

The Tighina-based theoretical, Romanian-language high school “Alexandru cel Bun” runs the risk of being closed as its school curriculum does not correspond to the one used in the Transnistrian region and the sanitary conditions there are poor. In a public statement, the human rights association “Promo-Lex” asks the Joint Control Commission to examine the issue at its April 15 meeting because this is a case of human rights violation, Info-Prim Neo reports. The statement says the high school may be closed today, April 15, in accordance with an ordinance made by the senior doctor of the hygiene and epidemiology center in Tighina town. “Promo-Lex” says the hygiene and epidemiology center and the Transnistrian border guard services on April 4 banned supplying food products to the high school. Thus, the school will soon exhaust its supplies and the situation will become critical, especially before the exams. “We do not rule out that the Transnistrian administration might escalate the situation by repeating the situation of 2004, when the Transnistrian institutions managed by the Moldovan constitutional authorities were illegally closed or relocated, consider jurists of “Promo-Lex”. The association says these actions are intentional and provocative and are aimed at reducing the number of children studying at these institutions. According to the jurists, the number of first graders at “Alexandru cel Bun” decreased from 250 children in 1999 to 50 children in 2009 as a result of the continuous pressure exerted by the separatist authorities. “Promo-Lex” asks the Joint Control Commission to examine the matter immediately and demand that the authorities in Tiraspol and Tighina stop persecuting and harassing the administration of the high school and discriminating against the residents of the Transnistrian region by not allowing them to choose the education institution, the language and program of study for their children. The other players interested in solving the Transnistrian dispute are also asked to help stop the escalation of the conflict over the Romanian language high schools working in Transnistria.