Children send letter to Education Ministry pleading for child’s right to education

Children that monitor the observance of children’s rights in Moldova addressed a letter pleading in favor of the child’s right to education to the Ministry of Education and Youth, Info-Prim Neo has learnt from the Information and Documentation Center on Children’s Rights. The announcement was made during a workshop that brought together in Chisinau 22 children that form part of the Working Group for Monitoring the Child’s Rights in Moldova. “Recently, we gathered information about the right of the child to education and reached the conclusion that this right is the most loved and most violated right,” the children say in their letter to the Ministry. They say that they would like to become a consultative group of the Education Ministry so that their opinions, information and ideas help the authorities take decisions in favor of every child in Moldova. The monitoring report prepared by the children points to numerous violations. The children said the students in most of the schools pay regularly money for the fund of the class or of the school and this money is used to repair the classrooms. The school abandonment rate is high, especially in rural areas where the children are forced to abandon the school or to miss classes because they work to maintain themselves. Often, the children that have one parent work together with them. In some schools, a part of the children miss the lessons because they are afraid of the teachers, who scold them, discriminate against them, etc. According to the Working Group, the school program ignores the objectives concerning the development of the personality of the children and their preparedness for active life as adults because the largest part of the taught material is theoretical and many times the students have to recite what they were taught. Some of the teachers are passive during classes, sit at the table and give the students a lot of tasks. There are teachers that do not prepare themselves enough for the classes, do not explain the lesson and tell the students to learn the new material by themselves at home. In most of the schools, the teachers treat the students differently according to certain criteria: the school standing, the preparedness for classes, the social position of the family, the relations existing between them and the parents of the students. The students that are not liked by the teachers are neglected or humiliated. There are teachers that use physical violence as educational method – hit, throw objects. A part of the teachers label, nickname, threaten the children and yell at them. In many school, the students use verbal and physical violence between them. The children also ascertained that many schools do not have computers and access to the Internet, while the furniture in classrooms and gymnasiums is old. The Working Group for Monitoring the Child’s Rights in Moldova was founded in July 2008 at the suggestion of the Information and Documentation Center on Children’s Rights, with the support offered by Save the Children Sweden, OSCE, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and Soros-Moldova. The Groups’ message is: “All Things in Moldova Must Start with the Right. With the Child’s Right”.