In 2015 the parents in Moldova spent about 2.367,6 billion lei on the education of their children, an increase of about 58% compared with 2012, show a study of the academic integrity and ethics in general education conducted by the Institute for Public Policy in partnership with the Center of Sociological Investigations “CBS-AXA”.
In a news conference at IPN, “CBS-AXA” sociologist Natalia Vladicescu said that during a year the parents pay about 6,700 lei for the education of a child. The difference between the payments in urban areas and those in rural areas is very small. “In the urban areas, the average costs total 6,699 lei, while in the rural areas – 6,554 lei. We see there is practically no difference,” she stated.
The study shows the largest amounts of money are spent on school supplies, clothes and footwear and on lunches at school.
Over 50% of the surveyed parents know how the money collected as contributions by parent associations is spent, 18% know not much, while 17% know nothing at all. If the parents were allowed to choose between making and not making contributions for the necessities of the school, almost half of them would give up making such payments. Each third parent would continue to offer financial support to pre-university education institutions so as to improve the conditions in schools, while 1.2% of the parents said they ready to pay even more for the quality of studies to be increased.
To optimize the use of the money provided by parents, the respondents suggested making transparent the school budget, including the financing provided by the state, saying the state should supply the schools with teaching aids and ensure the strictly necessary conditions. The respondents also proposed adopting a legal act that would stimulate the sponsoring of education institutions by parents or business entities.
Institute for Public Policy programs director Anatol Gremalschi said there is nothing bad in the fact that the parents contribute money to education institutions, but this should be done officially.
The study was carried out in April and covered a sample of 605 parents. The data were also collected through focus groups that involved parents, students and teachers. There were also conducted interviews with representatives of education divisions and school directors. The margin of sampling error is 4%.
