Education system fails because it's not performance-based, deputy minister

The management of the national education system is based on the process not performance and this leads to a large number of graduates who are qualified in different areas, but do not meet the real needs of the economy, Deputy Minister of Education Igor Grosu said in an international conference centering on professional handicraft training that is held in Chisinau on October 16- 18, Info-Prim Neo reports. Igor Grosu said the relation with the business sector is a problem of the education system. Recent studies pointed to a shortage of qualified specialists, while about 77% of the national economic entities complained about the insufficiency and inappropriate qualifications of the labor force. “The number of skilled graduates is not enough for the real needs of the economy. The employers are not really satisfied with the quality of the secondary vocational education. In order to solve this problem, changes should be made to the professional technical education system,” said the deputy minister. He also said that the large network of vocational schools is another problem of the professional technical education. They have a large number of teachers, but a decreasing number of students. In this connection, the chairman of the Chamber of Trade and Industry Gheorghe Cucu said the information technology is developing, but the knowledge is insufficient for coping with the present requirements. Education should be based on the real needs of the economy and the requirements towards the labor force. “First of all, the economy should be involved in the education system and should dictate what competences, fields and specialists it needs. I don’t think we will have results until the education system is autonomous,” he stated. The third international conference “Professional handicraft formation” brought together over 60 vocational school heads and teachers from six countries.