Financing per student formula to be extended throughout Moldova starting January

Starting January1, 2013, the entire country will implement the new method of financing educational institutions, based on the standard per student cost. Thus, schools and lyceums will receive money from the state depending on the number of students, reports Info-Prim Neo. According to a communiqué from the Ministry of Education, the method has already been applied, as an experiment, in 2010,in two pilot districts: Causeni and Rascani, and starting January 1, 2012, in 9 other districts and in Municipalities Balti and Chisinau. The new method of funding will include two components. The first one is financing per student; each student will be allotted 6,127 lei for the 2013 academic year. Additionally, schools and lyceums with over 91 students will receive an additional 386,000 lei, the so-called per institution component, calculated by the district councils. The new method will comprise the entire budgetary process for years 2013 and 2014. The formula stipulates the covering of expenses for payments to didactic and auxiliary faculty, covering all services, institutional maintenance, and expenses for the development and improvement of the didactic and technical-material base of the school. Capital repairs and school meals will be covered, additionally, from the budgets of Municipal and District councils. District councils will finance elementary and secondary general schools directly. The money will be managed by the manager of the institution. Currently, the new financing formula is applied in 518 schools.