Gagauzia Governor's intention on Baccalaureate diplomas draws criticism from Chisinau

The intention of Gagauzia Governor Mihail Formuzal to eliminate the grades for the official language test from the Baccalaureate certificates of lyceum graduates in the autonomy is not justified, think politicians in Chisinau. Acting President Marian Lupu recalled that Moldova is a unitary country that has a Constitution and a special law governing the Gagauz autonomy. “There is a very clear delimitation of functions between the central and autonomy authorities. And I think that the only rational and possible way is to simply respect these provisions. Any such radical, extreme approach is wrong and dangerous. I also think that in a modern world the best way is for children to speak a great number of languages”, said Lupu. “Of course this is preposterous, I think all the ethnic communities will reject this proposal”, said Valeriu Strelet, the leader of the Lib-Dem faction in Parliament, commenting on the Governor's initiative. Liberal leader Mihai Ghimpu said the official language must be learned across the republic. “If Romanian is the official language, they should better learn it because it's official. I regret it”. Communist representatives abstained from making comments. Contacted by Info-Prim Neo, Adrian Ghicov, the head of the Examination Agency, said the official language test is mandatory for all lyceum graduates, including those studying in other languages than Romanian. “For a lyceum graduate to obtain a Baccalaureate diploma, he or she must pass, among other, the Romanian grammar and literature test and thus prove his or her knowledge acquired in three years of the lyceum stage”. Gagauzia Governor Mihail Formuzal stated recently on a TV show that many lyceum graduates in the autonomy have grades lower than 5 for the Romanian language test, which makes them ineligible for college. As a solution, he proposed scrapping the Romanian test grade in the autonomy's Baccalaureate diploma.