The number of teachers aged 60 and above who include the teaching staff close to retirement has risen by 2% compared with the 2018/19 academic year, representing 20.1%. If these persons leave the system, they can generate a serious shortage of staff, said former minister of education Corneliu Popovici, being quoted by IPN.
Of the total number of teachers, those younger than 30 represent 8.7%, down 1.5% compared with the 2018/19 academic year. “This way, in the 2021/22 academic year, the teachers of primary and secondary education institutions total 26,500 or by 1.5% fewer than the previous year and by 4.2% fewer than in 2018/19,” Corneliu Popovici posted on his Facebook page.
The presented data show the number of teachers decreases annually, while the shortage of teachers expands constantly, standing at 2,350 at present. This shortage is much more pronounced in rural areas and in small towns.
The Ministry of Education does not have a secretary of state in charge of education, who could comment on the presented data. The head of the Ministry’s Policy Analysis and Monitoring Division Tudor Cojocaru has told IPN that they do not have now a policy of human resources in the national education system.
The small salaries are not the only cause why the young specialists leave the education system. “It goes to the status of the teacher in society, to the parents’ attitude to the school, to the behavior and freedoms of students, to the restrictions imposed on teachers in the relations with students. We are not robots. We are humans with emptions,” the principal of the Chisinau Theoretical Arts Lyceum “Mihail Berezovschi” Ana Eremei-Berezovschi has told IPN. She said a teacher not only trains children, but must also create conditions, a comfortable atmosphere and environment for learning and has to also fill out all kinds of documents each day and to appear in a proper physical and mental state before the children.
The principal noted besides ensuring decent pays, the state should support the young teachers with dwellings, with living conditions in the country so that they do not have to go abroad. The teachers should have what to eat and what to put on as there are teachers whose clothes are more modest than their students’ clothing.
