Outgoing Minister of Education Maia Sandu said during the “Politica” talk-show on TV 7 that the judiciary hinders the reform of education. The statement follows an open letter sent on Tuesday, December 23, to the Superior Council of Magistracy, in which the Minister criticizes harshly the decisions of some judges in lawsuits involving the Ministry of Education, IPN reports.
According to Maia Sandu, the obstacles put by the judiciary against the reforms started two year ago are beyond any criticism. “This is a cry of despair. We want to boost the motivation of teachers and then their responsibility. I think that over the past 20 years, Moldovan justice has preserved itself in a closed system. If in other areas we've witnessed some changes, the judiciary has remained the same. It's truly regrettable. The justice system must urgently be reformed”, said Sandu.
The official complained the the Ministry of Education lost all kinds of lawsuits from the sacking of teachers to the illegal seizure of parcels of lands from schools.
Ion Dron, head of the Association “Justice and Righteousness”, agrees that the cause of this situation is the lack of reforms in the judiciary. “We don't need people who judge files, we need people who judge fates. I think the reform has started from the wrong end. It's not the judicial system but the judicial power that we should reform and the Superior Council of Magistracy is the place to start. The rest – the renovation of courts or the audio recording of trials – is just technical issues”, said the lawyer.
He compared the reform of the judiciary with a patient that is receiving the wrong treatment. “Let's imagine a patient in a coma, who needs urgent surgery, but instead of surgery he is treated with old women's concoctions”, explained the former judge.
The talk-show's permanent guest, political analyst Igor Botan, expressed his support for Maia Sandu. “Two years ago, Ms. Sandu quit a well-paying job with great prospects in the US and returned to Moldova, where she started a vast reform in the field of education and then the corrupt judiciary started to put obstacles in front of her. It's like hitting a wall”, concluded the analyst.
