Liberal-Democrat MP Maia Sandu said she wants a new term as Minister of Education in order to continue the started reforms, but doesn't know whether the party will nominate her. The statement was made during the “Fourth Power” talk-show on N4 TV, IPN reports.
Maia Sandu admitted she regrets not managing to do many things during her previous term, such as revising the curriculum for primary grades. “The school programme for the primary grades is overloaded and some teachers exaggerate and over-burden students with homework. When they reach secondary secondary grades, students are already tired and bored and don't want to learn anymore. Overall, one gets the feeling that serious education is limited to the primary grades. In the US, for example, they learn less in primary school, but start learning seriously in higher grades. We'll take example from them”, said Sandu.
The outgoing minister stated that preschool education must be reformed as well. “Children in kindergartens mustn't necessarily learn to read and count. The kindergarten must socialize children, familiarize them with a certain regime. We'll insist for each village to have a kindergarten, regardless of size”, she explained.
Also on Maia Sandu's “yet to do” list is the creation of school inspectorates to ensure the quality of education in schools and of an agency specialized in the evaluation of the quality of higher education. Besides, an additional emphasis must placed on the training of pedagogues. “Every year, 3000 people graduate pedagogic colleges, but only 500 them go on to teach in schools. Many enroll at these colleges only to obtain higher education diplomas. I think we'll reduce the number of admitted students for this specialization and reinvest the saved money in the quality of studies”, said Sandu.
According to her, the hard part is still ahead – the implementation of the new Code of Education, which covers all the areas of education.
Maia Sandu stated that she is really interested in the priorities of the new government and whether they include the truly important issues in our society. “There are problems about the quality of life because we still have people living in poverty and we must improve these indexes. Of course, education must be a priority if we want to have an educated society, because an educated society means a prosperous society in future. So, for me the priorities set by the new government really matter. Obviously, the team also matters a lot”, concluded Sandu.
