Minister: Penalties for illicit money collection in schools will be toughened

The penalties for illicit money collection in schools will be toughened. The Ministry of Education will amend the standard regulation on the activity of elementary, middle, and high schools in order to exclude any stipulations that would require additional payments from parents besides those already stipulated in the Law on education, Info-Prim Neo reports. The decision was taken after a meeting at the Ministry of Education, with the participation of competent institutions. Minister Mihail Sleahtitchi stressed the importance of normative acts stipulating penalties for headmasters and teachers involved in illegal money collection from parents. He explained that unauthorized persons are forbidden to take money from parents for any reason. The parents’ participation in supporting the institution should be purely voluntary. Deputy Minister of Education Tatiana Potang claims there is no normative paperwork that would allow or encourage the collection of money in schools. “The Ministry knows about informal fees charged by managers of educational institutions, besides the money collected by parents’ association for the child’s enrollment in kindergarten or school and various presents. This is damaging the image of the school and of the faculty”, she said. Recently, the Ministry of Education started a campaign of information and awareness titled “Corruption kills education”. It launched four videos that promote the idea that it’s the responsibility of each participant in the educational process to take a stance in order to fight corruption.