Moldova experiences teacher shortages

180 preschool educators and 160 teachers are needed to fill the vacant posts at kindergartens and schools in Chisinau. These figures take the shortage of teaching staff in the country to roughly 2,000 posts, Info-Prim Neo reports. The head of Chisinau's Education Department (DGETS), Tatiana Nagnibeda-Tverdohleb, stated at a City Hall meeting on Tuesday, September 2, that while the problem of teacher shortages could be solved in the course of this week, the situation is more difficult in the case of educators. According to her, if the Department doesn't receive the required number of job applications from fresh graduates, it will be compelled to consider employing final-year students to work part-time in schools and kindergartens. If this plan fails, too, the ultimate solution would be to increase the workload for the teachers remaining in school, who will have to act as substitutes and teach other disciplines than they are used to. The monthly salary of a starter is slightly above 700 lei[*] and roughly 600 lei in the case of a preschool educator. This week, education labor unions have started picketing the Government's building in a bid to get a raise of 37 percent. If their claim is left unsolved until mid September, the teachers threaten to cease all classes throughout the country and stage large-scale protests. [* 1 Moldovan leu = 9.6565 US dollars]