All the children from families of Ukrainian refugees who are in Moldova can benefit from the right to education and can register at national education institutions. A number of 75 applications to register children at kindergartens and 631 applications to enroll children at school on a temporary basis have been received so far. The Commission for Exceptional Situations today approved provisions by which the Ministry of Education and Research was empowered to approve the normative framework that would enable the Ukrainian refugee children and young people to attend education institutions on a temporarily basis, with derogation from the current legislation, IPN reports.
Minister of Education Anatolie Topală told a news conference that 972 secondary education institutions teaching in Romanian and 261 institutions teaching in Russian, including joint institutions teaching in Romanian and Russian, function during the 2021-2022 school year. Out of these, 37 institutions teach Ukrainian language and literature, history, culture and tradition of the Ukrainian people as mandatory subjects. Consequently, the given teachers can ensure teaching in the Ukrainian language.
According to the minister, in Moldova there are overt 10,000 Ukrainians and citizens of other nationalities who entered the Moldovan-Ukrainian segment. Out of these, 48,000 are children. Of the 631 applications for temporary registration at school, by about 300 are for primary and secondary schools, while the rest for lyceums. Over 550 persons asked for studies in the Russian language, 40 – in the Ukrainian language, while 37 are in the Romanian language.
Children from families that asked for asylum can enroll at school following the recognition and equalizing of the periods of studies and will have the status of audient until the procedure is completed. At general education institutions, the children are registered based on an application submitted by the parent or by the legal representative to the local education division or the education institution. Enrolment at kindergartens depends on the budgetary funds allocated to the institution. Priority is given to working parents.
The Ministry, together with the development partners, constituted a working group designed to strengthen the efforts to enroll children from families of Ukrainian refugees who fled from the war at education institutions. The activities are aimed at ensuring access to education, psychological counseling, etc.