Overloaded school program weakens children's health

The students get sick more often. In a roundtable meeting on December 8, ombudswoman for chidlren's rights Tamara Plamadeala said that due to the overloaded school program the number of children suffering from chronic diseases of the nervous system or eye illnesses increases, while their physical, intellectual and moral development is slowed, Info-Prim Neo reports. The ombudswoman said the students have a lot of homework and many optional courses. Thus, she asked the Ministry of Education to consider lightening the school program. “The children must be spared from burdens that create problems and complicate the situation of the parents, who have their own work,” Tamara Plamadeala said. She also said that different funds are collected at school, but this is a violation of the right to free education. Many parents went to work abroad and the children remained at home without supervision. 35,000 children are now without parental supervision, while 70,000 remained at home with one parent. The number of children who break the law rose to about 3,000. “We witness violations of chidlren's rights every day. Many times, their rights are infringed by the parents. The mass migration is now the most serious problem as the children are not educated by both of the parents,” Eugenia Tombot, senior specialist on children's rights issues in Nisporeni district, said during the meeting. Veaceslav Luca, coordinator of the project “Children Take Part in their Rights' Monitoring”, said most of the times the children confuse their rights with their obligations as their parents lay emphasis on obligations. He also said that the children from rural areas know their rights better than those from urban areas as more projects are implemented at the community level.