The provisions of the new school curriculum are appreciated by parents, who believe that they will help to reach a new level in education. At the same time, they appreciated the focus on each student and giving students greater freedom in choosing the subjects to study deeper. The opinions were expressed during a public debate with parents, organized by the Ministry of Education and Research.
Ana Țibuleac, national expert, presented the data of a real-time survey, which shows that out of about 60 parents present at the discussions, the vast majority, 47, believe that the current curriculum meets the needs of students and the interests of society to some extent, 15 parents think it meets them to a great extent, and 5 insufficiently. At the same time, the vast majority want the Alternative Framework Plan to be applied in the school where their children study. The shortage of teachers was indicated as the biggest challenge of education in Moldova.
Parents were interested in the actions of the Ministry of Education regarding the provision of teaching resources. Corina Lungu, senior policy advisor, said a problem the Ministry is aware of and has been working hard to fix in recent years is quality school textbooks.
Parents asked why certain subjects needed to be integrated. At which, Anatol Gremalschi, one of the authors of the new curriculum, noted that there is a need to make changes because in international evaluations Moldova’s score is modest, our country ranking last in South-Eastern Europe. As a result, students leave and there are not enough graduates to embrace successful careers in Moldova. Also, PISA results were analyzed, and it came clear that the schools where subjects such as physics, chemistry and biology are studied in an integrated manner, the PISA results are much better.
According to Anatol Gremalschi, if 20 schools have chosen to study a certain subject in more depth, a print run of textbooks will be printed only for those schools, and so there will be no “brain leveling”.
Viorica Andrițchi, one of the authors of the curriculum, assured that initial training on integrated subjects and continuous training through retraining will be provided. At the same time, 1000 mentors will work in local schools to help teachers on certain difficult subjects.
Matalia Mecicari, a parent of two, welcomed the changes being made. She said she wouldn’t call the education system “bad”, but she wished there was more practice so that the children could apply the acquired theoretical knowledge. She also appreciated the plans for more laboratories.
Maria Cebanova, a parent and also a teacher, also praised the Ministry’s efforts. As a parent, she is happy when her child comes home thrilled from school. The new curriculum means a step of development to a higher level.
One novelty of the school curriculum development concept is that students will have only four basic mandatory subjects: Romanian, mathematics, the first foreign language, world history and Romanian history (grades IV, V-IX and X-XII) and science (grades I-IV), which form the so-called “common trunk of general culture”. In addition to these basic subjects, there will be other compulsory ones, but they will not count towards the average grade and will not matter when transferring to a different school. Other subjects will be optional.
The new national curriculum is to be implemented in select schools from September 2025, and from September 2027 it will be gradually implemented across the system.
