Soros Foundation Moldova on September 25 launched the platform “COMpEC – Community for High-Quality Education” that aims to bring together different players of society to discuss topical problems faced in the education sector. A dialogue is to be initiated to find modern solutions that will meet the expectations and needs of those who benefit from these services and of those who provide them, IPN reports, quoting a press release of the Foundation.
An initiative supported financially by Soros Foundation Moldova, the platform is designed to modernize general education so that the young people fully realize their potential while studying.
“The efforts we made during the last few years to support the education reform led us to the idea of creating a community that will include independent experts, civic activists, representatives of the Ministry of Education and the Education Division, teachers, students and parents – all those who are interested in increasing the quality of education by implementing innovative practices that already showed their efficiency in many countries,” stated Petru Culeac, director of the Good Governance Department of Soros Foundation Moldova.
In 2018, as a result of the reform processes in education and the continuous dialogue between civil society and the Government, the primary school curriculum was renewed. COMpEC undertook several fundamental commitments, among which are political neutrality, the necessity of a long-term view and formulation of a development agenda of the Republic of Moldova where education would be recognized as a strategic and priority area.
According to the founders of COMpEC, the insufficiency of human resources is one of the most pressing problems in the education system. Rima Bezede, director of the Educational Center Pro Didactica, said there is a risk that the system will remain without teachers during the next five years. “The number of students who enroll at teacher-training faculties decreases dramatically year by year. For example, during the 2017-2018 academic year not even half of the vacancies in education were filled. In the municipality of Chisinau alone, the shortage of staff trebled during the last three years, from 267 to 863 vacancies,” stated Rima Bezede.
Among other important subjects raised through the COMpEC platform are the informal payments in schools and the observance of the Teacher’s Code of Ethics. According to a sociological study carried out by the Institute for Public Policy, the informal payments of a family in absolute value during the past few years almost doubled: from about 1,600 lei in 2015 to about 3,400 lei in 2017. A significant part of the parents (about 34.3% of the respondents) could not identify a concrete reason, choosing the answer: “everyone pays and we also pay”. About 26.5% of the parents said the made payments enable them to take an active part in the school life of their children.
The platform members invite all those who want to contribute to solving the problems encountered in education so as to improve the quality of education and, implicitly, the future of the Republic of Moldova to join their group.
