Residential system reform’s purpose is to reduce number of children who live outside families

The purpose of the residential system reform is to reduce the number of children, who grow separated from their families, which doesn’t mean though that all the boarding schools in the republic will be closed, deputy minister of Education and Youth Valentin Crudu told a news conference. According to Crudu, researches revealed that a child who has been educated within a residential institution has little self-confidence, faces problems with finding a job and more inclined to commit offences. The graduates from boarding schools are also more vulnerable to the traffic in human beings than the youth which has grown in families. Deputy Minister mentioned an examination procedure of the 68 residential institutions in Moldova. The results concerning the material and teaching equipment, the teacher staff professionalism, management activity and others will be published in mid March. Then the way in which these institutions could be reorganised will be established. Initially, it is expected that some residential institutions will be transformed into community centres and others, although they will be kept, will host a lower number of children, but in better conditions. Boarding schools which will prove to be inefficient will be closed. Within the frameworks of the reform, the creation and development of new community services for the protection of the child and the vulnerable families is provided. In this sense, guardianship social services and family-type boarding schools will be organised. Also professional parental assistance will be provided and new institutions of community type will be created. Authorities consider that such services would provide the children with a better home than an orphanage or boarding school, being also less costly compared to the actual maintenance expenses which reach MDL 150 mln annually. According to Crudu, at present, authorities try to identify a new form of financing in order to support underprivileged families and prevent children’s institutionalisation into boarding schools. National authorities are supported by the EU in this reform, within the project “Development of integrated social services for vulnerable families and children in situations of risk”, launched in January 2006 and implemented with the help of UNICEF and the TACIS programme. The project’s activities are concentrated in 6 target-regions: raions of Hancesti, Floresti, Falesti, Straseni, Telenesti and the Balti Municipality. There are 7 boarding schools in these regions, where more than 2000 children live and study. At present, there are about 12,000 children in residential care, 85% of which have one or both parents alive.