Situation of private education institutions which do not have own edifices is uncertain

Local public authorities and the Chisinau Municipal Council request the Ministry of Education and Youth to cancel the legal provisions which conditions the prolongation of the activity license for private education institutions only if having own spaces. This initiative was formulated on Tuesday, July 4, at the meeting of CMC which debated the situation of private institutions of Chisinau municipality which do not have own spaces. The situation of these institutions is uncertain, because the councilors could not decide the commercialization of the former kindergartens, where the private education institutions rent spaces. The head of the Department of Education, Youth and Sport, Alexandru Roman was obliged to examine the situation and to present after two weeks, when the discussions will be resumed on this issue, a report on the necessity of kindergartens, justified by the fact that the birth rate is increasing and the kindergartens that are functioning at the moment are over-solicited. In the first half of 2006, the local authorities of Chisinau examined with difficulty the possibility of selling 10 edifices in Chisinau to some private education institutions, which at present rent these edifices. On February 28, 2006, the councilors rejected categorically the possibility of selling the buildings, considering that the draft decision includes risks and disadvantages for the municipality. The interim mayor of Chisinau, Vasile Ursu, was unpleased at the meeting with the fact that after selling these buildings, the municipality will not have the possibility to build others, in case of necessity. On July 1, because these institutions did not have own edifices, their licenses had to be canceled, and at the beginning of the new school year about 10 thousand students will not have a place to study. In these buildings the International Management Institute IMI-Nova, the Moldovan-Turkish Lyceum “Socrate”, “Evrica”, “Petrenco”, “Elitex”, “Prometeu”, “Columna”, the private Moldovan-Turkish Gymnasium and the School of Modern Languages are working. Comparing to the situation from other localities from the country, in Chisinau the buildings of kindergartens which were not functioning because of lack of children were not yet sold. 34 private education institutions, which do not have own spaces are functioning in Chisinau municipality. We remind that the Government, at a meeting on June 28, pleaded in favor of prolonging the dead-line for the institutions soliciting the prolongation of the activity from July 1, 2006 to July 1, 2007. Until this dead-line they must find own edifices and must have a statutory fund of 1.5 million lei.