Study shows boarding school graduates are not ready to leave campus

The graduates of boarding schools are not ready to leave their residence halls, because they lack an elementary life-supporting skill set. Once they graduate, the youth have no place to live, and it is very hard for them to find a job. These are the conclusions of a study organized by the “Amici dei bambini” Association, in cooperation with Moldova Center of Social Services for Child and Family, reports Info-Prim Neo. Managing Director of the Center of Social Services for Child and Family Viorica Matas stated during a roundtable discussion that one of the greatest challenges for boarding school graduates is to find a place to live. Most of them do not have a place to go to after graduation. Those who continue studying, stay in the dorms, for the others it is more difficult. Continuing studies is also a problem. Most of these institutions do not offer the youth proper professional education, and after graduating nine classes, they do not know where to continue their studies. “We have many cases of several students going to the same professional school, because someone told them that it is good, not because they have the necessary schooling for it”, mentioned Viorica Matas. Even if the youth graduate the boarding school gymnasium stage and get a brief internship period, at the moment of actual employment they are 16-17 years old, an age at which few employers can hire them, says the Center’s director. In Moldova, the State gives welfare benefits only to orphan youth, but there are many youths from vulnerable families, who have no support after graduating boarding schools. “While an orphan graduate receives 5000 lei at graduation, the one from the vulnerable family, whose parents did not pay him any attention in the last 6 or 7 years, receives nothing and is left face-to-face with life’s hardships”, mentioned Viorica Matas. In her opinion, a curriculum, to deal with teaching these youths a set of life skills, should be elaborated. We need a monitoring mechanism for when they leave the institution, and social services for this category of beneficiaries should be diversified throughout the country. According to data from the Ministry of Education, 799 children will graduate boarding schools this year.