The general education institutions of Moldova must be adapted to the needs of the children with special needs, not vice versa. Inclusive education and a tolerant attitude towards persons with special needs must be developed since kindergarten. Such opinions were stated by invitees to the program “Good Evening” on Moldova 1 TV channel, IPN reports.

Deputy Minister of Education Liliana Nicolaescu-Onofrei said the budget for 2014 hasn’t been yet approved, but it was already decided that additional financial resources will be allocated for the education institutions that prepare specialists in inclusive education. The Ministry of Education designed a new discipline to help the teachers acquire skills of offering psycho-pedagogical assistance. The future teachers will be taught to work out individual teaching methods for every child and this thing will be useful not only for children with special needs.

Lia Sclifos, manager of the Global Partnership for Education Project, said the children with special needs are often marginalized in general education institutions because they didn’t attend inclusive kindergartens. These children wouldn’t have faced such problems if they had been taught to communicate and adapt themselves to the situation since they were kinds. The inclusive culture must be developed from kindergarten.

UNICEF Moldova education programs coordinator Ludmila Lefter said the society’s attitude towards the children with specials needs must be changed. All the special institutions for children with disabilities can disappear overnight if such a decision is taken at state level. Society should be open and accept children with special needs, while the parents must demand that the education institutions admit these children and do not violate their right to education.