The General Division of Education, Youth and Sport of Chișinău municipality is having talks with the managers of a vocational school and a teacher training college for hiring last-year students as kindergarten educators and cooks, the Division’s acting head Rodica Guţu announced in the September 10 meeting of officials of municipal services. She noted that the shortage of staff in municipal early education institutions could be solved this way, IPN reports.

According to Rodica Guţu, there were 422 vacancies of educators and 64 vacancies of chefs and auxiliary cooks at kindergartens in Chișinău last weekend.

Speaking about enrollment at schools, the functionary said over 87,000 students were admitted to primary and secondary schools and lyceums. A number of 1,340 students went to live abroad since 2011 and only 200 returned. None of the 29 students who didn’t attend school the previous school year is now enrolled. More than 9,000 students were to the first grade this  year. They were organized into 345 classes. As many as 4,498 students are tenth graders this year.

Rodica Guţu said the low birth rate and the lack of interest in lyceum education lead to a reduction in the number of lyceum classes. Only 42 lyceums of 84 have by at least two classes, while 31 have by one class, as opposed to 11 the previous year.

The education institutions of Chișinău municipality now employ 9,610 teachers, as opposed 9,568 the previous year. A number of 57 young specialists of the 212 assigned by the Ministry of Education Culture and Research were hired. The job vacancies total 679, 217 of which in primary and secondary education institutions, while 16 in primary schools.