With good and bad moments, the year 2017 is coming to an end and the time is now inopportune to sum up. On this occasion, IPN gathered good thoughts, this time only good ones, from those who take decisions and from those for whom decisions are taken. What good things did 2017 bring? This is the question that we put to those who accepted to be near us in our wish to find what’s good in the things around us and in the events that mark us. Even if many times things do not go as we want, it is the man and society that stand to gain as they can see an additional opportunity to become involved and change things to be better even in problems and worse things. For each of the raised subjects, we provide a number of rankings that show the position of those that compiled them. Below you can see the accomplishments of 2017 in the Transnistrian settlement process. Below you can see what good things 2017 brought in the education sector.
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Rankings by Ministry of Education, Culture and Research:

1. Initiation of reformation in curriculum development.

“This envisions the simplification of curriculum contents for all the school subjects and education stages and also the modification and development of the current education plans so as to reduce the number of lessons (2-3 classes) and of mandatory school subjects (2-3 subjects) – reference for the lyceum stage. Also, the number of optional subjects in education plans will be increased and this will enable to diversify the education offers for students and to broaden the autonomy of education institutions in choosing these and to also extend the school subjects that ensure the professional orientation of young people. Thus, when the students graduate from the secondary school, they should have the training needed to create the own professional path that they should follow either at the lyceum, where they will be able to acquire fundamental knowledge for being admitted to higher education, or in technical professional institutions so as to learn a trade, or at college so as to obtain skills for managing different professional areas (foreman, building site chief, technician etc.).The reform process also envisions the development of ICT competences in general education and inclusion of volunteering and participatory activities of students in general education as this will enable young people to disinterestedly become involved in community activities for personal development and will allow improving the relations between young people and will contribute to the formation of skills of active participation in the social life.”

2. 50% rise in allowances for young specialists in order to promote the profession of teacher and to attract young people to the education system.

“The allowance was raised from 30,000 to 45,000 lei for university graduates and from 24,000 to 36,000 lei for persons who graduated from vocational education institutions.”

3. Continuous professional training of teaching and managing staff in general education.

“The professional competence standards define the main competences a teacher or manager in education, who is open and motivated to develop professionally and achieve results, should have. The professional training courses involved 2 537 teachers and managers (1 856 teachers and 681 managers).”

4. The allocation of 110 million lei for financing renovation works at six primary, secondary and lyceum education institutions managed by local public authorities.

“The financial resources needed for renovation were allocated through the state budget law for 2017, from the loan provided by the World Bank within the Moldova Education Reform Project.

5. Diminution of the teaching norm from 20 to 18 hours a week for teachers from primary education with a view to standardizing the weekly teaching norms for teachers from primary, secondary and lyceum education.

“The teaching norm for young specialists was decreased to 18 hours a week – 1.0 charge, with de facto teaching activity of 13.5 hours a week – 0.75 charge.

Rankings by public association “Solidary Parents”:

1. Improvement of the quality of food in kindergartens and diversification of menus.

“We secured more rigorous control over the quality of food in preschool education institutions. We obtained the elaboration and approval of model menus for each district division of education, youth and sport; increased presence of fruit and vegetables in children’s menus; an increase of almost 4 lei in the daily financial norm for the alimentation of a child at kindergarten.”

2.  Enhancement of transparency of budgets of education institutions of Chisinau municipality.

“It goes to the data concerning the 2016 budgets, which were published on the website of the General Division of Education, Youth and Sport.”

3. Allocation of money for hygiene products.

“As a result of a flashmob meeting staged by “Solidary Parents”, 2 million lei was allocated additionally for purchasing the necessary hygiene products.”

4. 50% rise in salaries of cooks from the financial resources of the Chisinau City Hall.

5. Active involvement of parents in monitoring the activity of preschool education institutions, request to ensure budget transparency and an appropriate level of education and care, to obey the sanitary conditions etc.

P.S.: “Our rankings are based on the results of our actions achieved in areas where problems were faced. We can yet speak only about Chisinau municipality as we do not possess information about these aspects all over the country”.

Other articles of the series “What good things did 2017 bring in ...”:

Ce a adus bun anul 2017 în procesul de reglementare transnistreană. Campanie IPN