In education institutions where there are no parent associations, money for the ‘school fund’, ‘class fund’ or other inventions cannot be collected. The parent associations can be created on the initiative and at the wish of parents, while participation in them is voluntary. To work legally, the parent associations must be registered with the Ministry of Justice or the local public authorities, Minister of Education Corina Fusu explained in a news conference, quoted by IPN.
The minister said the cases of illegal collection of money most often involve parents who afford to pay the membership fee and these influence or even intimidate those who cannot pay it. “The teachers and school managers can cooperate with associations, but cannot oblige the parents to collect money for school or personal needs,” stated Corina Fusu, adding there are no regulations allowing collecting funds for other purposes than those stipulated by the legislation.
According to the minister, not all the education institutions made their budgets transparent and this is a reason why the mentioned irregularities are committed. At national level, about 80% of the schools switched over to financial autonomy, while in the municipality of Chisinau this figure stands at 20%. Now the primary and secondary education institutions are funded from the state budget according to the cost per student formula. The schools with financial autonomy manage their resources independently and distribute the money according to needs.
Corina Fusu said the average budget per school at national level last year was 2.7 million lei. The budget per school is the highest in the municipality of Chisinau, of over 6 million lei, because the education institutions here have a higher number of students, but the phenomenon of illegal money collection is more acute here too.
The average cost per student covered by the state in 2015 was 10,709 lei at national level. In the education institutions with a reasonable number of students and efficient financial management, the money allocated by the state covers not only the primary costs associated with the salaries of teachers and public utilities, but also other needs. There are schools that managed to purchase IT equipment, teaching aids and literature for libraries and to renovate gyms and canteens with this money.
