Minister of Education and Research Dan Perciun announced that he had submitted a set of amendments to Parliament concerning the “Restart in Education” reform, which provides for schools to be transferred from the authority of local councils to the authority of the Ministry of Education and Research through territorial education agencies. One of the amendments provides that, in the municipalities of Chișinău and Bălți and in the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia, the new provisions will enter into force in 2028, one year later than in the rest of the country, TRIBUNA reports.

The official said, however, that the reasons are different in each of the three cases:

“In Chișinău, the municipal authorities opposed the reform and blocked its preparation. We are giving them another year. But this year must be used to demonstrate that the current management model they defend can address the real problems facing schools in the capital.

First and foremost, there is overcrowding. We have schools where children study in overcrowded conditions while, at the same time, there are institutions with available places. This is a problem we have been discussing for years, and we are waiting for concrete solutions.

We also have issues related to the inclusion of children with special educational needs and the support they receive in schools. There is also the problem of informal payments, where parents continue to be placed in a situation where they have to contribute money, even though mechanisms exist for such contributions to be made transparently and legally.

And we have millions of lei allocated annually from the state budget for education in the municipality that remain unused. It should be noted that more than 90% of the budget of schools in Chișinău comes from the Government.

Chișinău has very good teachers, students with very good results, and many high-performing institutions. Precisely for this reason, we believe that the municipal administration must demonstrate that it can also solve these systemic problems. It has an additional year to do so.

In the case of Bălți, we had a very good and constructive discussion with the local authorities. From our perspective, we would have been ready to implement the reform starting in 2027. However, we decided to adopt a uniform approach for Chișinău and Bălți, as municipalities with special status.

In Bălți, this period will be used primarily to transition schools to financial self-management and to clarify certain issues related to the delineation of property ownership.

The situation in the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia is also distinct. The autonomy has a special legal status, and the “Restart in Education” reform does not involve changing the subordination of schools in the autonomy, taking into account the provisions of the special law.

At the same time, a number of political and institutional processes are underway in the autonomy that need to reach a conclusion this year. Under these circumstances, we consider it reasonable for 2028 to be the year when the provisions of the reform applicable to the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia enter into force.”

“Our direction remains unchanged: we want a system in which the quality of a child’s education does not depend on the locality where they study.

We expect the bill to be passed in its second reading by the end of August or the beginning of September. In parallel, we are working with the education departments to prepare for the implementation of the reform.

We thank everyone who participated in the consultations, submitted proposals, and is actively taking part in this transition,” Dan Perciun added.