Moldovan education minister speaks out for reforming pedagogical education

Chisinau, 6 April /MOLDPRES/ - Interview given by Education Minister Maia Sandu exclusively to MOLDPRES State News Agency.

[Moldpres]: More reforms have been initiated in the education sector over the past years. Which are the priorities of the Education Ministry for the next four years?

[Sandu]: A qualitative education system is based on three pillars: institutional resource, human resource and the teaching one. In the context, the Education Ministry’s priorities, for the next period, is focused on actions due to strengthen these pillars. One of the immediate tasks deals with working out a regulatory framework to enforce the Education Code. Another goal relates to giving final touches to the institutional framework, in order to create powerful institutions to assess and supervise quality. The ministry is also set to foster the human resource in education by enhancing the quality of services on initial and continuing training in the pedagogical education, introducing evaluation and motivation based on standards, working out a new wage payment law. The third fundamental element of change regards the curriculum modernisation. Soon, we will present publicly the Reference Framework for the National Curriculum, the basic document that will guide this process.

[Moldpres]: The Education Code stipulates the creation of three new structures: National Agency for Assuring Quality of Vocational Education, National School Inspectorate and National Agency for Curriculum and Evaluation. When will these start working?

[Sandu]: The three abovementioned structures are necessary in order to ensure the quality and monitor the education processes at all levels of the education system. The National School Inspectorate (ISN), a structure which will ensure the quality in education by assessing the activities of schools, accrediting education institutions, evaluating teachers’ and management’s activity, is to be created in 2015. A contest for the selection of ISN head was announced, after which procedures for selecting the rest of the staff are to be carried out.

The National Agency for Curriculum and Evaluation (ANCE), approved by government decision on 10 March 2015, is a structure in charge of coordinating the working out and implementation of the national curriculum and of organising national and international evaluations in general education. ANCE has been already set up, with the part on curriculum due to be consolidated. We hope that the recently announced curriculum review will be taken over by the respective institution in 2015.

The Regulation on functioning of the National Agency for Assuring Quality of Vocational Education (ANACIP) and its staff has been approved a few days ago. The setting up of the this institution will allow us soon resuming the process of evaluation and academic accreditation, suspended in 2008. ANACIP will assess the programmes of all vocational institutions, universities and continuing education institutions and will make the institutional accreditation. In the weeks to come, an international juried contest will  be organised in order to select the 15 members of the management board.

[Moldpres]: You have previously said that you opt for paying salary to teachers depending on their performances. We know that the Education Ministry has been already working on a new law on teachers' remuneration. How will the new wage system work and when will it be implemented?

[Sandu]: The teachers have to have decent salaries in order to focus all their attention on pupils and develop themselves. To change the state of things in this respect, a new remuneration law is necessary, which is to back the efforts taken and reward teachers who tend to performance and professional development. Technical data on the new financing are elaborated by experts and will be presented for public talks when we will consider that we have found an optimal solution.

[Moldpres]: Which is the minimum salary a teacher should have? Is it possible to increase the wages of education employees in the near future?

[Sandu]: As I have highlighted before, teachers have to have a wage which would allow them having a decent and respectable life and make possible their focus on teaching, not on daily survival. The salary increase is possible in situation when we undertake measures to rise up the efficiency of public expenditures in education. The saved resources have to remain in the sector and to be directed especially to increase the wages of employees.

[Moldpres]: A problem faced by more Moldovan education institutions is the lack of teachers. What does the ministry intend to do in order to attract and maintain competent staff into the system?

[Sandu]: The lack of teachers is a real and complicated problem. In the 2014-2015 academic year, 2,090 vacant posts were in the education institutions in Moldova, for which 700 graduates were distributed. The biggest demand was recorded in kindergartens – 191 vacant posts, for which 77 specialists were distributed. The biggest deficit of teachers is recorded in Chisinau municipality, where 48 out of the 133 jobs remained vacant.

To solve this scarcity, we have, first of all, to give a clear signal to the society that education is a priority area for Moldova and that soon teachers will get to be motivated corresponding to the importance of the field. Secondly, we have to implement the teaching education reform. The situation when the state invests in education of thousands of students of pedagogical institutions and only the sixth part of them work in schools cannot be justified. The public resources have to be invested only in those who will choose to work in the education system. This will allow us increasing the financing per student, rising up scholarships at pedagogy and, respectively, attracting competitive young people. In this respect, we will also declare for a more rigorous selection of students choosing pedagogy, as well as for improving the quality of the pedagogical education. And last but not at least, we are set to ensure a continuing and quality of professional training for teachers already in the system.

[Moldpres]: Does the Education Ministry have data on the path the candidates, who in the previous years did not manage to get marks equal or higher than de 5 at baccalaureate exams, chose to follow?

[Moldpres]: The Education Ministry does not collect detailed data on this subject. Their collection will be possible when we will have a single information system for all levels of the education system. Presently, the information system exists only for the general education stage.

[Moldpres]: Will the process of reorganization of the pre-university education institutions continue in the 2015-2016 academic year? 

[Sandu]: In the beginning of the 2013-1014 academic year, the network of primary and secondary education institutions of Moldova included 1,374 education establishments. In comparison with the academic year before, their number decreased by 20 units. At the same time, 42 education institutions were re-organised, of which: 37 lyceums into gymnasiums; four gymnasiums into primary schools; one primary school into a primary school-kindergarten.   

Examples of good practices in the consistent implementation of structural reforms may be the Balti municipality, the districts of Hincesti, Ungheni, Orhei, Calarasi, Straseni. Among the administrative and territorial units with debts in terms of  structural reform, there are the Chisinau municipality, districts of Rezina, Ocnita, Floresti, Singerei, Donduseni, Soroca, Stefan Voda, Drochia, Cahul and Floresti.

The administration of the network of institutions is within the competence of the local public administrations and namely the latter must ensure the correct, transparent and efficient use of financial means and take the needed decisions of restructuring the network. 

[Moldpres]: In 2014, the Education Ministry launched the process of revising the school curriculum. Please, tell us what changes will be made, who will be involved in this process and when will we see the first results?  

[Sandu]: In the previous year, I worked on the Reference Framework for the National Curriculum – the basic document that will guide the curricular revision process. Once this document discussed and approved, we will initiate the process of curricular revision itself for each discipline and each form. The speed with which we will move in this process depends also on the support, including the financial one, we will get. If we have enough resources, we will carry out the entire process in 2015-2016.      

(Reporter N. Sandu, editor M. Jantovan)