Forty school buses purchased with Romania's support delivered to Moldovan education institutions

Chisinau, 29 August /MOLDPRES/ - A number of 40 school buses out of those 69 ones, purchased through the non-refundable financing provided by Romania’s government, today were delivered to the beneficiary education institutions. Thanks to this support, over 1,000 pupils from Moldova will go to school in conditions of safety and comfort.    

The investment amounts to 74 million lei. As much as 70 million lei of this sum was provided by the Romanian government and another four million represents the contribution of Moldova’ Education and Research Ministry.   

The buses have 16+1 places and observe the European standards. They are endowed with electronic stability control system, air conditioning system and with step for climbing/getting down for children.  

Attending the event on the delivery of the buses, Prime Minister Dorin Recean said that ‘’Romania has always had this openness to help Moldova.’’ including when the country faced floods or in the case of the energy crisis. ‘’But the most important thing is that the government of Romania invested in the education system from Moldova. The authorities put a big emphasis on the quality of the education and in this context, the mobility is quite important. We must give the chance to a quality education to all children, no matter where they are and so we have this generous assistance on behalf of Bucharest,’’ Dorin Recean said.   

Ambassador of  Romania to Moldova Cristian-Leon Turcanu said that the ‘’Bucharest authorities understood very well the needs existing in Moldova and answered positively each time when they were asked.’’ ‘’I am honoured to be here at the finishing of a new project financed by Romania’s government in Moldova. This time, we have a project in the field of ensuring the quality in the education sector. As we know, the quality of education does not depend only on teachers; it depends also on the basic conditions which should be provided to the children from all regions of Moldova. Through this consignment of buses, we contribute seriously to the improvement of the quality in education. This occurs not for the first time; schools buses were donated to Moldova in 2014, 2015; there were programmes on rehabilitation of kindergartens and some schools from Moldova. So, we see here continuity, consistency and perseverance. These are the principal requirements which can describe the way Bucharest understands to give a helping hand to Moldova when needed. I am looking forward to the next consignment as well,’’ the ambassador said.         

Education and Research Minister Dan Perciun thanked Romania’s government for the support provided for the implementation of this project. ‘’For us, it is important to be able to give each child the chance to a quality education, access to a school where there are conditions for education necessary to be able to make academic performance. These buses are essential, including in order to be able to provide the children from the rural environment the access to quality education. These buses contribute to children’s access to education institutions where we have well-educated teachers, where there are the needed conditions for studies, where they can study a foreign language, where they have occasion to participate in extra-curricular activities,’’ Dan Perciun said.   

The official also said that the effort of endowment with buses was part of a wider approach of the authorities. Thus, with the support of the Moldovan government, through the European Village Programme, edition I, over 300 million lei was invested in education institutions from Moldova ‘’The results for the European Village programme, 2024 edition, have been recently announced too. We were happy to find there over 120 education institutions which asked for and are to benefit from another 400 million lei in form of investments for modernization,’’ Dan Perciun noted.    

The education minister also said that another 29 buses purchased with the support of Romania would reach destination till next late October and would be delivered to districts. ‘’ Next year, we want to supplement this figure with other buses, in order to fully cover the need of transport existing at present,’’ the education minister added.   

The transport means reached schools from Anenii Noi, Basarabeasca, Briceni, Cahul, Cantemir, Calarasi, Causeni, Cimislia, Chisinau, Criuleni, Donduseni, Drochia, Dubasari, Edinet, Falesti, Floresti, Glodeni, Hancesti, Ialoveni, Leova, Nisporeni, Ocnita, Orhei, Rezina, Rascani, Sangerei, Soroca, Straseni, Soldanesti, Stefan Voda, Taraclia, Telenesti, Ungheni, UTA Gagauzia.