Over 100 Moldovan schools involve citizens in working out institutions' budgets

Chisinau, 22 November /MOLDPRES/ - Over 100 education institutions from Moldova have become beneficiaries of the project, My School, and have created opportunities for pupils and parents to contribute to the improvement of processes from schools. Thus, in those five years of implementation, the project has managed to involve about 50,000 people in discussions on schools’ budgets.

The executive director of the Expert-Grup independent analytical centre, Adrian Lupusor, at a today’s news conference, said that the My School initiative had managed to promote a culture of dialogue between all actors in education and had allowed creating an environment in which initiatives of social accountability   flourish and develop. “Year after year, there was a greater and greater openness for the exercise of consulting budgets in the beneficiary schools. The presence of mayors, district heads and deputy heads at public hearings of budgets, as well as their involvement in the settlement of schools’ problems are obvious indexes of a change of behavior,” Lupusor noted.  

World Bank Country Manager for Moldova Anna Akhalkatsi said that citizens’  participation in taking decisions was foremost . According to Akhalkatsi, this contributes to the improvement of the quality of services and ensures their sustainability.   

A state secretary at the Education, Culture and Research Ministry, Elena Belei, stressed the importance of communities’ involvement in schools’ life. She noted that the My School project was beneficial and necessary not only for authorities and education institutions, but also for the community. “It is known that the pupil who now is informed about the school’s work, will be an active citizen of the society in the long run. Therefore, we further support the implementation of this project, being confident that we will have a quality education in this way,” Belei added.           

Expert-Grup has been implementing the project, My School – social awareness for the education reform in Moldova, starting from 2014, with the financial support provided by the World Bank’s Global Partnership for Social Accountability and the information support of the Education, Culture and Research Ministry.