President's message at Teachers' Forum 2025

Dear teachers,

In a few days, a new school year begins. I hope you have managed to rest a little and you return to the classroom full of energy and joy.

I want to thank you for the efforts you make together with the Minister and the Ministry to improve the quality of the educational process.

In recent times, I have noticed many good initiatives in the field, but we need to speed up the pace. We have a lot to catch up on with respect to performing educational systems. Our competitiveness and prosperity depend on how quickly we will be able to bridge the gaps with other countries.

At this forum, however, we intend to discuss a broader issue —we want to talk about the values we cultivate in our children and youth, values that society should support today and will define our future.

My opinion is that our discussion about values in school remains largely abstract, theoretical, insufficient.

Our Constitution sets out that “the Republic of Moldova is a democratic state governed by the rule of law, in which human dignity, rights and freedoms, free development of human personality, justice and political pluralism are supreme values and are guaranteed”.

Let’s take a moment to focus on democracy.

I believe that both school and society in general have failed to educate people who truly appreciate freedom and democracy.

Democracy in our country is seen as a static fact (we have rights), and not as a responsibility (we must protect our rights and respect the rights of others).

In the Republic of Moldova, many young people consider democracy a given and do not realize it can be lost. They do not understand the alternative—what it would mean for them to live in an authoritarian regime.

It’s true that the situation is not much better for older generations who lived in a totalitarian regime and should have been immune to the poisonous promises of authoritarianism.

Democracy should not only be taught but also practiced starting from school: through student councils, encouraging genuine elections with debates and negotiations, involving students in budget administration, by allocating symbolic sums to be managed by them.

If this happened in all schools, we wouldn’t have so many young people who, when they receive the right to vote, say they are not interested in politics. As if politics and elections were not, first and foremost, about their future and that of their children.

What loss of freedom means for people can be explained more effectively through concrete examples from our nation's history: deportations, famines, other forms of repression during the Soviet era; about the National Liberation Movement; the Dniester War; the youth revolution of 2009; the fight against corrupt regimes.

How many children in your schools have had the opportunity to talk to deportation survivors? Or with veterans of the Dniester War? Not in a one-hour format at the beginning of the school year because that is not enough.

All children should have had this opportunity. Because we want our children not to go through the horrors our parents and grandparents went through, and to protect them, we need them to understand the risks and know how to guard themselves against them by choosing and defending freedom every day.

To enjoy freedom, we need peace. I believe you all have seen interviews with young people saying they are not interested in what is happening with the war in Ukraine because they don't engage in politics. It is serious if these young people do not understand that a war is a dangerous thing even for them and equally serious if they do not understand that a war in a neighboring country also means security for their own country. It is equally serious to see young people who do not know or understand who is guilty of this war.

Disinformation: Moldova is very vulnerable today to propaganda and manipulation. I do not say this, international statistics do. What is the school doing today to help young people cope with this phenomenon? I don’t believe it does enough.

We are talking about a very important value—national unity. How can we educate our young people in the spirit of unity? Through community projects, by involving them in school-level projects, by engaging them in civic activities, by explaining the European integration process and what the differences are between the European Union and authoritarian regimes.

We need to have a serious discussion about Civic Education, but it should be clear that this mission, this discussion about values, this commitment of ours to educate young people in the spirit of the values enshrined in the Constitution, is not just for this subject. It is about school and about each of you.

The Republic of Moldova is going through a period of major trials: a war in the neighboring country, increasingly frequent foreign interference in our democratic and electoral processes, ever more aggressive disinformation and manipulation campaigns generated and distributed with the help of Artificial Intelligence, aimed at dividing society, discrediting the state, and demonizing the European Union—all of these challenge our safety, unity, and ability to survive as a sovereign and free country.

In such times, education becomes our shield, the first line of defense of the country.

You do not only raise specialists. You raise citizens. You are raising people to love this country, to believe in it, and to protect it. You cultivate the courage to think freely and the dignity to tell the truth.

You cultivate respect for our values—sovereignty, dignity, peace, mutual respect, integrity, our language, and culture.

In your classrooms, antibodies against lies and manipulation should be formed.

This mission is directly linked to the most important project of our country: European Union membership. Because the EU is not just about treaties and negotiations, but about values lived day by day. And these values take root in school, where the generation that will keep freedom, peace, and democracy forms.

If we lose the youth, we lose everything. A country without involved young people becomes a vulnerable country where others decide for us.

A word spoken at the right time can transform an indifferent student into an engaged citizen. An honest discussion can ignite confidence and hope that Moldova has a prosperous and democratic future and that our youths can succeed here, at home.

I know it is not easy. I know it is unfair to place this mission on the shoulders of the school. Of course, there are also other important actors, starting with parents and other parts of society who have this responsibility, but you are there, day by day, you speak to young people, and you, through a little, can do a lot.

Dear teachers,

Each student you train today will be tomorrow the doctor who saves lives, the engineer who builds roads and bridges, but especially the citizen who will defend all our freedom, will take care of our country, of Moldova. It depends on your work whether we will have a people who submit or a people who resist, a people who with dignity defend their country, defend the interests of the citizens of our country. If we will be a captive country or if we will be a free country. This is the stake. And this is your power.

It is our common task—of the state, of parents, of communities. But you are on the front line. And I am sure you understand the importance of this mission.

Thank you for your courage, for your involvement, and for your belief that education changes lives. Not just the lives of young people, but also the life of the country. I wish you a school year with curious students, with beautiful results, and with the satisfaction of knowing that your work will last for generations.