Education Minister: There is no need for referendum to find out what parents and teachers in Chișinău think about six years of school administration in city

No referendum is needed to find out what parents and teachers in Chișinău think about the past six years of school administration in the city. A visit to the city’s schools is enough. The response comes from Minister of Education and Research Dan Perciun, after Chisinau Mayor Ion Ceban proposed holding a referendum on the reform of education departments.

“No referendum is needed to find out what parents and teachers in Chișinău think about the past six years of school administration in the city. A visit to the city’s schools is enough. Overcrowded classrooms. A lack of vision. No clear plan from City Hall to solve the problem. The mayor has not even managed to fully establish a working group, let alone approve a basic action plan to combat school overcrowding,” wrote Dan Perciun.

The minister emphasized that over six years, more than 1 billion lei allocated for schools and kindergartens remained unspent by City Hall. “Money made available by the government, but unspent due to poor financial management. How many schools could have been repaired with this money? How many kindergartens could have been modernized? How many new spots could have been created for children?” he said.

The Minister of Education emphasized that the reform of the education departments means higher salaries for employees in the education departments and an increase in their administrative capacity.

“Today, in Chișinău, nearly 50% of the positions in the education department are vacant. This means fewer specialists to support schools, less capacity for planning, less assistance for principals, and more unresolved issues. The reform aims to address this situation,” Perciun said.

According to him, for the system, the reform will mean better alignment between the policies promoted by the Ministry of Education and what happens day-to-day in schools: reducing bureaucracy, increasing school autonomy, properly integrating children with special educational needs, combating informal payments, and depoliticizing educational institutions.

The official added that for school principals, the reform will mean greater autonomy, genuine respect, and clarity in their work, less unnecessary pressure, less artificial bureaucracy, and more professional support in school administration.

For students and parents, the reform will mean the opportunity for more coherent school administration, with greater investment, clearer decisions, and solutions implemented more quickly where problems are evident, argued Dan Perciun.

Earlier this week, Moldova’s Minister of Education and Research Dan Perciun announced a new education reform concept titled “Restart in Education,” which calls for changing how schools are managed and creating regional agencies under the ministry. The reform also includes salary increases and aims to achieve three major objectives: better alignment between the policies established by the Ministry and their implementation in schools, strengthening the institutional capacity of school districts, and depoliticizing decision-making at the local level. The new model for managing educational institutions could be implemented as early as 2027.