Reform initiated by Moldovan Education and Research Ministry: school textbooks to be printed in four colors, voluminous ones to be split

A total of 210 new textbook titles will be published in the coming years, so that pupils will benefit from new books for all school subjects. All textbooks will be printed in four colors, will have laminated covers and high-resolution images, and the more voluminous ones will be split into two parts. At the same time, for some subjects, textbooks will become digital and interactive. The reforms to be carried out in this process were presented by Education and Research Minister Dan Perciun today.

The changes are taking place in the context of developing the new curriculum for all subjects of study, planned for 2026. Thus, this year, the Education and Research Ministry (MEC) will launch procurement procedures for 105 textbook titles, out of a total of 210 planned titles. The amount allocated on this purpose is about 150 million lei.

“The year 2026 will be the year when we will complete the process of developing the new school curriculum and, accordingly, also in 2026 we will launch the new school textbooks’ procurements, which are expected to reach the educational institutions from our country in 2027, 2028, 2029. A significant number, the majority of them, should reach schools in 2027. Thus, the country has a unique opportunity to modernize the textbook development process and to ensure that, starting from 2027, all our pupils benefit from school textbooks of higher quality, more attractive, easier for pupils to understand, and aligned with the latest curriculum,” said Dan Perciun.

The official informed that, starting from 2026, textbooks’ procurement will follow a new rule.

“The 90-10 rule will be applied. Thus, 90 per cent of the decision regarding the purchase of a school textbook will be based on quality, and price will count for only 10 per cent in the final score that determines the textbook procurement decision,” said Dan Perciun.

Another new element is that all new textbooks, not only those for primary grades, will be printed in four colors, with age-appropriate fonts, proper spacing and high-resolution images.

“We will no longer accept textbooks that strain children’s eyes or make learning more difficult than it needs to be,” the education minister stressed.

Furthermore, bulky textbooks of up to 200 pages for grades I–VII will be split into two volumes.

“This is a long-requested decision by pupils and parents. Textbooks split into several parts mean lighter school bags and, implicitly, healthier children,” said Dan Perciun.

At the same time, the process of certifying textbook authors will be launched for the first time.

“This means that authors will benefit from additional trainings and support, so that we can ensure, on the one hand, that we have a larger number of teachers who become textbook authors, and on the other hand, that those who participate in the textbooks’ development process have all necessary preparation, offered free of charge by the state, in order to deliver products of the highest possible quality,” said the education minister.

The textbooks’ evaluation process will also be modernized, and the remuneration granted to evaluators will be doubled.

“We aim to allocate up to 10 per cent of the budget solely for textbooks’ evaluation, doubling evaluators’ pay, training and certifying them and involving a larger number of external experts, in order to ensure that evaluation is fair and objective,” the minister specified.

At the same time, for more subjects, such as mathematics, science, or computer science, interactive textbooks will be developed.

“This modernization is about respect for the child, for the teacher’s work and for families’ expectations. At the Education Ministry, we want textbooks that are clearer, more attractive, lighter and most importantly, better. Because quality education starts with the textbook that a child opens every day,” concluded Dan Perciun.

Another announced change concerns mathematics textbooks. Thus, MEC will acquire rights for adapted translations from Estonia, with the support of the European Union, United nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The textbooks acquired from Estonia will be translated, adapted and contextualized by publishing houses in Moldova, in partnership with mathematics teachers. The content will comply with the national curriculum, the students’ age level and the specifics of national assessments.

All edited textbooks will be available free of charge, in electronic format, on the website of the Center for Information and Communication Technologies in Education. The initiative is implemented in partnership with UNICEF, with financial support from the Global Partnership for Education.

In recent years, the MEC has selected and purchased over 2.5 million copies of new textbooks.