Moldova Invests in Education with "Model Schools"
The "Mihail Sadoveanu" Theoretical Lyceum in Ocnița will be completely renovated to become a 'model school'.
In total, 35 schools across the country will be part of the Model Schools Network – a national project launched by the Ministry of Education and Research.
Vasile Gadîmba is 14 years old and is an eighth-grader. He commutes to school by bus every day, travelling 14 kilometres.
"In our village, there is a gymnasium, the gym is worse there, the conditions are really worse. Here it is much more favourable than in the village, more friends and opportunities," says the teenager.
The school will soon receive funding of up to two million euros. The money will be used to improve the infrastructure and equip the lyceum with modern necessities.
"The most important thing at the moment is energy efficiency. This includes changing the heating and ventilation system, as well as insulating the building," said the director of the lyceum.
"We will also grow professionally, allowing us to deliver even better quality education. It will be an attractive school for students if it has modern digital laboratories and technology," said mathematics teacher Mihail Jalbă.
"Biology is related to experiments, different equipment. This is what we want and expect for the future," said Ala Cebotari, biology teacher.
In the first stage, 10 schools will be renovated. The total cost of the project is 70 million euros. The Ministry of Education has announced that it currently has 14.5 million euros.
"For the other 25, including the lyceum in Ocnița, we are looking for resources. We are now in talks to include them in an energy efficiency project, together with the World Bank, and experts will visit all these 25 institutions to conduct a pre-energy audit," said Minister of Education and Research Dan Perciun.
The initiation of the "Model Schools Network" project was motivated by the discrepancies in student performance in different localities. Of the 35 schools selected, 12 are from the north of the Republic of Moldova.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
