Moldova/OER

This entry is brief and has little detail on e-learning or OER.
For up to date (August 2015) information on OER see Open Education Moldova, by experts from MiLab

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Overview

Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova (Republica Moldova) is a country in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east and south. The country is landlocked, even though it is very close to the Black Sea. Its population is just over 4,000,000 and its capital (and largest city) is Chişinău.

Moldova is a parliamentary democracy with a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of government. It is a member state of the United Nations, Council of Europe, WTO, OSCE, GUAM, CIS, BSEC and other international organizations. Moldova currently aspires to join the European Union, and has implemented the first three-year Action Plan within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP).

Moldova enjoys a favorable climate and good farmland but has no major mineral deposits. As a result, the economy depends heavily on agriculture, featuring fruits, vegetables, wine, and tobacco. The economy contracted dramatically following the fall of the Soviet Union. Currently, Moldova is the poorest country in Europe. About a quarter of the population lives on less than US$2 a day.

Moldova is known for its wines. For many years viticulture and winemaking in Moldova were the general occupation of the population. Most of the country's wine production is made for export.

The Constitution of Moldova states that the Moldovan language is the official language, while the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Moldova names the official language Romanian. The 1989 State Language Law speaks of a "Moldo-Romanian linguistic identity". In 2003, the government of Moldova adopted a national political conception which states that one of the priorities of the national politics of the Republic of Moldova is the insurance of the existence of a Moldovan language. This situation is not unknown in other parts of Europe. Russian is provided with the status of a "language of interethnic communication" (alongside the official language), and in practice remains widely used on all levels of the society and the state. The above-mentioned national political conception also states that Russian-Moldovan bilingualism is characteristic for Moldova.

Gagauz and Ukrainian have significant regional speaker populations and are granted official status together with Russian in Gagauzia and Transnistria respectively. Moldova is divided into 32 districts (raioane, singular raion); three municipalities (Bălţi, Chişinău, Bender); and two autonomous regions (Găgăuzia and Transnistria - the latter de facto independent). The cities of Comrat and Tiraspol, and the administrative seats of the two autonomous territories also have municipality status.

Further information

For further general information see Wikipedia:Moldova/OER.

Education in Moldova/OER

For a general description of education in Moldova/OER see Education:Moldova/OER.

The Ministry of Education and Youth (Moldova) is the central body of public administration of the education system, which develops strategies and promotes the state policy in higher education through Higher Education Departments.

The other five ministries manage the activity of several specialized higher education institutions: Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Ministry of Health and Social Protection, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Defence.

Schools in Moldova

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Moldova) As of 2007-2008 academic year, Moldova had ten types of primary and secondary schools:

1. Primary schools, grades 1-4
2. Gymnasiums, grades 1-9
3. Lyceums, grades 1-12, Bacalaureat exam
4. General schools, grades 1-11, no Bacalaureat exam, cannot continue with higher education
5. Evening schools
6. Schools of trades, 1 year (grade 12), no Bacalaureat exam, cannot continue with higher education
7. Vocational schools, 3 years (grades 10-12), no Bacalaureat exam, but can continue with higher education
8. Vocational lyceums, 3 years (grades 10-12), Bacalaureat exam
9. Colegii, 2 to 3 years, no Bacalaureat exam, but can continue with higher education
10. Special schools, grades 1-11, no Bacalaureat exam, cannot continue with higher education

Useful statistics are then given.

Higher education in Moldova - overview

(sourced from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Moldova)

The ministries that supervise higher education institutions determine the main strategy of specialized higher education development. They also finance and monitor the activity of these institutions. The common principles of organization and development of the educational process in the institutions supervised by other ministries are directed by the Ministry of Education and Youth.

Higher education institutions participate directly or through their representatives (Rectors’ Conference) in the implementation of reforms, promoted by the Ministry of Education and Youth, in the elaboration of legislative acts, which regulate the organization and functioning of higher education system.

The legislation in force stipulates university autonomy in terms of administration, teaching and research activity, management and financing.

In Moldova, there are both public and private universities. There are 16 state and 15 private institutions of higher education, with a total of 126,100 students, including 104,300 in the state institutions, and 21,700 in the private ones.

The number of students per 10,000 inhabitants in Moldova has been constantly growing since the collapse of the Soviet Union, reaching 217 in 2000-2001, and 351 in 2005-2006.

There are 6,200 faculty members in Moldova's universities and colleges (on average 1 faculty member per 20.3 students). Out of these, only 2,700 (43%) hold PhD degrees, including 358 (5.8%) that also hold the highest academic degree: Habilitation. Moldovan faculty members usually teach around 20 hours per week (one of the highest workloads in the world).

52.5% of students major in economics, law, social sciences, or in some fields that the Moldovan Ministry of Education calls on its website "professional formation fields", 18.4% study engineering and architecture, 16.0% - education. There are a total of 90 specialities (majors) offered.

101,100 students, or 80.2%, pay for their studies (from 2,000 to 7,300 Moldovan lei per year, i.e. from 120 to 430 euros per year). The state is trying to increase the number of places offered free of charge when students are admitted to public universities: there were 5,085 in 2001, 5,290 in 2002, 5,628 in 2003, 6,354 in 2004, 7,048 in 2005, 7,835 in 2006, but this rate (54% over 5 years) is lower than the rate of increase (65% over the same period) in the total number of places. 15% of the free of charge places are reserved, and distributed to candidates from low-income families. In an effort to support them, the state gives scholarships to 70% of students who occupy the free of charge places, i.e. to 14.4% of the total number of students. As of January 1, 2006, these scholarships are in three categories: 210, 230, or 270 Moldovan lei per month, i.e. 12, 14, or 16 euros per month respectively.

Despite the fact that 75.8% of the population of Moldova is Moldovan and 2.1% is Romanian, only 65% of students study in Romanian. Russians represent 5.9% of population, but 29.8% of students study in Russian. There is little to no education in Ukrainian, Gagauz and Bulgarian, and these minority groups are forced to study in Russian, which is neither their native language, not the official language of the country. Also, 3.9% of students follow their courses in English, French, German, and other languages of international communication.

The National Council on Accreditation and Attestation is an organization that approves the examination programs for doctoral students, confers scientific degrees, and scientific and pedagogical ranks. The Council publishes online all PhD theses that are elaborated and defended in Moldova.

Universities in Moldova

The page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_universities_in_Moldova lists the universities. Only three have Wikipedia pages (which we take as a crude signifier of relevance):

• State University of Moldova, Chişinău - http://www.usm.md/start.aspx (in English)
• Ion Creangă Pedagogical State University, Chişinău - with a useful Wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_Creang%C4%83_Pedagogical_State_University and a web site (not in English) at http://www.upsc.md/
• Imi-Nova International Management Institute, Chişinău - a private institution with a PR-oriented Wikipedia page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imi-Nova_International_Management_Institute and a web site (not in English - surprisingly) at http://www.imi-nova.md/

The system also includes two institutions, which offer post graduate continuous training:

• The Academy of Public Administration by President’s Office of Republic of Moldova
• State Institute for Continuous Training.

Polytechnics in Moldova

There are a number of colleges and specialised institutes in the list at http://www.university-directory.eu/Moldova/Moldova.html

e-learning

For a description more focussed to e-learning see E-learning:Moldova/OER.

The 2003 UNESCO report noted:

Currently, a project is being developed, that of a National Programme for the Implementation of ICT in Education, which includes all the required elements: provision of equipment, the initial and in-service preparation of the teaching and administrative staff, the elaboration of the needed programming software, net building, and the provision of access to the global information networks and services. Also, higher education in Moldova should radically modify its curriculum and at the same time stress the development of lifelong learning skills and creativity as well as the use of the ICTs in the process of instructing highly qualified specialists for the national economy including research and development. (1)

Quality procedures

Accreditation is part of the function of the Ministry of Education and Youth (Moldova)

However, Moldova is not a (full or candidate) member of ENQA (there is a full list at http://www.enqa.eu/allagencies.lasso) - in fact there are no hits for "Moldova" on the ENQA web site.

Private higher education institutions are authorised by the Licensing Chamber – a central public authority that issues licences and coordinated with the Ministry of Education and Youth. See for example that Gagauzian University was closed - see http://lists.microlink.lv/pipermail/minelres/2002-August/002259.html

References

1. ReVica/VISCED page for Moldova (http://virtualcampuses.eu/index.php/Moldova)

Reports

1. Open Education Moldova, by Cristina Lisii, Dmitri Belan and Alex Oprunenco from the United Nations Development Programme and working on the MiLab (Moldova Social Innovation Hub) Project, August 2015, http://education.okfn.org/open-education-moldova/

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