​MOLDOVAN MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DENIES RUSSIA’S ACCUSATIONS OF LIMITING EDUCATION IN RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

The Ministry of Education has denied accusations of the Russian Ambassador to Moldova that the authorities restrict education in Russian language. As Infotag has already reported, in one of his interviews, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia to Moldova Farit Muhametshin has stated that the amendments to the Education Code aim to “completely eliminate the Russian language from different fields of the state and society activity”.

The Ministry of Education message mentioned that “the education system reforms have purpose to improve quality and respecting human right on education by means of providing qualitative education to all children, regardless of their ethnicity and without any discrimination”. The Ministry emphasized that 263 pre-university education institutions with Russian language of instruction are operating in Moldova.

“They will further continue working and the Education Code will not change the situation in these institutions. The Code fully complies with the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, as well as recognizes and guarantees the rights of individuals, belonging to national minorities, to maintaining, development and expression of their ethnicity, culture, language and religion”, says the message.

The Ministry underlines that by the adoption of the Education Code, “the state guarantees the formation and development of an efficient communication in Romanian, as well as national minorities’ languages”.

“Moreover, the state undertakes to provide conditions for learning and development of communication skills in English, French and Russian in all the public institutions of general education. Besides, students will have opportunity to study other foreign languages, if schools have such possibility”, mentions the Ministry of Education.

The message said that all the education institutions, regardless of the language of instruction, are provided with didactic materials and books, meeting the pupils’ requirements. Besides, the provision of the technical base is covered by local authorities or from the institution’s own funds, depending on the amount of money it can allocate from its budget.

“The Ministry is ready for cooperation with different institutions to discuss and improve the situation in the education system”, says the message.

Infotag’s dossier: The Moldovan Parliament has adopted the new Education Code in the final reading. According to it, the language of instruction in Moldovan schools is Romanian, while the teaching in national minorities’ languages is guaranteed at parents’ will and depends on the institutions’ financial possibilities. English, French and Russian has been identified as foreign languages. Two of them are obligatory, on parents will.