The practice of extortion from parents in the Moldovan education system has not been eliminated whatsoever. Moreover, it has become even more intensified, says Alla Revenco, founder of the Solidarity Parents initiative group.

Speaking at a news conference held at Infotag on Monday, she reminded that, “All Moldovan governments declared the fight against corruption as their top priority, but this has had no continuation in real action”.

“The Code of Education, the Code of Ethics for Teachers, various strategies and plans of all governments spoke of a direct prohibition of corruption, that is, requisitions, gifts, offerings in envelopes etc. But the reality is that bribery has not disappeared in the country, but continues in various forms. And it turns out that the child sees and participates in this phenomenon all these years, from kindergarten to university,” the social activist said.   

According to her, the Solidarity Parents recently conducted an informal study of corruption as a phenomenon in the system of education and upbringing of children in Moldova, with a survey of 1272 respondents.

“Most do not consider a bribe of 100 or 200 lei to be corruption. Over 579,000 minors spend several hours a day in schools and other institutions. And what do they see? They see the “needs” of educational institutions for repairs, the purchase of furniture, hygiene items and other things at the expense of parents, although schools allocate funds for this from the Budget. Parents themselves bring money to schools when their kids go to junior grades. But later on, they send money through their growing daughters and sons. And the children see this corruption in concrete teachers who accept envelopes,” she said, citing the figure of an “premium” of 2,000 lei to the average salary of a teacher of 7,000 lei a month.