Moldova

Histoires vécues

Moldova's community centers for early education assume the role of kindergartens

© UNICEF Moldova/2001

Carolina Ababii likes to learn folkloric tales

Carolina Ababii is a six year-old girl from Talmaza, a village situated in the south of the Republic of Moldova. Every morning she gets up on her own because she wants to go to the recently opened Community Center for Early Education in the village. Carolina then has to walk up to a mile each way. But this does not faze her because she looks forward to seeing her teacher Mrs. Galina Ozarenschi, not to mention her 24 new friends at the community center.

"I like being here. At the moment I'm drawing a sun and my house. I'm learning how to write and read. I've learned a poem about the days of the week," says Carolina as she starts to recite: "Mother week has seven daughters ...they are holding their hands ... Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday - these are the first ones."

Carolina's mother, 28 year-old Silvia Ababii, is also happy. She doesn't have time to give Carolina an adequate education as she takes care of five other children. "I'm very happy with the Center. The teacher puts a lot of efforts in order to give as much as she can in a very short time. I can already see the results: after a month my daughter recites poems, draws and is familiar with folkloric tales" says Silvia Ababii.

The Community Center for Early Education is an alternative to kindergarten services that have become too expensive for Silvia and her husband, Alexandru. Both are unemployed after the local collective farm (kolhoz) was dissolved. She used to work as cook and he as a tractor-driver, but when the land from the kolhoz was split between fellow villagers, they had not worked long enough for property ownership eligibility. Carolina's parents are now forced to earn a living by working for other landowners at 20 lei per day (which is less then 1.50 US dollars each).

© UNICEF Moldova/2001

Carolina is back home, with her three sisters

With no other employment opportunities they struggle to make ends meet in Talmaza, one of the biggest villages in Moldova, with a population of 7,000 inhabitants. In previous times, the village was well known throughout Moldova for its pheasant, poultry, and vegetable farms, not to mention its winery. Privatization, which occurred following the fall of Soviet Communism, consisted of giving approximately 0.8 ha of property to every adult in Talmaza who had worked in the former collective farms, has had mixed results. A number of them re-combined their plots and created associations.

Economic crisis takes its toll on families

But Carolina's parents were left without land and permanent jobs. And their children quickly came to understand what that means in real terms - less food, second-hand clothes and no possibility to attend kindergarten. Yet, all eight of them - parents and children - make a nice and friendly family. The older daughter and son, Nelly (12) and Alexandru (10) are helping with the upkeep of the house and an adjoining small garden, as well as caring for the rest of the kids - Cornelia (6), Mihaela (4), Dana (3) and Tatiana (1). The youngest girls are blond with deep blue eyes. And Carolina is the most talkative and spontaneous. The eldest, Nelly, has sad eyes and neither likes to talk about the present nor the future.

According to Galina Tataru, the pre-school education inspector from the county administration and one of the promoters of the first community centers for preschool education, Talmaza formerly had five kindergartens. Now, only three survive as the economic crisis takes its toll. Yet, even these kindergartens are not immune to the economic situation: they do not function year-round because local authorities cannot afford to heat the buildings in winter. With families unable to cover schooling fees, only 105 children out of 700 pre-school aged children are able to attend kindergarten.

With approximately half the population of Moldova currently living below the poverty line, this country has the unfortunate distinction of being the poorest country in Europe. Using a minimum poverty threshold of 120 lei per month (11.50 in US dollars), in 1999 it was calculated that 58 percent of the population was living in poverty. Poverty affects mostly large or single-parent families, agricultural workers and rural populations. Families with more than two children have the highest probability of living in poverty.

These economic conditions have set the stage for the children from Talmaza whose parents cannot afford preschool services. The only chance for these children aged five to seven years to get a cultural and civic education is through the Community Center for Early Education whose activities and one meal per day are not financially burdening families.

"When we announced the opening of the Center almost 50 families came to us. But because there wasn't enough space for all the children, we could only select half of them. A lot of these children come from very poor families. We would like to extend our services so that all poor children can attend and receive adequate preparedness for primary school. There are children whose behaviour is rather untamed, but with our help, they are able to integrate in this totally new environment, to get socialized," said the teacher, Galina Ozarenschi.

A long lasting influence on life

Because the early childhood years have a long lasting influence on life, the education of a child must begin at the very beginning of life. Parents should be directly involved in this process since interactions with family members and other adults influence the way a child's brain develops. For this reason the Community Center representatives place an emphasis on working with parents.

"We provide parents with all the information and counseling on early childhood and on pre-school education that they require. All the teaching aid is free of charge, thought-provoking and emphasizes practical applications. If necessary I visit every house just to talk to the parents and to show them the importance for education for their children. But lots of parents are still reserved, especially fathers. We want to 'educate' them, and to help foster a suitable environment at home because when children don't get the right start, they never catch up or reach their full potential", says the 'mother' of this program, Galina Ozarenschi.

Due to the economic and social crisis, the pre-educational system needs many structural and conceptual changes. Centers like the one in Talmaza are providing alternative models for early education in Moldova. In order to extend its services, the Community Center for Early Education has to attract financial support. Because of cutbacks to the state budget, the local budget allocations are insufficient. For this reason the Republic of Moldova has to rely on international aid. Since 1996, UNICEF has implemented projects in early childhood development in Moldova. At this moment, 45 kindergarten institutions from across the Republic are participating in the programme on childhood development. The teachers are taught new and innovative methods for addressing children individually, developing their personalities and helping them to express themselves.

© UNICEF Moldova/2001

Mrs.Galina Ozarenschi fitted the center with nice drawings and paintings

Further, these pilot-kindergarten teachers share their experience with colleagues from neighboring municipalities through seminars and workshops. Spreading new ways of teaching, however, has been hampered by the widespread closings of kindergartens in the last few years as a result of the financial crisis. In rural areas, up to 80 percent of children stay at home until primary school attendance because they have no access to early childhood educational opportunities. And to make matters worse, the number of children that do not attend school has increased. According to Ministry of Education statistics, more than 7,000 children cannot attend school because of poverty. Poverty, though it affects everyone, hurts children deeply. This is especially true of Moldova - a country with the highest level of child-poverty in the region. For this reason UNICEF started supporting the creation of Community Centers for Early Education as an alternative to the lack of pre-school education. These centers aim: to disseminate information on early development in families; to enrich children without educational chances; and, to provide children from low-income families with opportunities for socialization. Yet, the support provided by international organizations goes much further than the alternative education methods, the opportunities for development and the occasions for involving parents in their children's growth. The support is resulting in hope. Hope that children from rural areas will be allowed to succeed in their lives, to get an education and to be able to meet life's challenges with a healthy mind and body. The flickers of hope can already be observed in the eyes of Carolina and her mother.