Maha Damaj: UNICEF is committed to ensuring quality, inclusive and equitable education for every child in Moldova by 2030

Chisinau, June 10, 2022 - "Education-2030" Strategy and its implementation Programme, aime developing and improving the education sector in the Republic of Moldova. These policy documents,  developed by the Ministry of Education and Research in cooperation with UNICEF Moldova, were presented and validated today, by relevant education actors and development partners during a national forum. 

„According to the Sustainable Development Goals, UNICEF is committed to inclusive and equitable quality education for every child by 2030, no exceptions, no school girl and boy  left behind. For this, we need to urgently re-imagine education and build a resilient Education System beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic and the negative impact of the Ukrainian war so that it can respond to the challenges of quality education for ALL children”, said UNICEF Moldova Country Representative, Maha Damaj.  

UNICEF will support the implementation of the Strategy by strengthening sectoral and cross-sectoral cooperation between line ministries and public-private partnerships, enhancing the capacities of teachers on child-centered approaches to be able to respond to the individual needs of all boys and girls, preventing stigma and discrimination, and ensuring the educational and social inclusion of disadvantaged children. 

The main objectives of the new Strategy are: adapting education to the requirements and needs of the labor market, ensuring access for all to quality education throughout life, strengthening socio-educational cohesion for quality education, effective implementation of digital technologies, creating opportunities for lifelong learning and education in the formal, non-formal and informal contexts, promoting innovation and change in education through the development of scientific research.  

"Education is one of the prerequisites for achieving sustainable development in the country and the most important tool for streamlining the governance and development of democracy. By modernizing the national education system, we aim to develop critical and creative thinking skills among the population, combined with educating and cultivating mutual respect, tolerance, understanding of democracy, agreed decision-making and implementation of plans for the common good and prosperity, underlined the Minister of Education and Research, Anatolie Topală.  

Based on the objectives of the Strategy, the necessary conditions for all girls and boys to complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading; equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable will be ensured; all pupils/students will acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development; the quality of the initial and continuous teacher training system will increase; the infrastructure of educational institutions will be upgraded; a synergistic system of integration of new information and communication technologies with the didactic ones will be developed, which will ensure a good level of performance for the learners; a maximum level of connection and interconnection with the labour market and the community will be ensured, as a condition for streamlining the functionality of the education system. 

"The exercise we are participating today is a very responsible one. The validation of the education development strategy is much more than a simple appreciation of the quality of an elaborated document. Today, by validating this document, we will take responsibility for the future of education. It is important that this future is clear and accepted by the whole society ", added the advisor to the President of the Republic of Moldova in the field of education and research, Valentina Chicu. 

„It is extremely important to continue to focus on collaboration, on the joint efforts of all actors in education, public authorities, development partners, civil society, business, etc. At the same time, the quality of the learning process is closely linked to the involvement and training of teachers, here we have to invest the most", mentioned Liliana Nicolaescu-Onofrei, President of the Commission for Culture, Education, Research, Youth, Sports and Media .

 The ‘Education 2030’ Development Strategy was developed in line with the following documents: ‘Moldova 2030’ National Development Strategy, 2021-2022 Action Plan of the Government of the Republic of Moldova, ‘Education 2030’ UN Sustainable Development Goals, Republic of Moldova – European Union Association Agreement, Key Competences for Lifelong Learning (Bruxelles, 2018), Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Incheon Declaration (2015), the Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education. 

The "Education-2030" Strategy and its Implementation Program will be approved by the Government of the Republic of Moldova.