Moldova

At the advent of the twenty-first century, Moldova has put aside the Russian dominance in its education and is working to establish the education system in native Moldovan as distinct from Russian and somewhat different from, but still similar to, the Romanian model. The primary education and literacy rates continue to be impressive for a newly formed country. However, Moldova has been undergoing a serious economic crisis throughout the 1990s that has been adversely affecting the educational sector. Compounding this problem are issues of unemployment, bureaucratic corruption, energy crises (especially in winter, which leads to school closures), foreign debt, inability to attract foreign investment, growing number of strikes among teachers due to delayed salaries and lack of increase in emoluments, and erosion of values. Moldova is struggling to maintain the high literacy levels inherited from the Soviet era. The emphasis in modern Moldova is to establish a greater base of qualified professionals at international standards who are well versed in market economy and managerial sciences. Moldova is looking more and more toward the private sector to deliver some of these goods. It is still uncertain how much success it will get in this direction through these measures.

Education in Moldova has received and continues to receive liberal assistance in "content" and "process" from Romania. Furthermore, the educational system in Moldova has been receiving financial help from World Bank. In 1998, the World Bank initiated a General Education Project to support the introduction of new general education standards, to develop tests and implement new curricula, to purchase teaching materials and textbooks, and to update teaching methodology and teacher training. The total budget for this project was US$20 million. How much this foreign aid will impact the already weakened economy and aid in strengthening the education sector remains to be seen.