Moldovan schools in Pridnestrovie
Human Rights | Moldova
You may have heard about four Moldovan schools that got closed in Pridnestrovie a couple of years ago. But what really happened? Were innocent children denied education ... or were they being used as pawns in a political game by Communist Party politicians from Chisinau?
In 2004, over the fabricated "outrage" of four schools operating outside the law in Pridnestrovie, Moldova launched a well coordinated campaign to isolate Pridnestrovie internationally, labelling the country as a "human rights violator". But when the facts were uncovered, the strategy backfired: In the end, Pridnestrovie merely acted as any other country with a legal responsibility to ensure that no child is left behind in its obligation to provide quality education.
The schools were found to be in violations of Articles 1,6,8,13, and 35 of the Law on Education, violations of the "Marriage and Family" Code and "Children's Rights" Laws, violation of Article 52 in the Civil Code of the PMR, in violation of the Tax System bases law, in violation of Article 18 of the law on Licensing Particular Activities, and even in violation of the law "On the bodies of local administration, local self-management, and state administration". And they refused all efforts to remedy this situation.
Don't make her anybody's pawn
Indignation Misplaced
Everyone in Pridnestrovie has the right to free quality education. The highest law in the country, its Constitution, makes education compulsatory. The country's policy has been an unequivocal success: Today, Pridnestrovie has the highest literacy ratings in the entire Black Sea region.
Schoolchildren in Pridnestrovie are taught all 3 official state languages: Moldavian, Russian and Ukrainian. And parents can choose which language should be the primary language of their children simply by sending them to any of the free schools which specialize in the language of their choice.
Out of 183 schools, 33 primary schools and 16 secondary schools teach exclusively in Moldavian. A total of 11,200 pupils out of 79,000 are taught in Moldavian, with Russian and Ukrainian taught as second languages (foreign language electives). Children in schools have their tuition in one of the three languages and have to learn one more out of the three. In addition, they can learn other European languages, with English and German usually topping the list. It is notable that of the 49 Moldavian-run schools in Pridnestrovie, only 6 of them preferred to use Latin script.
The Ministry of Education does not interfere with what goes on in minority-run schools. It merely ensures that all educational institutions in Pridnestrovie are accredited and ensures that children do not receive sub-standard education. The Ministry oversees that all schools perform their work according to a set of quality standards equivalent to those in other countries.
It’s the Law
In 2004, in advance of local elections, a small cabal of pro-Moldovan anti independence operatives came up with a strategy for undermining the work of Pridnestrovie's democratically elected government.
Establishing six parallel Moldavian-language schools within the country, they subsequently refused to register them with the Ministry of Education or to adhere to the minimum set of quality standards that are part of the law to protect the country's schoolchildren.
The schools didn't register with the government. To make matters worse, and in gross disregard for children, the administrators decided to work with a legal license. By teaching a foreign curriculum and not following the minimum standards for education as all other schools in the republic, these schools also violated Articles 1,6,8,13, and 35 of Pridnestrovie's Educational Law.
And although all other schools have to offer all 3 official state languages (with one of them as a main and the other two taught as foreign languages), these schools made a point of only teaching Moldavian. In violation of the multiethnic character of the Pridnestrovie, they refused to offer even the most basic classes in Russian or Ukrainian, not even putting them on the curriculum as foreign language elective. In the face of such gross disregard for the children, the competent authorities in Pridnestrovie first urged the schools to comply with the legal norms prevailing in the country. Two of them did so, but four others — under direct instructions from Chisinau — refused to follow the law. When all attempts to regulate them failed, and after many months of appeals on the behalf of the children, the authorities reluctantly took the step of ordering a temporary closure of these four schoools on the grounds of serious violations of the country's legal code for education.
The case was about politics, never about the children
This was what Moldova had been waiting for. Its well-oiled propaganda machine immediately sprang into action, accusing Pridnestrovie of tyranny and of persecuting children. Moldova wanted to use non-authorized textbooks and an the Latin alphabet despite the fact that Moldavian in Pridnestrovie has always been written in the Cyrillic alphabet. But this was never the issue. Pridnestrovie allows minority schools to teach in any language and in any alphabet, as long as they are registered and comply with the legal norms and the educational standards that all other schools have to follow. Pridnestrovie allows Jewish schools to text in Hebrew if they want to, as long as educational standards are met.
Nevertheless, Moldova's propaganda machine made the alphabet issue the focus of their smear campaign, neglecting to mention that the schools were renegade institutions who had never been legally registered and whose teachers had not presented the proper qualifications to the Ministry of Education.
Despite the smear campaign, pragmatic Pridnestrovie decided to work things out in the interest of propecting minority rights. After a review of the teachers' professional qualification, the Ministry of Education in 2005 gave a permanent registration to the four illegal Moldovan schools: Although also subject to oversight by Pridnestrovie, these schools are now doubly subordinated to the Ministry of Education in Chisinau, and use the curriculum of the Republic of Moldova. They teach Moldovan in the Latin script.
The case for regulating the renegade schools was clear cut: You can not operate illegally without registering, with teachers who do not present their professional qualifications, and without allowing your school's curriculum to be reviewed by the Ministry of Education whose job it is to ensure the quality level of all schoolchildrens' education.
All throughout the school case, Chisinau attempted to paint a deceptive picture of a Stasi-like authoritarian regime hounding innocent children. A truer picture would find that using children as pawns, the Moldovans responsible for the schools operated in highly dubious legal territory. What would be the reaction of Moldova if renegade Pridnestrovians suddenly arrived in Chisinau to set up unregulated underground schools without registering or without letting the quality of the education of the children be subject to even the most basic oversight from that country's educational boards? At the very minimum, such compromising actions would most likely have been questionable under the Moldovan educational laws in the same manner that it deserved to be classified as of questionable legality under Pridnestrovian jurisprudence.
Why does Pridnestrovie prefer the cyrillic alphabet?
For 700 years, ever since the first ethnic Moldavians arrived on the Pridnestrovie side of the river in the 14th century, they have been writing their language in cyrillic. The renegade Moldovan schools wanted to teach Moldavian in the latin script. They were allowed to do so, but from a strictly educational viewpoint, Pridnestrovie does not consider this to be a correct decision. However, as a tolerant, multiethnic country which respects the right of the parents to choose, Pridnestrovie allows the individual parents to decide this issue.
Is the choice of one alphabet over the other a case of "discrimination", as Moldova was quick to claim? Not in the least. In fact, Romania itself used the Cyrillic alphabet for most of its history. As did Moldova. And as top scholars from the state university in Bucharest, Romania will point out, the cyrillic alphabet is much better suited for Romanian than the currently used latin alphabet. Due to the nature of the language the use of latin script sometimes impairs full written use of Romanian/Moldavian. This debate is well known among language scholars in Romania who lament that country's switch to latin script. But now the mistake is made and neither Moldova nor Romania can turn back the clock. Pridnestrovie, however, decided early on that it would not commit the same mistake. So as official policy, it simply teaches Moldavian in the alphabet most naturally suited to that language.
In Romania itself, Latin script was introduced in 1860 by outside Francophone elites following a nearly thousand year history of Cyrillic script in the region. In Moldova, Latin script was introduced in 1991. Pridnestrovie maintains the historical use of Cyrillic for Moldavian, as that is what works best for that particular language.
Pridnestrovie respects the human rights of all its children, regardless of language or ethnic background. There is no discrimination in Pridnestrovie but only a concern that legal and educational standards are always followed and adhered to.
