A new formula for financing early education institutions will be piloted in four districts of the country starting with 2025. The Ministry of Education and Research suggested the districts of Anenii Noi, Cahul, Floresti and Nisporeni. The draft was presented during a discussion between Minister Dan Perciun and the heads of education departments, kindergarten directors and representatives of the local public authorities of these districts, IPN reports.

Minister of Education and Research Dan Perciun said that between October 2023 and February 2024, an extensive analysis of the financing of kindergartens in the Republic of Moldova was carried out. It was found that there are large differences in spending per child between kindergartens and this points to inequalities in the distribution of financial resources. At the same time, a number of institutions are underfunded compared to the real needs, based on the number of children enrolled and their specific needs. The number of places available and the enrollment rates also vary considerably between different regions and localities.

“These discrepancies in spending per child between urban and rural regions are an indicator of structural inequalities in the kindergarten financing system in our country. These differences not only reflect variations in operational costs, but also the way in which resources are allocated, most of the times based on historical funding. Differences in funding can also influence access to education. In regions with insufficient funds, kindergartens are forced to increase the number of enrollments in groups, which leads to their overloading, or to reduce the number of services they offer, thus affecting children’s access to quality early education,” said Dan Perciun.

To address these issues, the Ministry proposed revising the funding methodology to ensure that the allocations more accurately reflect the actual needs of each kindergarten. It suggested including adjustment mechanisms in the financing formula and increasing transparency and monitoring of expenditures to ensure an efficient use of funds, namely: cost standards for preschool education institutions, gradual implementation of the formula for mitigating the impact on overfunded kindergartens, creation of an intervention fund at the level of the central authority, which will be managed by the Ministry of Education and Research

The implementation of the new financing formula for pre-school education institutions will be monitored and methodologically supported by the Ministry of Education, which will ensure that the budgets are established and used according to the new cost standards.