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Interview with Alexandru Ciuvaga, Head of Department of Education, Youth and Sport, Ungheni region

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Mr. Civaga, how do you appreciate current implementation of the inclusive education reform in Untheni region, what are the best achievements in this area?

It is in full process in Ungheni region. Two residential educational institutions have been closed: Sculeni auxiliary school and Ungheni residential school I can say with utmost responsibility that all children from these institutions have been included into their native community schools, so none of the children is out of school now. As for the pedagogues and other staff of the mentioned schools, they have been offered other employments or payments, in line with the existing legislation.

Another achievement is the creation of the Regional Psycho-Pedagogical Assistance Service (PPAS) and school resource centres for inclusive education. Meanwhile, support teachers have been trained and employed in all educational institutions, based on the existing needs. PPAS evaluated all children with special educational needs (SEN), and all school-leavers with SEN have been provided individual educational plans, based on which they will sit their exams. In addition, children with SEN from all region’s pre-school facilities have been evaluated, to identify their educational needs and provide specialized support.

Are you also planning other activities in this area?

Definitely. We need to create inclusive education resource centres in the rest of the region’s schools, and to extend this process in kindergartens. We also need to provide support teachers – both in terms of number of persons and quality of their work. Another need is procurement of a specialized transport unit for the transportation of children with disabilities to school.

We know that Ungheni region was selected to pilot a project in pre-school inclusive education. Can you tell us more about this?

Indeed, we are lucky to implement this innovative project in the Republic of Moldova, along with our British partners. We are talking about “Guguta” inclusive kindergarten in Ungheni, available also for children with special educational needs. The project intends to train the staff in the use of various work methods with these children. The project beneficiaries are 262 children, including those with special educational needs. Moreover, the project intends to extend at the regional level, and later, to be replication nationally.

Which of the latest achievements in Ungheni would you recommend to your colleagues from other regions, as positive practices in the inclusive education?

First of all, it would be good if they got rid of residential facilities and made reasonable use of the remaining areas and building, creating educational centres, resource centres, youth centres. For example, the buildings of former residential schools of Ungheni region are now used for other educational purposes: regional sports school, children’s educational and creativity centre, excellence centre, etc.

Thus, one can achieve good results in this area, if the focus is on the quality of support teachers and appropriate equipment of the inclusive educational resource centres.

These achievements have been possible due to strong collaboration between the Social Assistance and Family Protection Department and NGOs specialized in the area and willing to help us.

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