Moldova

Assisting with Educational Reform in Moldova

In Moldova the modernisation of the educational system has been going on for the past few years. To round off the first phase of the Educational Reform project, the Ministry of Education requested Cito to provide technical assistance in four areas:

• Learning assessment
• Textbook development
• Curriculum review
• Teacher training

In Learning Assessment, Cito assisted in setting up the institutional and logistical infrastructure for national examinations that was designed to meet the basic purposes of certification, selection and public information on the quality of education. A main focus in this component was to assist the new Moldovan Department for Examinations and Evaluation (DEE) of the Ministry of Education with the introduction of new examinations at the 11+-age level and at the 16+- age level. The assistance covered all the important aspects needed for the establishment of a modern sustainable examination system: test construction, examination production, administering and logistics of exams, organising pre-tests and the analysis and reporting of results of the pre-test and of the actual exam and, equally important, to organise a public information campaign.

Technical assistance in the textbook component focused on consultancy and support to bidding procedures for publishers, the set up and maintenance of a national schoolbook fund and improving the standards of publishing of schoolbooks in Moldova. It helped to ensure the development of schoolbooks for the students that support the educational reform and the provision of a nation-wide funding system that made these books available to all schools. Cito's role in the development of new curricula was to provide reviews for curricula for a limited number of subjects and grades. A benchmarking procedure was used to assess whether the developed curricula in Mathematics, the Russian language and Sciences met the standards for curricula in a modern educational system.

Teacher training provided the necessary support to the teaching community for implementing change. Together with the Moldovan teacher training experts, training modules are developed and implemented at the lower secondary level. Cito formed a consortium to provide the required technical assistance. This consortium had two distinct features: Firstly, to develop different components, experts in the various fields joined the technical assistance team. In the textbook component, Cito has teamed up with Education for Change and Sungura consultants from the UK. The Curriculum reviews was a joint effort of Cito and SLO. In teacher training, Cito worked together with the Education Development Co-operation from the USA. Secondly, in Cito's field of expertise, learning assessment, Cito delivered assistance together with the National Examination and Assessment Service (NAES) from Romania. Cito has been providing consultancy and training to the NAES since 1998. To strengthen regional capacity, one of our policies is to include local expertise in our assistance teams.

The consortium led by Cito aimed to assist the Ministry of Education to secure the improvement and modernisation of the educational system in Moldova.

Project facts

	Name of Client:	Ministry of Education of Moldova
	Funding:	The World Bank
	Type of activities:	Training Consultancy Introduction new exams PR
	Project time:	September 1999 - September 2001
	Project scope:	35 staff months