Kindergartens unprepared to accommodate children with disabilities. Dan Perciun: "There is no separate funding mechanism"
Kindergartens in the Republic of Moldova are not ready to enrol children with disabilities in the pre-school system due to a lack of budget for them, Education and Research Minister Dan Perciun said. According to the official, one of the priorities of his institution is to promote inclusive education.
"Our kindergartens are not yet ready to accommodate children with disabilities, children with special educational needs. There is no separate funding fund for teachers who would work with or support these children, as there is in mainstream education. The right thing to do would be to focus on inclusive education, from kindergarten to university, but today we provide something for school, but we have less focus on kindergarten," said Dan Perciun.
The Ministry of Education and Research is developing a plan for inclusive education for the next 3-5 years, which provides solutions for the integration of children with severe disabilities. The programme could be approved by the end of the year.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova, in 2022, 1,479 kindergartens were operating in our country, attended by 133 thousand children.
