40% drop in Moldova's student population in ten years
The number of students in Moldova's primary and secondary schools has declined by about 40% in the past ten years, according to economic expert Veaceslav Ioniță.
Ioniță, who presented the data today, said that the decline is due to a combination of factors, including internal migration, emigration, and declining birth rates.
"We have 334,000 children," Ioniță said. "We would have been happy if there were no such phenomenon as internal migration. Even though we have a stabilisation of the number of children in schools, even if in the coming years the number of children will not decrease, we have several districts that, in addition to external migration, people leaving abroad, are also facing internal migration. In the perspective of 10 years, in Chisinau the number of children has increased by 25%, in the city of Balti it remains the same 13%, in the other districts we have a decrease in the number of children."
Ioniță estimates that there are about 1,200 schools in Moldova. He said that in 80% of schools, the number of students is less than the national average of 275 students.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
