Modernizing schools: Less paperwork, more teaching time
The Ministry of Education and Research is preparing a second set of measures to streamline bureaucracy, set to launch this year.
These measures aim to reduce the number of reports required from teachers and school principals and transition all document submissions online via the Educational Management Information System (EMIS). Parents support these changes, stating they will simplify teachers’ workloads and allow them to focus more on teaching and interacting with students.
Mandatory reporting requirements for early education institutions will also be streamlined, and school and kindergarten administrators will submit them through EMIS, according to Marcelina Baleca, Head of Policies for General Education and Lifelong Learning at Radio Moldova. Another important aspect of these measures involves creating approximately 8,750 daily teaching plans, which were previously developed individually by teachers, Baleca added.
“We aim to further modernize EMIS, ensuring that teachers no longer need to produce paper-based reports. This will benefit school administrators by providing centralized access to the entire system, offering insights into all school classes, kindergarten groups, and even individual teachers. When you want to monitor a child’s progress, you simply check the system,” Baleca explained.
In kindergartens, only one person is currently responsible for managing EMIS and entering children’s data into the system. This process needs improvement to avoid duplication of work. Data entry is often done outside working hours without compensation, highlighted Elena Chiforișin, Director of Early Education Institution No. 98 in Chișinău.
“For instance, regarding nutrition, we prepare a monthly list that is submitted to the Public Health Center (PHC) and another entered into EMIS. However, discrepancies between formats mean we end up duplicating the same work,” Chiforișin explained.
The proposed measures to streamline bureaucracy in educational institutions will bring numerous benefits, according to parents:
- “It will significantly reduce costs and save time.”
- “Children today need more attention.”
- “When I send my child to school or kindergarten, the teacher should focus on the children, not paperwork.”
- “I don’t know exactly what measures will be implemented, but even a 50% reduction in bureaucracy would be great.”
Last year, the first set of measures to reduce bureaucracy introduced a moratorium on external inspections in schools and kindergartens. Additionally, five reporting models were eliminated or simplified, ten record books were removed, and three types of files were discontinued, significantly reducing the number of mandatory documents in educational institutions.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
