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Nervous first-graders in Pridnestrovie starting 12 years in the country's public education system

DUBOSSARY (Tiraspol Times) - Elena, 6, was smiling as she brought flowers to school. "But I also feel funny," she said, and admitted to the Tiraspol Times that she was nervous. It was her first day of school.

Elena is one of 5,500 students who are today starting school for the first time ever. But she is well prepared: From kindergarten, she already knows how to greet her fellow students in all three of Pridnestrovie's official languages, and she also picked up a few phrases of English. For the past two years, many kindergartens in Pridnestrovie have been offering English lessons.

But today was the first time she had ever brought flowers, and also the first time in "real school", as she calls it.

She was not the only one to attend real school. As a preview, schools opened temporarily on Friday, celebrating the republic's "Knowledge Day" with the presence of politicians and community leaders.

In Tiraspol, the capital of Pridnestrovie, President Igor Smirnov and Minister of Education Elena Bomeshko visited a one of the city largest schools where the President gave a brief speech:
" - Students in Pridnestrovie know of no other country. They do not know the Soviet Union, nor the MSSR Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. The only country they have ever known, all their life, is the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica. It is the country which guarded the multiethnic traditions that our ancestors left us, preserving them, respecting the rights of minorities and passing them on to our descendants."

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Opposition politician Yevgeny Shevchuk visiting a school for the deaf in Bender.

Meanwhile, in Bender, Pridnestrovie's second-largest city, opposition leader Yevgeny Shevchuk visited a school for the deaf.
" - This school, here in Bender, is a tribute to how our nation protects its weak. We must do what is possible to help the hearing-impaired children become a valuable part of our life and our society."

12 year public schooling provided by the state

From this year on, new students in Pridnestrovie will now attend school for a total of 12 years. Public schools are free, and most of the students go to schools which are part of the educational system under Pridnestrovie's Ministry of Education. Private schools with non-standard curriculums are also allowed, including a number of schools teaching Moldovan in the Latin alphabet, and it is up to the parents to decide how they want their children to be educated.

A total of 187 public educational institutions in Pridnestrovie started their first regular day of school this Monday. The public school system, provided free of charge by the state, has 68,000 enrolled students. Of those, 5,500 are new faces: First-graders, starting their formal twelve years of schooling today.

Since the founding of the republic in 1990, schools in Pridnestrovie have always given special focus on language education. Learning different languages is not an elective: It is a required subject for all students in a country which has not one or two, but a full three official languages according to its constitutions. All students must by law receive classes in at least two of these three.

Starting this year, a surprise awaits students: Foreign language studies has been made a requirement as well. Beginning from second grade, all students 8 years or older must learn at least one foreign language. Among students surveyed, a preference for English tops the list, with a wish to learn German a close second.

According to a spokesman for the Ministry of Education, the new language curriculum reflects the young country's wish to integrate itself closer with Europe:
" - We are a part of the new Europe, and we see international recognition as just around the corner. When that happens, we must be prepared for collaboration and international partnerships. We need to be able to communicate with the rest of Europe, be it in English or in German."

Traffic police starts safety campaign for kids

At the same time that the school starting, traffic police nationwide has also begun "Operation Attention Children", a campaign aimed at heightening traffic safety at the start of the school year.

Among the campaign's key requirements: In the first week, until September 10, all vehicles must drive with their headlights permanently switched on, both night and day. This, says a spokesman for the national traffic police, will help improve visibility of cars from a distance and increase traffic safety throughout the country.

" - We also urge all drivers to be extra careful on the roads, especially around schools," traffic police officer Alex Moiseyev told the press.

As part of Operation Attention Children, during the first half of September "near all schools and pedestrian crossing we will will be stationing officers from the traffic patrol, with a special presence during the hours when students arrive and leave from school," explains Moiseyev.

The traffic police has also dedicated September to an educational program, with officers showing up as guest speakers in schools to teach the students the basics about the rules of street traffic and how to best be safe on the roads of the republic.

Pridnestrovie, which also known in English under its Romanian name, Transnistria, proclaimed its independence 16 years ago, on 2 September 1990. Unlike other post-Soviet countries emerging from Communism, its independence was never recognized and neighboring Moldova maintains a territorial claim on the region.

In 1992, Moldova's claim led it to invade Pridnestrovie and a brief but bloody war took an estimated 1,000 lives before a ceasefire was brokered. Today, a buffer zone is overseen by a multinational corps of peacekeepers, consisting of troops from Pridnestrovie, Moldova, Russia and observers from Ukraine and various European nations, presensented by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

For Elena, 6, none of this matters. She is just excited - and somewhat nervous - about her first day in school. For Elena this will be the first day of the first year of her next 12 years of education in Pridnestrovie's public school system. Her mother, Lucia, hopes and prays that those 12 years will not be interrupted by a new war between the two neighbors sharing the Dniester River.