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Claims of terror in Moldovan-language schools is just political hysteria, aimed at whipping up hate, says PMR education minister

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - Six Moldovan-language, Latin-script schools which are physically situated in Pridnestrovie but which are subordinate to the Moldovan Ministry of Education and Youth Affairs and using the Ministry's study programs are free to operate with no obstacles from Pridnestrovie, reads an official statement [1] issued by Pridnestrovie's Ministry of Education, which expressed a strong discontent over "insinuations about the destiny of the 6 non-state schools using the Romanian language at studying".

The document said that in 2004, five of the six schools got registered with Tiraspol as private schools having the status of legal entities under the laws of Pridnestrovie.

" - However, official Moldova now denies these institutions the possibility of further interaction with the corresponding structures of PMR for the purpose of licensing their educational activity. The warnings made by Pridnestrovie's Ministry of Education concerning the non-legitimacy of the diplomas issued to graduates from the schools concerned are ignored by Chisinau even though more than 40% of the graduates wish to continue studying at Pridnestrovie's higher educational institutions", explains Pridnestrovie's Minister of Education, Yelena Bomeshko.

She voiced indignation over the fact that during a recent visit paid by a delegation of OSCE Ambassadors to the Alexandru cel Bun Lyceum in Bender, local officials were discriminated against, not allowed to enter the premises, and the meeting was held behind closed doors. Yelena Bomeshko explained that, in her opinion, "such a method of obtaining 'authentic' information can not be regarded as objective or even democratic". She stressed that "actions by the OSCE representatives in Moldova do not promote the development of a constructive dialogue or trust between the educational authorities of Pridnestrovie and Moldova".

Political machinations

In the summer 2004, shortly before a new academic year onset, local law enforcement intervened at the lyceum at the request of the Ministry which had determined that it failed to meet the education standards of the Pridnestrovskaia Moldavskaia Respublica. It was allowed to re-open once it registered formally with the country's ministry of education and adhere to basic minimum standards of the curriculum, something which the Moldovan government - which provides funding for the minority schools - strongly opposed for political reasons, seeing it as an indirect way of recognizing the authority of the PMR government over the territory where the schools are located.

The government of the unrecognized country has consistently maintained that the issue was whipped out of proportion for political reasons, in a bid by Chisinau to distort the issues. One statement claims that this was always about politics, and never about the children, and that political machinations are driving a wedge between the two sides, to the detriment of educational standards. It points out that Pridnestrovie allows minority schools to teach in any language and in any alphabet, as long as they are registered and comply with the legal norms and the educational standards that all other schools have to follow. Pridnestrovie allows Jewish schools to teach in Hebrew if they want to, as long as educational standards are met.

Pridnestrovie, also called Transnistria or Transdniestria, among other names, declared independence in 1990. Although unrecognized internationally, it functions as a de facto independent country which meets the requirements for statehood under international law.

Maintaining a territorial claim, Moldova considers it a legal part of the Republic of Moldova, even though Pridnestrovie at no time in history was ever part of an independent Moldova and declared independence a full one year before Moldova did so. By the time the Republic of Moldova was formed, in 1991, Pridnestrovie had already declared independence and was functioning on its own as a separate and indepedent entity. Both countries emerged during the fall of the Soviet Union and experts consider a two-state solution the most likely long term outcome of the conflict. (With information from Infotag)

On the web:
» Moldovan schools in Pridnestrovie [2]
» Statement by the PMR Ministry of Education regarding Moldovan schools [3]