Amendments to the laws “On Education” and “On Preschool Education”

The Parliamentary Committee on Education, Public Associations and Mass media held a meeting. The agenda included the legislations prepared for consideration in the first or second readings at plenary sessions and relating to the field of general education, including preschool education, as well as information protection in Pridnestrovie.

The relevant Committee prepared for consideration in the second reading the law-in-draft on introducing amendments to the law “On Education”, the authors of which are the deputies of the committee. Igor Buga, Andrei Safonov and Pavel Shinkaryuk proposed to establish restrictions at the legislative level on the request for additional documentation from teaching staff of educational organizations (kindergartens, schools, lyceums and gymnasiums).

Parliamentarians note that according to the Law “On Education”, the working hours of teaching staff of educational organizations, depending on the position held, include:

- educational (teaching) and educational work, including practical training of students, individual work with students;

- scientific, creative and research work;

- other pedagogical work provided for by labor (job) responsibilities and (or) individual plan: methodological, preparatory, organizational, diagnostic, monitoring work, work provided for by plans for educational, physical education, sports, creative and other events carried out with students.

Teachers in schools and kindergartens are required at the same time to prepare a large volume of various documentation (plans, reports, preparation for lessons), which leads to an actual increase in working time (more than 40 hours per week). Deputies of the relevant parliamentary Committee in order to eliminate unnecessary bureaucratization and reduce the documentation burden propose to supplement Article 54 of the Law “On Education” with a new paragraph, according to which the Ministry of Education is obliged to establish a unified list of documentation that will be provided by teachers, educators and other teaching staff of schools and kindergartens. The PMR Government prepared for the second reading an amendment to the law-in-draft, according to which the educational institutions of cities and districts do not have the right to approve an additional list of documentation for teachers of general education organizations.

The final decision on the law-in-draft and the table of amendments will be made by the deputy corps at the plenary meeting of the Supreme Council of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.

The Committee on Education, Public Associations and the Media discussed today the law-in-draft prepared for the second reading on amendments to the law “On Preschool Education”, developed by the Government of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic. It is proposed to regulate at the legislative level the procedure for children in kindergartens during the summer, who graduated at the end of May. Legal acts only regulate the procedure for admission to preschool institutions at the moment, and there is no procedure for staying during the summer health period and a procedure for expulsion from kindergartens.

The Government proposed to enshrine a new norm in the law “On Preschool Education” (clause 2-1 of Article 6 of the law), according to which if a child has not reached 7 years of age on May 25, at the request of the parents, he will be able to continue attending kindergarten until the end of summer . If a kindergarten graduate is already 7 years old, then he will be able to stay in kindergarten for the summer period only if there are free places in the groups (and at the request of the parents). This version of the bill was adopted by the Supreme Council in the first reading in April. The Education Committee prepared a draft law for adoption in the second reading, taking into account the amendments. The Parliamentary Committee proposes to change the wording of paragraph 2-1, stating it in a new wording, giving the child the right (at the request of the parents) to continue attending kindergarten after May 25 until the start of the school year, but no later than he reaches the age of 8 years. The law “On Preschool Education” introduces the concept of “supervision” for children in kindergartens (in addition to education and care). The law-in-draft will be considered in the second reading at one of the upcoming plenary meetings of the Supreme Council of the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.

The law-in-draft will come into force within 30 days after final reading and publication. The Ministry of Education during this period will develop a legal act that will determine in which groups children who have graduated from kindergarten will be in the summer recreational period and how they will be expelled.