Teachers and pupils from 25 schools in ATU Gagauzia have access to 75 high-performance computers. The donation was made at the beginning of the new school year, in the framework of a project aiming to modernise the educational process in the region, funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Executive Committee of ATU Gagauzia, and implemented by UNDP in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Research.

55 children from vulnerable families will be able to loan the equipment from school libraries to participate in online lessons.

“There are children from large and single-parent families in our secondary school. Previously, we have encountered difficulties in organising remote lessons. Children from vulnerable families, especially children with special educational needs, have experienced issues when connecting,” says Maria Boicova, principal of “Mihail Tanasoglo” secondary school from Chirsova village.

At the same time, the schools will be equipped with smart boards, interactive screens, and projectors. In this way, teachers will be able to teach more interactive and exciting lessons.

“We will train the teachers of science subjects from the region in digital pedagogy. In this way, they will be more prepared to work in pandemic conditions and to provide quality educational services not only remotely, but also in the classroom,” says Natalia Cristeva, Head of Education Department of Comrat.

The UNDP project, with a total budget of US$200,000, will be implemented by the end of 2021.

“We will support the modernisation of the teaching methodology, support teachers in obtaining advanced digital skills and purchase needed equipment to facilitate and streamline the training process,” says Andrei Darie, Programme Specialist, UNDP Moldova.

With UNDP and Tekwill support, in 2019 Simpals developed the e-learning platform studii.md to support the management of the educational processes in general education in Moldova (I-XII grades). During the pandemic, the platform contributed to the adaptation of the educational process, which moved to online or combined physical attendance with online lessons.

Since April 2021, the platform has been upgraded with two functionalities: school statistics and homework check, also with the help of UNDP funding.

As of 3 September 2021, 45 schools and 23,226 users from ATU Gagauzia were connected to the platform.