Moldovan Schools in Transnistria - Post 1992 Situation

Post 1992 Situation

The Moldovan 1989 language law, that introduced the Latin script as the official script of the Republic of Moldova, was boycotted by the Transnistrian authorities, and all Moldovan schools in Transnistria were ordered to keep the Cyrillic script. After the War of Transnistria ended in mid-1992, the local schools became regulated by the government of Transnistria. The schools that chose to use the Latin script back in 1989 came under pressure of the authorities and most were forced to return to the Cyrillic script. Only six Romanian language schools in Transnistria were allowed to keep the Latin script.

Attempts to expand the number of schools which are using Latin script are met with heavy-handed repression. In 1996, the director of the only Moldovan school in Slobozia, who supported the wish of the parents to conduct education in Latin alphabet was fired and forced to leave the region. In 1999 a lecturer of Moldovan language of the Bender Pedagogical College has been dismissed for promoting the Latin script in the institution. The dismissal has been preceded by threats on the phone and an aggression in the building where she lived.

In September 1996, the Grigoriopol administration used Cossacks and police to stop the activity of Moldovan School. On 2 October 1996 three teachers were arrested and taken to Tiraspol. On 7 October 1996, as a result of a demarche by the President of the Republic of Moldova and the OSCE Mission, the teachers were released.

Another attempt to teach Romanian clandestinely in Grigoriopol, in a ‘PMR state-funded school’, failed in 2002. Teaching staff and parents were blatantly vilified in the local press as ‘enemies of the State’. One by one they were invited to ‘reconsider’, threatened with loss of employment and the corresponding entitlement to housing. Children (and teachers) were forced to write explanations as to why they used the Latin script and local officials routinely visited classes to check whether tuition was being ‘properly’ conducted. The parent-teacher association was abolished and its head, Mihai Speian, was arrested. The Moldovan school in Grigoriopol was forced to move in Doroţcaia, a village controlled by Chişinău, and children commute 10–15 km daily to attend the school.