Abstract
Moldova continues to spend a much larger share of its budget income on education sector than other countries in the region (allocations for education have reached 7% of GDP in 2014). Still, the sector has modest performances compared to other countries. Thus, in terms of efficiency in using public funds for education, Moldova ranks the last compared to other countries in the region.
There is a certain mismatch between size of the sector and its funding. Hence, from 2005 until 2013, the number of students/pupils decreased by 30.6%, while budget spending, adjusted to 2008 prices, rose by 50.7%. This trend is explained by the fact that the reduction in number of students was not accompanied by a reduction in the same pace of the number of educational institutions and professors. Subsequently, from academic year 2000/01 to 2014/15, number of students plummeted with 36.5% and the number of educational institutions and teachers fell by 15.7% and 21.5% respectively.
Thus, a significant share from funding goes to covering the system’s maintenance costs, and towards improving educational process.
This document has been published by Expert-Grup Think-Tak within the project "Budgetary process in Moldova: monitoring transparency and promoting public control", financed by Soros Foundation Moldova.
