Republic of Moldova Offers Free Romanian Language Courses for Adults

Moldovan Presidency announced an improvement to an already existing law. So far, only kids were offered free Romanian language classes, but from 2023 adults will also be included in this program. Maia Sandu, Moldova’s President, made the announcement.

From 2023, adults will also be able to learn the Romanian language at free courses offered by the Ministry of Education. The national program for teaching the Romanian language to non-native speakers was expanded to include courses for adults, and 10 million lei were provided for this purpose in the 2023 budget. The Government is to adopt a decision to clarify this program’s details. Follow the announcements of the Ministry of Education on the subject. In the coming years, we will expand the program to cover better the needs of teaching the Romanian language to adults.

Moldova’s President Maia Sandu on Facebook

The Republic of Moldova has a particular situation. As a former soviet republic, during the USSR, all the Moldovans had to speak Russian, as that was the official language of all the communist states. After the state gained independence in 1991, the Russian language partially lost its importance within the administration. The people started to use Romanian on a large scale. Even so, there are more than 150,000 people of the Russian minority living in Moldova, and many only speak this language. How are they going to be fully integrated into society? How can you make them understand some of the national values or even offer them the opportunity to better jobs?

As Romanian is the country’s official language, Moldova tries to integrate as many citizens into the current society as possible. Along with these efforts, trying to teach Romanian to the minorities is a step which can ensure their access to public services and even better jobs abroad, as they could be hired in the neighbouring country Romania.

Apart from that, this is certainly an important move, especially in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Moldova wants to gain full independence from Moscow, but Russia’s influence in the country is still visible. Transnistria, the separatist region which belongs to Moldova but there is, de facto, under the control of the pro-Russian military forces, is a delicate subject and constitutes a potential threat to national and regional security.

This is why such small steps to dilute Moscow’s influence in Moldova and, along with others, can bring the long-awaited European integration at some point in the future.