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Moldova + 1 more

Terms of Reference Refugee Education Working Group (REWG) Moldova, Updated April 2024

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Background

The war in Ukraine has had a devastating humanitarian impact on children and families from Ukraine. UNHCR estimates that as of March 2024, roughly 6.5 million people from Ukraine have been displaced to other countries and another 3.7 million are internally displaced.

Moldova shares a large border with Ukraine and has traditionally had strong socio-economic ties with the country. Moldova is considered an upper middle-income country with a population of roughly 2.65 million people (2020).1 Despite strong economic growth, Moldova remains amongst the poorest countries in Europe. The GDP per capita remains around USD 4,500 annually. However, even with domestic economic challenges, the Republic of Moldova has been incredibly supportive and generous to the situation of refugees from neighboring Ukraine. Since late February 2022, Moldova has faced a huge humanitarian crisis with large numbers of refugees entering Moldova due to the conflict in Ukraine. According to the UNHCR Data Portal, between March 2022 and April 2024, a total of just over 1 million refugees from Ukraine crossed the borders from Ukraine to the Republic of Moldova2 . Many of them continued their journey to Romania and other European countries, but about 118,000 refugees remain in Moldova, of whom 44% are children.

The Ministry of Education and Research (MER) has taken an open and active role in addressing the education needs of the refugee children. MER issued an Instruction in September 2023, easing requirements for enrollment in Moldovan schools. All children from Ukraine arriving after the 24th of February 2022 can enroll in Moldovan schools regardless of their legal status. However, the Moldovan education system is overburdened and there is a need to increase support for MER to be able to provide formal and non-formal education opportunities to refugee children. Furthermore, many families have chosen for their children to continue attending online Ukrainian classes, leading to low enrollment rates in Moldovan schools.

Objectives

The overall objective of the Refugee Education Working Group (REWG) is to enhance and strengthen the coordination in the interventions of education stakeholders in Moldova to support the Government of Moldova in providing access to quality and inclusive education in safe and protective learning environments for refugee children living in Moldova.