The Institute of Educational Sciences hosted the seminar “The School and the Church: partnership for education”, organized by the Metropolitan Department of Education, at the initiative of the Metropolis of Moldova and the Ministry of Education. Heads of Educational Departments from all dioceses, school inspectors in charge with the teaching of “Religion” optional course, were invited to the event.

In the very beginning, His Eminence Metropolitan Vladimir blessed the audience and the event, mentioning that the seminar was expected to considerably contribute to the building of beautiful and natural collaboration between the Church and the School institutions, for the purpose of efficient implementation of “Religion” optional course in school.The Metropolitan mentioned that numerous informative and educational events covering issues of the Curriculum of the discipline had been organized in various raions of the country, school textbooks for forms 1-4 had been printed, recycling courses for teachers of Religion had been initiated, covering issues of psychopedagogy, and new teaching staff were being prepared to implement religious study in school. His Eminence thanked all persons who greatly contributed to fruitful collaboration between the Church and the School, saying that together they “contribute to the development of spiritualized personality of the coming generation”.

During the seminars, presentations were made by Mrs. Tatiana Poting, Depute Minister of Education, who mentioned the effectiveness of this course’s implementation in school, saying that efficient result-oriented teachers need to be trained within time, investing much patience and high performance. “We initiated professional training and set partnership with the Metropolitan Department of Education. We also strive to have competent teaching staff in higher education, to increase the trust for those who teach within this difficult process. And the results are encouraging, because if in 2009/2010 there were 19 000 children sitting the course of religion, then in 2010 this number increased to 31 000, while in 2011 – to 76 000. And along with the increasing number of students, we need to increase the quality of the study”, said Mrs. Depute Minister.

Presentations followed by Mrs. Lilia Pogolsa, Director of the Institute of Educational Sciences, Mr. Valeriu Cibotaru, Head of the Metropolitan Department of Education, Mrs. Angela Levinta, Head of the Methodology Section of the Metropolitan Department of Education, presbyteress Liliana Cretu, the author of Religion textbooks for forms 1-4, Academic Nicolae Dabija, and others.

The event aimed at increasing and consolidating the collaboration between the Church and educational institutions, the final beneficiaries being the children and young people, who are the future of our society.