1. John O’Sullivan 30 March 2017
Dinu Turcanu Tekwil, Technical University of Moldova
Disclaimer: The author’s views expressed in this publication do not necessary reflect the views
of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government.
Stemming the Gap in Education
ICT Summit 2017

2. What is STEM?
• Mathematics
• Science
• Physics
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Informatics
Moldova:

3. So what ?

4. Education is shrinking

5. So is the proportion selecting Science stream

6. Resulting in fewer STEM candidates for BAC

7. The exam results for Maths are poor
Distribution of marks 2015 - REAL
• The results for Maths are very poor – mean is 47% - lowest of all subjects
• Numbers of candidates for all other STEM are tiny

8. Number of teaching hours is ok
opt
Informatics
STEM Hours per week
optional 2
2 2
3 Chemistry
3
2
3
Biology
1 1
31
2 2 2
1 optional
4 Science/Physics2 2 2
1 1 1
3 31 1 1
1
2 2 2
1 1 1
1 1 1 1 1
2 2 2
5 5 5 Mathematics
4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4
3 3 3
g1 g2 g3 g4 g5 g6 g7 g8 g9 g10 g11 g12 g10 g11 g12
Primary Gymnasium
Humanist/Arts/Sports Real/Bilingual
Lyceum

9. Age and qualifications of STEM teachers
• 30% of Maths and Physics teachers are over retirement age
• Another 10% are within three years
• 38% of Informatics teachers have no didactic degree

10. Summary for Moldova
• Declining numbers of pupils
• Declining proportion selecting STEM
• Poor exam results in Maths
• Declining numbers entering university in STEM

11. Summary for Moldova
• Declining numbers of pupils
• Declining proportion selecting STEM
• Poor exam results in Maths
• Declining numbers entering university in STEM
But why ?
• Maths exam is too difficult, too theoretical
• Limited use of modern methods and materials
• Condition of science labs
• Career orientation for pupils and parents

12. Good news too !
EMIS

13. And Olympic success !
Physics
Informatics

14. More Olympic success !
Physics
Maths
Chemistry

15. What are other countries doing ?
• OECD – PISA
• World Economic Forum
• Asia – Singapore
• United States
• United Kingdom
• Romania

16. OECD - PISA
• Organisation for Economic Cooperation &
Development
• Program for International Student Assessment
• Tests the performance of 15 year olds
• in reading, maths, science
• Every three years
• Half a million students from 72 countries
• Moldova re-joined for 2015 after a gap
• Results announced 6 Dec 2015
Top rankings 2015
1. Singapore
2. Japan
3. Estonia
4. China - Tiawan
5. Finland
6. Macao (China)
7. Canada
8. Viet Nam
9. Hong Kong (China)
10. B-S-J-G (China)
11. Korea
12. New Zealand
13. Slovenia
14. Australia
15. United Kingdom

17. OECD - PISA
• Organisation for Economic Cooperation &
Development
• Program for International Student Assessment
• Tests the performance of 15 year olds
• in reading, maths, science
• Every three years
• Half a million students from 72 countries
• Moldova re-joined for 2015 after a gap
• Results announced 6 Dec 2015
Top rankings 2015
1. Singapore
2. Japan
3. Estonia
4. China - Tiawan
5. Finland
6. Macao (China)
7. Canada
8. Viet Nam
9. Hong Kong (China)
10. B-S-J-G (China)
11. Korea
12. New Zealand
13. Slovenia
14. Australia
15. United Kingdom
• Moldova was ranked 50 out of 72
• Scores improved since 2012: Science +9, Reading +17, Maths +13

18. Correlation between results and school governance

19. World Economic Forum - WEF
• Human Capital Index 2016
• Moldova is 63rd out of 130 countries
• But 71st in younger age group, so getting worse
• Global Competiveness Report 2016
• Moldova is 100th
• Was 84th last year, so getting worse
• Future of Jobs
• 5 million jobs will be lost by 2020
• 2.1 million new jobs
• Mostly in computing, maths, architecture, engineering

20. Singapore
• Always near the top of global rankings
• 30 years of development, focus on global exports
• Education strategy changed from “surviving” to “riding the wave”
• Minister of Education: “Every school a good school”
• Feb 2014: MoE created STEM Inc
• STEM Applied Learning Program
• School pupils age 13 to 15
• Applies STEM learning to real world problems
• 65 schools, 32,000 pupils
• 13 industry partners
• Competitions
• STEM is compulsory + after school + summer school + teen programs
• Prime Minister:
“Singapore needs to grow talent in STEM, to move from 3rd to 1st world”

21. United States
• USA needs one million more STEM college grads
• 40% of STEM students do not complete course
o Uninspiring courses
o Difficulties with maths
o Unwelcoming atmosphere
• Increasing this to 50% is cheapest, fastest solution
Recommendations
1. Improve teaching practices
2. Use practical lab courses
3. Fix maths preparation
4. Partnerships among
stakeholders
5. Presidential Council on STEM
“American students will move from the middle to the top
of the pack in science and math over the next decade.”

22. United Kingdom
• From 2014, UK introduced a new national
Computing curriculum in all 25,000 primary and
secondary schools
• Replaced previous curriculum in use of IT
• Includes logic, coding, testing, internet safety
• Age 5-6: algorithms, sets of instructions
• Age 7-11: creating and debugging programs
• Age 11-14: two programming languages
• Massive effort and expense in equipment and
teacher training
• Largest such program worldwide ?

23. European Union
• European Schoolnet – a network of 30
Ministries of Education, not all in EU
• Premises and staff in Brussels, with
permanent exhibition of “classroom of
the future”
• Enormous wealth of projects, resources
and support
• Observatory with briefing papers,
statistics, country reports
• European Schoolnet Academy –
free online courses for teachers
• STEM Alliance – careers
information on STEM
• STEM Coalition – collaboration
on good practices in STEM –
includes Ukraine
• Learning Resources Exchange –
250,000 open educational
resources, in 29 languages
• Scientix – 1200 teaching
materials in STEM, with
translation service
• And lots of others

24. Romania
• Ranked 48 in 2015, 45 out of 65 in PISA 2012
• 38 out of 130 in WEF Human Capital Index 2016
• Major national program since 2001
• 192,000 computers in 15,000 IT labs
• 3,700 e-learning lessons
• 92,000 teachers trained and certificated
• Good progress in developing and installing educational software for STEM
• “Digital science laboratories”, Romanian language, many free
• Multimedia lab for Electricity & Electronics
• Educational 3D software for chemistry, biology, physics
• Associations of teachers: Physics, Maths, Informatics,…

26. Recommendations 1 – Strategic programs
• Strengthen and accelerate World Bank project
• School facilities
• Ministry capacity
• Financial autonomy for schools
• Consolidation/twinning of small schools
• Better pay for teachers
• Immediate review of mathematics curriculum
• National priority
• Introduce next academic year

27. Recommendations 2 – Use international help
• Use PISA as international benchmark
• Publicise 2015 results, to mobilise opinion
• Set targets for 2018 and 2021
• Use WEF too
• Join European Schoolnet
• Participate in projects
• Use free educational materials
• Use vendor materials, eg Google, Microsoft
• Co-operate with Romania
• More free materials
• Digital science labs

28. Recommendations 3
– Teacher development is critical
• Support and extend teacher development courses,
via existing providers – in three levels
1. For inexperienced teachers to overcome fear
2. Use of educational technologies
3. Adapting and creating new materials
• Support and expand e-Twinning with EEF
• Improve English language skills
• Prepare exemplar lectures by star lecturers for
distribution by live streaming or recording

29. Recommendations 4 – Expand Demonstrator projects
• Expand USAID robotics scheme
• Currently 76 schools, 7 libraries
• 3000 youth, 120 active teachers
• 45 teams, 320 children, 70 teachers
participated in Lego League 2017
• Winners will represent Moldova in
European Championship in Denmark
• National team will participate in
Global Olympics in Washington
• CoderDojo
• 6 clubs
• 140 youths
• 120 volunteer mentors
• Academy Plus
• 2 year program
• 120 students enrolled
• Establish model labs/classrooms
• 3 x Physics, Chemistry,
Biology, Informatics

31. Recommendations 5 – Publicity and Promotion
• Improve careers guidance in schools on role of technology in occupations
• Pupils and parents
• Use European Schoolnet
• Use industry and business associations
• Communications campaign to attract STEM student teachers
• Promote existing bursary scheme
• Prepare real testimonials
• Emphasize attractions

32. Conclusions
 The decline in STEM education in Moldova over recent
years is a national crisis, threatening the whole economy
 The use of digital education materials and associated
teacher training is the way ahead
 An urgent remedial program is needed, led by Minister of
Education and Prime Minister

33. Ministry of Education
has signed a formal
agreement to develop a
National STEM
Education Program
Practising teachers are
requested to serve on
and/or provide input to
this program
Call to Action !

34. Prime Minister speaks on STEM at UTM
“Pentru ca Republica
Moldova să fie
competitivă, trebuie să
stimulăm creativitatea şi
dezvoltarea
competenţelor practice.
Avem nevoie de foarte
mulţi ingineri, care să
creeze locuri de muncă şi
pentru specialişti în alte
domenii. Inginerii sunt cei
care ştiu a crea, iar acest
fapt este foarte
important.”
20 April 2016