OSCE Mission assists Moldova with designing new school course on the Holocaust in the local context

OSCE supported a workshop on the use of a methodological guide for an optional high school course “Holocaust: the History and Lessons of Life”. Over 30 history and civil education teachers attended the training course on 31 October and 1 November 2019 in Chisinau.

Thirty-five schools in 15 Moldovan raions have offered high school students this new optional course since the academic year 2019/2020. The course aims to promote tolerance, humanity and mutual respect.

“The workshop helped me to learn new facts about the history of Jewish people and provided me with a hands-on experience in designing lesson plans and curriculum. The tour of Jewish monuments and a museum was the highlight of these two days,” said Romaniuc Marina, history teacher from Mihai Greku theoretical lyceum in Chisinau.

The course was designed in 2018 by the Moldovan Ministry of Education, Culture and Research in co-operation with the Jewish community of Moldova. The OSCE Mission provided expert support throughout the process. This year the Mission further assisted the Ministry with the production of the methodological guide for teachers. “Holocaust: the History and Lessons of Life” explores the history and culture of the Jewish community in the local Moldovan context and introduces the younger generation to the danger of intolerance and exclusion.

“This optional course focuses on universal democratic and moral values and its parts can be safely presented during other classes, including history or personal development,” said Eugenia Ciutac, history teacher at the Gaudeamus Theoretical Lyceum in Chisinau.

In recent years, the Moldovan authorities took steps to raise awareness and understanding of the Holocaust in the local context. Development of the optional course is a measure to promote an open and healing discussion of painful periods of the country’s history before, during and after World War II. Inclusion of the subject in schools was one of a number of important measures foreseen in the action plan for 2017-2019 in the field of the Holocaust remembrance and education; adopted by the government in 2017. The plan seeks to support the process of building an inclusive and tolerant society, which is an important precondition for advancing the Transdniestrian settlement process.