I have had a great experience here teaching two condensed classes, one undergraduate class on economic systems for three weeks in February and one master's class on development economics for two weeks in April/May. I mention the duration of these classes partly because I typically teach semester-long courses and partly due to the fact that the first class (which concluded on March 2 with the final exam) is still not officially closed.
One of the things I have learned here, which has been a major source of frustration, is that one must be very flexible when navigating the education system. The students in my first course are in their final semester of their degree, and they must complete this class in order to graduate. Yet, several students did not attend the class at all or they attended only one or two sessions. In America this behavior would result in failing the class and coming back in fall. Not here. The excuses are many, from "I had to work during your class" to "I was in Poland" to "It has been a busy term" to, very sadly, "My dad took his own life in December."
The university has a policy that these students have several weeks, and several chances, to schedule a make-up time to take a final exam and pass the class (the final exam is worth seventy percent of the course grade). What's more, this is a fluid policy and the several weeks has turned into two-and-a-half plus months. So I send a student who never once attended the class several articles and slides, ask them to read and study the materials, and then show up at a certain time to take a written exam. The expectation is that if the students follow these instructions they will at least pass the course.
As a representative of the U.S., and someone who is here on behalf the U.S. State Department, I am encouraged to be a positive voice in the education system, trying at least to show a different (and hopefully improved) way of teaching, relating to students, etc. It is unlikely that my lone voice at the Academy of Economic Studies will make a difference, but I'm trying to tell anyone who will listen that this system hurts the integrity of the institution. The students who worked hard and attended the course everyday are classified with someone who never showed up once. I certainly had some students who were stellar, and they did far better than those who never attended the class, but what I am learning is that in other courses this distinction (as to whether one attends the course or not) does not have a significant impact on the grade received.
I'm hopeful that positive changes that will help bring some credibility to the higher educational system here will soon evolve in the coming years. For now, students are continuing to enter the universities here with the option of skating through without anything close to the effort one would expect of a college education.
I'm speaking at a conference this weekend where I will hopefully address some of these issues, and I'm learning that small/incremental changes are the only kind in Moldova.
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