Moldova education system criticised after maths exam
Diplomat Corina Cojocaru says she moved her child from a Moldovan school to an international one after a “shock” caused by the mathematics exam. According to Cojocaru, sines and cosines are forgotten immediately after exams. Fiscal literacy and the political philosophy of Hobbes, she argues, are far more useful for life.
Her criticism followed the national BAC mathematics exam, held on June 12. Corina Cojocaru said she had transferred her child to an international school early, from the 9th grade, because the content of the exams “does not correspond” to what pupils can realistically handle.
She also addressed Education Minister Dan Perciun directly. Could he himself complete the tasks given to 18-year-old graduates, she asked?
“I do not believe you would have managed within the time given to the children,” wrote the diplomat, who graduated from high school in 2000 with top marks in all subjects.
From exam shock to international school
The existence of an additional commission that checks exam papers before the minister signs them did not seem to interest her, but that was only the beginning of a larger scandal.
From Cojocaru’s post, it became clear that her child, who had finished 9th grade, would no longer sit final exams in Moldova after the “shock” caused by maths tests in the state system. She cited not only the BAC mathematics exam, but also bullying and what she called an “outdated curriculum”.
“I decided not to expose my child to wild stress caused by surveillance cameras, which leave lifelong psychological shock, and outdated schooling,” she wrote.
She added that tuition at the international school she chose was twice as low as in some Moldovan educational institutions, that remark gave new energy to the debate in parents’ chat groups.
Financial literacy instead of sines and cosines
Cojocaru continued her criticism by comparing the Moldovan programme with the foreign curriculum. In her view, the local system is overloaded with “advanced trigonometry exercises”.
By contrast, the international 9th-grade programme includes subjects that are absent from Moldova’s mandatory state standard. Instead of “outdated” mathematics, her child will study bank loan management, business profitability, financial literacy, basic taxation, VAT, artificial intelligence, insurance companies and political philosophy.
That includes Hobbes, Machiavelli and Montesquieu – topics usually studied in Moldova only during the first years of university. Cojocaru argues that these skills are more useful in real life than “sines and cosines”, which pupils forget as soon as the exam is over.
Exam anomalies add to criticism
The mathematics controversy is not the only problem in the 2026 exam session. Earlier, several anomalies were reported. A record 3,791 graduates received a “10” din oficiu in a foreign language. Another 1,136 received the same mark in computer science, compared with 397 in 2025.
Yet these automatic or administrative grades did not soften the situation in key profile subjects. The debate has now gone beyond one exam. It has turned into a broader argument about what Moldovan schools are actually preparing children for.
For critics, the answer is clear: the system still demands abstract formulas, while pupils need practical skills for the world they are entering.
