Moldovan Parents Demand Video Surveillance in Kindergartens

Moldovan NGO Parents in Solidarity launched an online petition on Tuesday asking the authorities to install video surveillance in kindergartens.

The petition was launched after videos were posted on social media by parents who had secretly recorded their children allegedly being abused by staff at kindergartens.

"It is a systemic problem, it is an old one and it has not been solved so far," said Iuliana Zaharia, the president of Parents in Solidarity, which is gathering signatures for the petition. 

"The point is that there is much talk about violence, but little is being done by the authorities. They issue some guides that sit somewhere on the shelves, do some fancy conferences, but nothing changes in reality," Zaharia added.

She added that a previous petition given to Prime Minister Pavel Filip and Education Minister Monica Babuc got no response.

In the first hours after its launch, the new petition gathered over 1,000 online signatures. The parents are demanding better working conditions for the staff in kindergartens as well as punishment for those responsible for abuses.

The executive director of Parents in Solidarity, Ala Revenco, told BIRN that in most cases in kindergartens where such abuses have been registered, the director usually knows about it but tries to cover it up.

"Every time a case of violence occurs, parents understand that this need [for surveillance] is all the more pressing," Revenco said.

Mariana, a 30-year-old mother whose three-year-old boy recently started at a state kindergarten, said video surveillance would be more than welcome.

"For one year, my child attended a private kindergarten. Video cameras were installed and we were very relaxed. Every day I had video access and could see...