Financing for equity in pre-primary education
1. Education resources to subnational governments
2. Education resources to institutions
3. Education resources to students and families
4. Social policies and family support programmes
Introduction
Key financing indicators (UIS Data)
The official entrance age to pre-primary education is 3 (UIS 2024 estimates). The number of years of compulsory pre-primary education granted in legal frameworks is 1 (UIS 2024 estimates). The net enrolment rate for pre-primary for both sexes is 99.85% (UIS 2024 estimates).
Governance
According to the 2014 Education Code, local public administration authorities (LPAs), including the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia, are legally designated as founders of public pre-primary institutions and are responsible for planning, executing, and overseeing expenditures within their jurisdictions, using both state transfers and local revenues. At the central level, the Ministry of Education and Research is responsible for developing education financing policies and proposing the allocation of public funds for pre-primary education, while the Ministry of Finance administers and transfers state budget resources to local budgets.
Tuition-free status
The number of years of free pre-primary education granted in legal frameworks is 4 (UIS 2024 estimates).
1. Education resources to subnational governments
According to the 2024 Methodology for Financing Pre-school Education, funding flows from the centre to local budgets through an earmarked special-purpose transfer from the state budget. Under the methodology, this transfer is calculated using a standard-cost approach applied at institutional level and then aggregated for each local authority. The amount transferred is intended to cover the current operational costs of institutions, structured around personnel, services, and purchases, and it is ring-fenced so that local governments must use it only for the delivery of preschool education services.
Equity is embedded in the mechanism through both the design of the standard cost and an explicit equalization component. The standard cost is adjusted to reflect differences in children’s needs and institutional characteristics, including additional resources for children requiring language support or special educational support. Where an institution’s calculated standard cost exceeds its baseline funding, an equalization allocation is applied to reduce the gap, helping ensure that institutions can reach an adequate funding level regardless of local budgetary capacity.
2. Education resources to institutions
Public pre-primary institutions are funded primarily through special-purpose transfers from the state budget to local budgets, calculated largely on a standard cost per child and implemented by LPAs. Institutions may benefit from allocations legally coming from extra-budgetary sources, such as donations and rental income.
Private pre-primary institutions are mainly founded by private entities and generally financed from private sources. However, according to the 2014 Education Code, these may be maintained through public-budget expenses.
3. Education resources to students and families
The 2014 Education Code guarantees the free provision of didactic materials for children enrolled in preparatory groups within pre-primary education. No provisions establish vouchers, direct cash subsidies, grants, or tax-based financial support for parents specifically for pre-primary education, and parental contributions are limited to regulated payments for food.
4. Social policies and family support programmes
The most direct social policy instrument supporting access to pre-primary education consists of municipality-financed exemptions or reductions of parental contributions in public kindergartens, which are regulated and implemented at the local level rather than centrally. According to the 2014 Education Code, pre-primary education in public institutions is formally free of charge; however, parents are legally required to cover the cost of children’s food and certain maintenance expenses, with the amount of this contribution determined by local public authorities. Within this legal framework, each municipality adopts its own regulation that establishes the level of parental payments and defines social protection measures, most commonly full or partial fee exemptions.
For example, according to the Regulation on the Conditions and Manner of Exemption from Payment for Child Support in Early Childhood Education Institutions in the Municipality of Bălți, exemptions are granted at either 100% or 50% of the parental payment for food and. A full exemption applies to children from households below the guaranteed minimum income, children with severe disabilities or special educational needs, and children whose parents are registered as unemployed or are full-time students, as well as to children enrolled in certain specialized institutions. A partial exemption applies to children from large or single-parent families, children under guardianship, and children from families affected by disability.
