Chisinau - Post Report Question and Answers
What is the availability of international schools? What has been your general experience with them, if any?
Have not experienced. I’ve heard mixed reviews. - Sep 2023
Two international schools, Heritage and QSI. Heritage is the new one, opened 2017. Our kids go there. It's definitely still undergoing problems. Ask around for more details, because Heritage is getting a new director (summer 2019) while QSI is planning some upgrades to respond to the challenge from Heritage. Both of these should be considered troubled but with potential for improvement. Talk to other parents, ask around. If your child speaks Russian or Romanian (or is young enough to learn) then there are some local "magnet" schools that are very good academically. Discipline and tradition in school may be different from what you're used to, so do your homework in advance. - Apr 2019
There is a QSI school which everybody complains about, at every level. It is very small. Even though now it is supposedly accredited at the high school level, it is not recommended to put older kids in that school. One (local) kid graduated from 12th grade last year. The other option is a local public Russian school (Pushkin) for kids who are already fluent in Russian. It can be a great opportunity for smaller kids (early primary) to learn Russian. Last year, a family put their kids in a Romanian school in late primary school because they were not happy with QSI and they loved it. Local kids in both Russian and Moldovan schools are very welcoming towards foreign students. - Feb 2014
QSI, as a group, is a strange institution. Frankly, I don't trust them. During our time here the school has been in crisis mode several times. This is often caused by the leaders and teachers sent by QSI (QSI operates international schools in 25 countries).The organization has horrible difficulties with interacting with parents and operating in a transparent fashion. They are effectively a monopoly, they know it, and they act upon it. If you push them...they'll tell you to your face that you can take what they offer or "go your own way."A few years ago, the group left a questionably mentally healthy director in place despite vociferous protests by parents. More recently, the current director forced a move to a very questionably ready and questionably safe location outside of town over the protest of more than half of the school's parents. The positive side is that the school is small and that kids can get a lot of attention. Given the impending move to a questionable location and a complete turnover in U.S. teaching staff (for the second time in as many years), I cannot, in good faith, recommend this school or post to families with school-aged children...probably for several years and until the situation with the new school becomes substantially clearer. - May 2010
