March 2007 OSI PIPES STUDY 1 PARENTAL INFORMAL PAYMENTS STUDY (PIPES) Republic of Moldova Tbilisi 2007

March 2007 OSI PIPES STUDY 2 RESEARCH/DATA REPORTING PROTOCOL OSI PIPES STUDY The description of complete methods of sampling

March 2007 OSI PIPES STUDY 3 Selection scheme (I)  In accordance with the official statistic there are 1483 registered schools in Republic of Moldova, were pupils are studying.  In 280 schools teaching is performed in Russian language ( pupils)  On the first phase, for the geographical distribution of questionnaires (in rayon’s) it is used the distribution of pupils by rayon’s.  The number of distributed questionnaires by urban and rural area in rayon’s is proportional with the number of permanent population in that rayon.  Thus, the universal set is determined in the following way: 1483 schools, from which 39% are in urban area and 61% in rural area, as well as in 20% of them the teaching is made in Russian language.  In accordance with the administrative-territorial distribution, type and size in the sampling process will be taken into consideration two types of urban settlements: - Municipalities (Chisinau and Balti) - Rayon centers.

March 2007 OSI PIPES STUDY 4 Selection scheme (II) On the next phase from 36 rayon centers grouping them by geographical zones, type and size 15 rayon centers were selected, while for performing the questioning in rural areas all rayon’s where taken into considerations. Within the rayon’s, from all rural settlements (excepting those without school) the localities in which the survey was conducted was random selection. The amount of selected localities in each rayon depended on the total amount of questionnaires distributed to each village in that rayon.

March 2007 OSI PIPES STUDY 5 Selection scheme (III) Thus, on above mentioned phases of selection, uniformly distributed clusters have been obtained, representing the country: - 2 municipalities; - 15 rayon centers; - 61 rural settlements. In municipalities and in rayon centers the schools were selected randomly. Thus, in Chisinau municipality were selected 11 schools and in Balti municipality 3 schools, and 1 school in each rayon center. The same way the selection was made in villages with more than one school.

March 2007 OSI PIPES STUDY 6 Selection scheme (IV) Participants’ selection: Questioning of parents, teachers and school directors are made in the same schools. For questioning of parents: from each class journal of 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th grades one pupil is selected, registered under the total number of pupils in the class divided to 3. From the journal is registered the address of the choose pupil for questioning his parents at home. Teachers’ selection: From the list of all teachers using a statistic step, calculated as it follows: the whole number of teachers divided to three. For each school the operator was instructed how to conduct the interview with the school director. Because the director wasn’t at work, or he refused to participate in the questioning, the total number of questioned directors made up at 60 questionnaires.

March 2007OSI PIPES STUDY7 Qualitative research design:  6 Focus Groups with parents– 56 respondents  4 Focus groups with students – 34 respondents  8 in-depth interviews with Education Officials  8 in-depth interviews with Education Experts

March 2007OSI PIPES STUDY8 Selecting ways:  The participants of group discussions were selected through the „snow ball” method.  The theoretical population samples were made up of different respondents based on the following criteria: the location, the language they speak, parents’ income, studies, the grade, etc.

March 2007 OSI PIPES STUDY 9 In-depth overview of the administration of surveys– 72 persons. The process of study implementation: 1.Performing pilot studies in 2 schools from Chisinau municipality and one in town and one in rural area. 2. Detailed training of interviewers 3. Distribution of schools to interviewers 4. Data collection 5. Data verification (60% by phone, 15% face-to-face) 6. Data processing

March 2007 OSI PIPES STUDY 10 The confidential nature of the study  The operator presents a letter by which he informs the respondent about the purpose of the study, involved institutions and that assures the confidentiality of the data.  As many times as it was necessary, the interviewers reminded the respondent the confidential nature of the study  In group discussions no other information except their first name wasn’t asked, those that didn’t want to say didn’t mentioned the school where they study or, in case of the parents, where their child study.

March 2007 OSI PIPES STUDY 11 Summary of their procedures for data entry and cleaning  The data were processed in SPSS twice – “double entry”.  For verification and correction of the mistakes were applied two methods: - logical relationship verification - independent verification of the mismatches between the processed data bases

March 2007 OSI PIPES STUDY 12 Specifically challenges  The desire of some school directors to supervise the teachers questioning – was explained supplementary that the data of the study will not affect them personally or on their institution, but will be statistically analyzed and interpreted  (For example, in a school before the director allows the operator to complete the questionnaires, he organized a meeting with all the teachers…)  Informal payments a delicate subject, the reaction of teachers was negative to these questions, especially in urban area, it was observed a fear when this subject was discussed. In some case the questionnaire was auto-administrated.

March 2007 OSI PIPES STUDY 13 Possible threats to the reliability and/or validity of the measures The data must be presented and interpreted using some specific variables, there is a big difference, what concerns informal payments, between Chisinau, urban area and rural area. Sometimes is a big difference between the answers of principals regarding parents contribution in the same school.

March 2007 OSI PIPES STUDY 14 Significant reactions of the different respondent groups  Principals many times have reserves about the importance of this study; they think there are much more important problems to solve.  Parents talked without restraints in focus groups about informal payments in schools, in in-depth interviews the presidents of the associations these were hard to convince.  There is a big difference in appreciation of the parents and the teachers regarding the financial contribution of the parents.  On the qualitative study, students gave more examples from their own experience, comparing to the parents that had more often referred to others experiences.

March 2007 OSI PIPES STUDY 15 General impressions and the data use  Parents’ contribution – an inappropriate social behavior in rural area, but something absolutely necessary in the opinion of respondents from urban area.  As the result underline some formal ways of gathering the money, for example through Parents Associations, by cheeping a good evidence of the collected money.  Accentuation of redirecting the parents’ contribution from repairs to acquisition of educational materials, as an investment in growth of the quality of children studies.  Clear politics / limits, the money gathered from parents differs a lot from one school to another.  Double taxation – parents pay taxes from their salary, and then again a taxed the money they contribute to the parents fund.  A big share of parents’ contribution goes to the school fund, and very few give their interest how this money is spent.

March 2007 OSI PIPES STUDY 16 Possible limitations to this study  The sincerity of the teachers and school directors (the evasion was bigger in urban area, were the share of informal payment is bigger)  Some of the payments that parents consider to be informal are actually legal.  Favors, discriminatory treatment, as recognition of a more superior status of someone (bigger grades, privileged behavior just because he is the son or daughter of someone, is a phenomenon that is very often seen in rural area).  Reporting to other (exterior) sources, not to their own experience, predisposition to exaggeration from the parents and to underestimate the phenomenon from school directors.

March 2007 OSI PIPES STUDY 17 Thank you !