More than 85 million lei will be invested in modernising the Gheorghe Asachi Theoretical Lyceum in Chișinău, Education and Research Minister Dan Perciun said on 21 October. Radio Chișinău repeated a MOLDPRES report. This is an allocation announcement, not a building site already opened and not a finished job handed over.

Seventy million lei will go, the minister said, to a full renovation of the historic block, in a project with the Council of Europe Development Bank. About 15 million lei, with World Bank support, is for energy efficiency on the new block. Those two sums make today’s announcement; we do not mix them with other programme figures.

Perciun said these projects come on top of work already done: more than two million lei for toilets, a fitted canteen and lockers for pupils in years I–IV, so they can leave some textbooks at school. That work is past, not the 85 million.

The lyceum is one of 90 model schools the authorities want to modernise by 2030. For each institution in the programme, 2.5–3.5 million euro is planned. That is a programme target, not today’s 85 million lei invoice, and not a guarantee that work at Asachi has started.

The minister said the aim is for pupils to learn in modern, safe, comfortable spaces and for teachers to have the conditions they need. MOLDPRES also notes that the works should cut building running costs. That is a project intention, not a measured result.

The ministry says about 90 percent of operating costs of schools in Chișinău municipality are covered from the state budget. Another MOLDPRES piece the same day speaks of more than 1.1 billion lei for about 50 schools in the capital, across several programmes, some finished, some under way. That is not the same package as the 85 million at Asachi.

We do not treat other waves of figures, such as “10 million euro per lyceum”, as if they were today’s announcement. Until an execution contract is published or a site is opened, the closed fact is Perciun’s allocation: 70 million for the historic block (CEB) and about 15 million for energy efficiency on the new block (World Bank).

Image: Astralanan, facade of IPLT Gh. Asachi, Chisinau, 7 April 2022, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons; the 2022 facade, not a photograph of 2026 works.

Sources consulted: Liceul Gheorghe Asachi din Chisinau va fi modernizat. Investitia este de 85 milioane de lei - Radio Chisinau; Liceul Gheorghe Asachi din Chisinau va fi modernizat printr-o investitie de 85 milioane de lei - MOLDPRES.