Update, 16 July 2026. The contest calendar has been extended from the original announcement: applications are now accepted until 17 July (first round), preliminary results are announced on 22 July, and the placement order on 27 July. The list still holds 73 vacancies in Ungheni district. Those who want to apply have until tomorrow; a second round is scheduled for August. The Ministry of Education and Research (MEC) opened registration on Wednesday, 17 June, for the annual contest that places young specialists into teaching posts for the 2026–2027 school year. For the people of Ungheni looking for a teacher, and for graduates looking for a post, the stakes are concrete: in the official list of vacancies, schools in Ungheni district have 73 unfilled teaching posts — according to a Triunghi.md count of the document published by the ministry.
It is a figure that places the district among the most short-staffed in the country. At the press conference, Minister Dan Perciun said the most vacancies are in the municipality of Chișinău (412), followed by the districts of Cimișlia, Gagauzia, Anenii Noi and Ungheni. That makes Ungheni the fifth-largest shortage nationwide. Triunghi.md’s own count across the list of districts confirms the same order: Cimișlia (85 posts), Gagauzia (84), Anenii Noi (80), Ungheni (73), Hîncești (68).
This is the concrete sequel to a story we have already told: in the spring, the ministry spoke of 88 vacancies and second place nationwide for Ungheni. That was a snapshot of the moment. The list finalised on 5 June, the one the contest actually runs on, counts 73 posts with a workload of at least 14 hours per week, on an open-ended basis — the firm figure with which the district enters the placement round.
Where the teachers are missing
The 73 posts are spread across more than twenty institutions throughout the district, and the list spares neither the town nor the villages.
The longest list of posts is at the “Alexandr Pușkin” Theoretical Lyceum in Ungheni — 8 posts. Next, in the town, come the “Ion Creangă” (5), “Vasile Alecsandri” (4) and “Mihai Eminescu” (3) Theoretical Lyceums. In the villages, the Mănoilești gymnasium is looking for 5 teachers, the Rădenii Vechi gymnasium for 4, while the “Elada” Theoretical Lyceum in Măcărești and the Teșcureni gymnasium need 3 each. Sculeni, Zagarancea, Unțești, Cetireni, Morenii Noi, Cornești, Pîrlița and others also appear on the list, along with a string of kindergartens and gymnasium-kindergarten complexes, which on their own add up to around 14 posts.
The breakdown by subject also says something about Ungheni’s schools. The most empty posts are in primary education (around 7) and in mathematics, on its own or combined with computer science or physics (more than ten posts together). There is a shortage of French teachers (4 posts), English teachers (3), preschool educators, and teachers of the exact sciences — physics, chemistry, biology. The list overlaps with what the MEC’s Secretary General, Galina Rusu, described: the most sought-after specialisms nationwide are preschool pedagogy, mathematics, physics, Romanian language and literature, English and primary education, with the largest shortage in STEM subjects.
What a young teacher who chooses Ungheni gets
The state is betting on money and benefits to fill these posts. Graduates who take a job receive one-off payments of between 160,000 and 375,000 lei. The maximum — 375,000 lei — goes to those with a university degree who teach STEM subjects in rural areas, exactly the profile the villages around Ungheni lack; for Chișinău and Bălți the ceiling is 300,000 lei.
Besides the payment, trainee teachers get a workload reduced to 75% in their first five years, an annual allowance of 4,000 lei for teaching materials, up to 62 days of leave and the support of a mentor. The contest is open to people up to the age of 35, new to teaching, who have graduated from pedagogical or related programmes, under the terms of Government Decision No. 391/2024.
The calendar is short and fixed. Applications are submitted between 1 and 17 July 2026, through the official form published by the ministry. Preliminary results are announced on 22 July, and the placement order is published on 27 July. The full list of vacancies and the registration form are available on the MEC website.
A record that covers only a quarter
Minister Dan Perciun presented the contest in an optimistic tone.
A few years ago we talked almost exclusively about the lack of teachers and about young people avoiding the school. Today we see clear signs that the situation is beginning to change. Dan Perciun, Minister of Education and Research
He recalled that in the 2025–2026 school year more than 400 trainee teachers were placed — the highest number in recent years. The figure shows a recovery, but set against the scale of the problem it remains modest. Those 400-plus placed last year covered roughly a quarter of the thousands of vacant posts nationwide. In other words, the placement contest usually fills only part of the empty posts; the rest is covered by teachers taking on extra hours, by staff past retirement age, or remains uncovered. For Ungheni, the 73 posts are the starting point of the summer, not a guarantee that every class will have its teacher in September.
The picture confirms the diagnosis the ministry itself keeps repeating: Moldova does not lack teachers overall, but has a problem of geographic distribution. Staff gather in Chișinău and the large towns, while the districts and villages — Ungheni among them, with nearly three quarters of the country’s vacancies concentrated in rural areas — are left searching. This year’s money and benefits are the state’s bet that some of the young people finishing university this summer will, after all, choose the road to a classroom in Sculeni, Mănoilești or Cornești.