The piece examines how the proposed weighting change would alter competition and evaluation in Moldova’s school textbook procurement.
A proposed shift from price to quality
A draft law going before Moldova’s parliamentary culture, education, research, youth, sport and mass-media committee would change how school textbook offers are evaluated. Under the proposal, quality would account for 90% of the score and price for 10%, compared with the current weighting of 70% for quality and 30% for cost. The change is not yet law: the document is scheduled for examination at the committee’s 13 November meeting. Its authors say the adjustment is needed because the existing minimum 30% price weighting can allow price differences to outweigh differences in quality.
How weighted tender evaluation works
The mechanism at stake is a weighted award criterion: the contracting authority compares offers against defined quality and price criteria, assigns each a proportion of the overall score, and then combines the results. A higher price weighting gives a cheaper offer greater scope to compensate for a weaker quality score; a higher quality weighting makes the technical assessment more influential. The draft would permit a 90% quality and 10% price split, but would not make that split compulsory. The contracting authority would retain the right to set a higher price weighting where the specific procedure justified it.
The reform timetable is driving the proposal
The authors link the proposed change to the approval of a new curriculum across all school subjects at the beginning of November 2026 and its implementation from the 2027-2028 school year. They say this will require textbooks to be replaced on a large scale, in a procurement cycle covering at least 80 titles. The draft states that textbook procedures are expected to begin immediately after the curriculum is approved, before 1 January 2027. Without a legislative change, those procedures would continue under the existing 30% price weighting, according to the explanatory note.
What is being argued, and what remains undecided
The project’s authors argue that selecting lower-quality textbook proposals could undermine the results sought by the new curriculum, because a new curriculum accompanied by inferior books would not deliver its intended outcomes. They also say the selected textbooks would be used by pupils for 4-5 years, making the scoring rule important beyond the award stage. These are the reasons set out in the draft and its supporting note, not an established finding about any completed tender. The Education and Research Ministry announced public consultations in August 2026, while Parliament’s committee still has to examine the proposal.
IN NUMBERS
The proposed model would give contracting authorities more room to make quality the dominant award consideration, while preserving discretion to attach a larger role to price. Its practical effect will depend on the criteria used to define and assess textbook quality in each procedure, as well as on whether Parliament approves the change before the planned procurement cycle begins.
Reported from zdg.md, 2026-11-11. The Tender Wire is published by Otnox.
