Romania has a new education minister
Former presidential advisor Ligia Deca takes over as education minister.
Bogdan Matei, 04.10.2022, 13:50
In the last 32 years, ever since the communist regime
collapsed in Romania, education has seen the most frequent, and often
confusing, changes of all public sectors in this country. Amid chronic
political instability, the education ministry has seen a great many different
ministers, all bent on making new changes. Although none of them lasted for too
long, they each managed, while in office, to cancel the reforms promoted by
their predecessors.
After three decades of constant changes, the results
are visible. Pupils and parents alike are complaining about the confusion
caused by constantly changing the rules in the middle of the game. Those who can
afford it prefer to send their children to study abroad, while the best
graduates of Romanian universities also choose to leave the country. Vocational
education is no longer effective, so it’s becoming increasingly difficult to
find a skilled plumber or car mechanic. Because of the stress and the low
salaries, teaching is no longer attractive as a profession, so especially in
the countryside and in small towns, schools are relying increasingly on substitute
teachers. Although the figures vary, specialist studies all indicate there’s a
large rate of functional illiteracy among the graduates of Romania’s schools.
Against this background, the new university year began
on Monday without a full minister in charge of education, following the
resignation of the former occupant Sorin Cîmpeanu
amid vocal criticism of the reforms he wished to impose, and, worse still, amid
accusations of plagiarism. He is a member of the National Liberal Party (PNL),
who are in power in Romania in a coalition together with the Social Democratic
Party (PSD) and the Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania (UDMR). The
Liberals have nominated Ligia Deca to take over from Cîmpeanu. A former
education and research advisor to president Klaus Iohannis, Deca holds a
doctoral degree in political science and published many articles and studies in
prestigious magazines in the field of education policy. She also coordinated
the drafting of the Educated Romania project promoted by the president and
promises that implementing it will be her priority in office.
In the meantime, according to a World
Vision survey, there’s a lot of impatience and frustration in the education
system. Two in three teachers are warning that the curriculum is still too busy
and that school drop-out is still to be tackled. Due to poverty, 35% of
Romanian adolescents don’t have sufficient school supplies and books. One in
ten parents pulls out their children from school temporarily or definitively in
order to cope with expenses. Half of teachers say they are discouraged by the
lack of parents’ involvement in their children’s education and 65% say more
money is needed for school labs and sports facilities. All of which makes for a
depressing picture of the Educated Romania promised by president Klaus
Iohannis, himself a former physics teacher in Sibiu before going into politics. (CM)
