School – between online and in-person education

Students in Romania will be going to school after new epidemiological criteria

Eugen Coroianu, 14.01.2022, 13:50

The
National Committee for Emergency Situations has altered the epidemiological
conditions for the pre-university education in Romania.

Under
the new regulations issued by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of
Health, the occupation rate of hospital beds by Covid-infected patients will
from now on be considered in the process of switching from traditional to online
education.

In-person
classrooms will become available in all the counties where this rate stays
under 75%. Above this level, schools must turn to e-learning and aren’t allowed
to revert to traditional education unless the county rate goes below 70%.

Health
departments with every county council, including Bucharest, are required to
post on their own webpages this index every week on Thursdays, based on data
released by the Ministry of Health.

In-person
courses are to be suspended for a period of 10 days if there are three
confirmed infection cases in a group of students attending one form or another of
pre-university education. This year preschoolers and students will not have a
holiday between the first and the second semester of the year, which is due to
begin on January 17th. The next holiday, known in Romania as the
spring holiday, is going to last from 15th April to 1st May.

In
another development, trade unions from education staged a protest in Bucharest
on Thursday, denouncing the government’s failure to implement a pay raise in
compliance with the 2017 law on payment.

According
to them the insignificant 4% raise at the beginning of the year has only enraged
the employees in the education system who are threatening with further
protests.

Teachers
are complaining about the fact they are the only state-employees who do not
benefit bonuses. A decision by the Education Ministry to raise the grades for
merit scholarships from 8.50 to 9.50 has also triggered discontent among students
and parents alike. According to student organisations, hundreds of thousands of
them are losing this financial incentive under the new government decision and they
have commenced various forms of protest.

On the
other hand field minister Sorin Câmpeanu says that a total number of 660
thousand students will this year benefit several types of scholarships.

(bill)