Almost 3 million Romanian children went
\nback to school on Monday after the long summer break. The first day of school brought
\ngood news in some regions, with the conditions of schools and the education
\nsystem in general in the rural areas being far from ideal. In the village of
\nFloresti, in Cluj county, north-western Romania, one of the biggest schools in
\nthe rural area has been inaugurated. While the activity of some local
\nauthorities is a model of good practice, that of others leaves to be desired.
\nSuffice it to say that not all schools can provide children with specialised
\nmedical care, that others have not received their sanitary permits because they
\nare not connected to the running water and sewerage networks, that some schools
\ndon’t even have fire safety permits or don’t have security or video monitoring
\nsystems in place. School buses are also not enough in some cases. <\/p>\n
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Against this backdrop, many Romanian
\npoliticians, who are in pre-election mode, attended the opening of the school
\nyear across the country. This includes two of the candidates to the
\npresidential elections in November, namely the incumbent president Klaus
\nIohannis and prime minister Viorica Dancila. At a school in Bucharest, Klaus
\nIohannis spoke about the failure of public policies in education, as well as
\ntheir lack of creativity. He warned that there is a lot of indifference and
\ncarelessness, that there are no measures to increase the quality of education
\nand that all children, without discrimination, must feel encouraged, protected
\nand safe in school. <\/p>\n
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Prime minister Viorica Dancila attended
\nthe opening of the new school year in a village in Hunedoara, in the west: <\/p>\n
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I thought I should attend the
\nopening of the school year in a school in the rural environment. It is
\nimportant to focus on the children in the rural environment, who deserve the
\nsame opportunities as those in the urban environment. We are looking for as
\nmany programmes as possible that could help children in the rural environment,
\nbecause it is important for these children to go to university, to achieve
\nthings. We must ensure them as good a future as possible.<\/p>\n
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The European commissioner for
\neducation Tibor Navracsics also attended the opening of the new school year in
\nRomania, in Satu Mare, in the north-west. Navracsics, who is nearing the end of his term
\nin office, spoke about how the Romanian education system is seen in Brussels.
\nIn his opinion, the biggest problem is under-funding. The practical component is
\nalso missing, with emphasis being placed rather on the theoretical side. Satu
\nMare is one exception to this, with the commissioner noting that a different
\napproach is being tested, one that places more emphasis on vocational and dual
\neducation. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The beginning of the new school year has again put the spotlight on the problems faced by the Romanian education system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":82856,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[28904],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-82855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-education"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n