The Senate, as the decision-making parliamentary body
\nin this case, passed the new education laws with a majority. The parties in the
\nruling coalition, the National Liberal Party, the Social Democratic Party and
\nthe Democratic Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, supported the two bills
\nfor undergraduate and higher education, saying the measures adopted will reform
\nthe education system. A system that is plagued by acute problems about which teachers,
\nparents, pupils and students have been warning for years and which at best have
\nonly been superficially tackled by the various ministers that have held the
\npost, if not actually made worse! <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
A teacher by profession, president Klaus Iohannis
\nlaunched a project called Educated Romania, which, after being debated for five
\nyears, is now being put into practice in the form of the new education
\nlegislation, which education minister Ligia Deca, who worked on the
\npresidential project, says it addresses current and long-term challenges: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The education package is an ambitious but achievable
\nproject, a better future for all children and young people in Romania. The
\nundergraduate education law reached the final vote and it is meant to address
\nexisting and future challenges so that education can once more become the
\nfoundation of a value-based society. Fairness, high-performance, investment,
\nrespect and security are some of the key words which the undergraduate
\neducation law has translated into coherent and predictable measures.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The undergraduate education law aims to reduce school
\ndrop-out rates, while the higher education law seeks, among others, to support
\nthe cooperation between Romanian and other European universities. Professionalising
\nthe teaching career, improving access to early education, reducing functional
\nilliteracy, adapting programmes to the labour market, modernising testing and
\nevaluation methods and increasing support for underprivileged children are some
\nof the other goals of the new legislation. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Opposition senators, however, believe the two new laws
\nwill never solve existing problems, so they voted against them and will even
\nbring the legislation before the Constitutional Court. Save Romania Union senator
\nIrineu Durau:<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
We could not vote for a law that simply leaves the
\nstatus of teachers at a shameful level, that only shows that today’s Power does
\nnot care about education. There won’t be any teachers left to provide education
\naround the country. 20% of today’s teachers are about to retire and only 5% are
\nyoung.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Over 70% of teachers decided to continue on Tuesday
\nthe general strike started a day earlier, after a long series of protests they
\nsay no one paid attention to. On Monday, the labour ministry decided to launch
\nfor public debate an emergency order to raise the salaries of auxiliary and
\nnon-teaching staff and to provide financial bonuses for beginner teachers.
\nStill unhappy, trade unions said they would not give up the protest until
\ngovernment provides a credible solution to their demands, especially
\nfinancial ones. (CM)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With teachers on strike, Senate passes education legislation aimed at an in depth reform of the system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":94878,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-95789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n