The Education Laws in the focus of the deputies
The new education laws are being debated by the Romanian Chamber of Deputies.
Ştefan Stoica, 10.04.2023, 13:50
The reform of the education system has been discussed, in an applied or propagandistic manner, for over three decades. Several changes have been made indeed, but most of the projects started were short-lived, due to repeated changes at the top of the education ministry. The reform lacked a unitary vision, to be accepted by the main political forces. Now there is a chance that, a large coalition, such as the one in power, which includes the main leftwing and rightwing forces, the Social Democratic Party – PSD and the National Liberal Party – PNL, may agree on a long-term, valid reform program. Recently approved by the government, the new draft education laws reached the Chamber of Deputies. They are based on the “Educated Romania” project, initiated by President Klaus Iohannis, and for the implementation of the reforms included in these laws, more than 3 billion Euros will be allocated from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
The coordinator of the presidential project, Ligia Deca, is the current education minister and she claims that the education system will be centered on the students and on stimulating their potential. The higher education law is meant to combat university education dropout and to support European cooperation of universities in Romania.
The pre-university education law mainly aims to reduce school dropout and functional illiteracy, which are chronic problems of the Romanian education system. The bill regarding pre-university education proposes the introduction of new mandatory assessments at the end of the 2nd, 4th and 6th grades in such subjects as Language and Communication and Mathematics and Sciences. High schools will be able to organize their own admission contest, with specific tests, for 60% of the places, besides the National Assessment, and the baccalaureate exam will have more tests. The higher education bill also provides for increasing the length of university doctoral studies to 4 years, as compared to 3 years at present. The coalition leaders promise to adopt the new laws by the end of the current parliamentary session.
On the other hand, Romanian schools are facing a serious problem: a rising number of incidents. That is why the education ministry has announced that it has started consultations to find the best solutions to counter violence of any nature in schools. Minister Deca emphasized that the safety of every person in the education units is a priority for the education ministry. Her reaction came after two events that horrified the public opinion: a few days ago, a student from a college in Bucharest injured a teacher with a knife during class, and at a school in Prahova county (south), 13 year old students sexually harassed a teacher, also during class, and filmed the incident. In the first case, the aggressor student was arrested, on the grounds that he represented a public danger, and was placed in a special center for minors. In the second case, the Prahova School Inspectorate took disciplinary measures, and the police opened an investigation. (LS)
