Strike in Romania’s Education System

The all-out strike in the Romanian education system, already in its third week, continues. The number of protesters has seemingly decreased. Minister Ligia Deca has announced that 10,000 employees will have given up the protest and that only 53% of the total number of employees in the system are continuing the protest. If the percentage falls below 50, the strike should be stopped and the teachers could recover the lost classes, as the minister stated.

Ligia Deca: "We are happy with the downward trend. It is clear that teachers are slowly returning to classes, the education staff are returning to schools, and this allows us to organize a recovery program at the level of each educational unit, so that, by the end of the school year, students should recuperate the lost classes and the teaching and non-teaching staff should recuperate their pay lost in May due to the protest actions.”

However, the unions accuse the authorities of creating confusion and say that 87% of the teaching and non-teaching staff are actually participating in the all-out strike. They are unhappy with the Government's salary increase offer, far below what they wanted. At stake is more than a decent salary, it is the very status of the teacher, in particular, and of the education system in Romania, in general - the teachers say. However, as the exam session is approaching, education officials, representatives of students, parents and trade unions participated in new discussions at the Ministry headquarters, following which they agreed that, for the time being, there is no need to change the dates on which the national exams are scheduled.

Minister Ligia Deca is back at the microphone: "We are still on schedule so as not to change the exam dates. If at the end of the week - because it is then that we can have an accurate assessment – we come to the conclusion that there are not enough human resources to organize these exams, we will announce the measures that the ministry is taking into account. Our wish, of us all, would be to be able to hold the exams on the announced dates, so that all the students should continue on the path they have chosen. For the other categories of students, we are still on the school year schedule. Classes will end on June 16. There may be remedial classes in the context of the school year, and for any non-covered subject, the plans for the following year can be redone."

According to the current schedule, the oral tests of the baccalaureate exam should start on June 12, and the written tests on June 26. As for the National Assessment of the 8th graders, prior to entering high school, the tests should start on June 19. In the meantime, however, in some cities in Romania, the street demonstrations of education employees continued. A new large-scale rally is expected in Bucharest, on Thursday, after the recent ones in which tens of thousands of people participated. (LS)