| DILEMMAS IN ROMANIAN EDUCATION 05/05/2009 |
| (2009-05-05) |
| Last updated: 2009-05-06 17:32 EET |
After long negotiations, minister Ecaterina Andronescu tried to alleviate the fears of teachers’ unions, which are mostly about investment funds and salaries in education. Here is Ecaterina Andronescu:
“The Ministry of Education will not change salaries. After union federations made demands, the ministry will put together a commission to monitor past and future spending in the education system. Over the next few days we will finish putting together the calendar and principles for the decentralization process”.
Rather cautious, union leaders decided to postpone the all-out strike, which depends on internal consultations. Here is Marius Nistor, the head of one of the bigger unions:
“On May 6th, at the meeting of the executive bureaus of the four union federations, our colleagues will decide if they will continue their protests. Of course, boycotting national exams still stands, and the as single subject secondary cycle term exams were only postponed, and, of course, the other protests, which were opted for by referendum”.
In an attempt to defuse the conflict, the Ministry of Education committed to applying the provisions of the Law on raising salaries for teachers in the future flat salary scheme. The famous law, which was unanimously voted by Parliament, in the run-up for elections, and which was endorsed by the president in spite of warnings from the previous Liberal government, has become impossible to put into effect because of the financial crisis, which has placed the state under strain. Now the president admits it was a mistake:
“Together with the entire political class, I am taking responsibility for the error of voting in the new law on teachers’ salaries. It is a law that, considering the evolution of the crisis, could not come into being. I assure you that I really wanted this law to be applied, but, at the time when the law was passed, no one had a proper evaluation of the difficult situation generated by the economic crisis”.
Even if these regrets are sincere, they come in too late, and do not seem to alleviate teachers’ frustration. The law to raise salaries by 50%, now moot, is the highest bribe, and, at the same time, the biggest election hoax of the past few years.
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2025-04-04
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