|
RRI newsletter subcription
(e-mail address):
|
 |
Archives:
|
|
| THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR IN ROMANIA 13/09/2010 |
| (2010-09-13) |
| Last updated: 2010-09-15 13:20 EET |
Over 3 million school students started the first semester of the 2010-2011 school year on Monday. The opening was much less ostentatious than in previous years because of the economic crisis, which has also affected schools’ infrastructure and the teaching staff, despite the optimism displayed by authorities. 10% of all education facilities in Romania have not received their functioning permits and more than 300,000 children attend schools with no running water and sanitary facilities. However, education minister, Daniel Funeriu, sees the glass half-full:
“Over 90% of Romania’s children will go to schools that are authorised, as I have asked school inspectors not to close down any school. Also, 670,000 children from underprivileged social categories will receive free school supplies from their first days in school. “
The government’s austerity policy mostly affects the teaching staff. For the first time in the last 20 years, 10,000 teachers of Romania’s 370,000 were made redundant as of September 1st. Those who still have their jobs saw their wages cut by 25% as of July 1st, which lowered the average salary in the pre-university system to 210 euros. Under the circumstances, the quality of the Romanian education system has been decreasing dramatically, while the reforms planned by the ministry, including the revision of the school curriculum and handbooks based on the western model, runs the risk of becoming meaningless. Despite these shortcomings, or perhaps precisely in order to compensate for them by an individual effort of self-improvement, Romania’s president Traian Basescu urged students, in his school opening address, to show more “creativity, innovation and initiative”. Education trade unions are pessimistic over the prospects of the new school year and said they would stage protest rallies in Bucharest and Brussels to warn about the constant deterioration of the Romanian school system. Trade union leader Aurel Cornea:
“In my opinion, this is the gloomiest school year opening in the last 20 years. Salaries are much lower, investments have not been finalised and many schools are unsanitary.”
Another trade union leader, Gheorghe Izvoranu, believes the government in Bucharest will continue to undermine education in Romania through its policy to reduce budget allocations:
VM banda “The education system keeps receiving blow after blow. The incomes of education employees dropped more than 25%, sometimes up to 50%. If we look at the letter of intent the government sent to the International Monetary Fund, we see that drastic measure are in store for the coming months which will affect both our incomes and our jobs.”
According to the education minister, the new school year in Romania will consist of 36 weeks and is divided into 2 semesters with short holidays on Christmas and Easter and a summer holiday between June and September.
|
|
| |
WMA |
|
64kbps : |
1
2
3
|
|
|
128kbps : |
1
2
3
|
| |
MP3 |
|
|
64kbps : |
1
2
3
|
|
|
128kbps : |
1
2
3
|
| |
AAC+ |
|
|
48kbps : |
1
2
3
|
|
|
64kbps : |
1
2
3
|
 Historical mascot of
RRI |
| |
© 1999 - 2011 Copyright Radio Romania International |
|
2025-04-03
Print
Listen again