More than 3,000 teachers have signed a petition asking the Ministries of Education, Labor and Family for social grants to come under the responsibility of social assistance services. All this, in the context where teachers have been complaining for a long time that they are buried head over heels in papers, and the bureaucracy prevents them from focusing on the educational act. However, the authorities from the Ministry of Education with whom “Adevărul” spoke stated that, for now, the request cannot be resolved.
Managing social grants, a heavy burden on teachers’ shoulders. Photo source: archive
“We, the teachers of pre-university education, request the transfer of the duties of drawing up and managing the files for students’ social grants, from managers and teachers, to the employees of the social assistance services”. it is shown in the text of the petition. “We request the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Protection and the competent authorities to initiate the necessary legislative changes to transfer the responsibility of drawing up the scholarship files to the social assistance services. This change will improve both the quality of the educational act and the efficiency of the administration of school grants”, teachers ask for more.
They say that the preparation of these files “it is additional work that, in addition to the usual teaching activities, puts a significant pressure on the teaching staff. Instead of focusing on educating and supporting students, teachers are forced to deal with bureaucratic formalities that could be handled more effectively by specialized staff.”
The teachers believe that the employees of the social assistance services have the necessary expertise to administer these files: “Employees of these services are already familiar with social case management and can provide a more objective assessment of each student’s situation.”
Andreia Bodea, director of ILCaragiale College, Bucharest: “Many and useless papers”
Andreia Bodea, the director of the ILCaragiale College in Bucharest, stated in a televised intervention that teachers are overwhelmed by duties that have nothing to do with the educational act that they should take care of as a matter of priority: “Every year, papers are added to the headmasters’ and the head teachers’ heads. Year after year there are more and more and they are useless. There are whole meters that we have to do. Yes, there are a lot of papers that take up time, consume nerves, and that would be nothing if they were also useful. In an important percentage, they are repeated from year to year. So, I don’t think there is a director or a teacher director who, if they wanted to fill in and do the serious way of how things should be done, could cover this entire beach. It’s impossible, he doesn’t go to classes anymore and sleeps 3 hours a night.”
School director from Galati: “A flower does not make spring”
Romeo Zamfir, mathematics teacher and director of the “Vasile Alecsandri” College in Galati, told “Adevărul” that the bureaucracy is suffocating even more, from one year to the next, the Romanian education system: “There are also many legal issues that arise, and teachers are not qualified to solve them. It’s a big responsibility, especially since it’s about money. We make the files, we also make the payments”.
Generally speaking, the acts and documents that a head teacher or director must prepare and sign are extremely numerous. “An awful lot. Starting from planning, management programs, reports, procedures… there are a lot of papers that need to be done. Plus scholarships. We manage all scholarships. A committee is formed at the beginning of the school year, then the workload is very high. But the dates change throughout the year, as new beneficiaries arrive. Social grants, for example, can change from one month to the next. There are new students who apply”, explains Romeo Zamfir.
The petition submitted by the 3,000 teachers is the flower that does not make spring, the teacher believes: “It doesn’t solve much, but it’s at least a start. A step towards normalcy. That, if it will be taken into account by the authorities. But, even so, we still have the other scholarships that also eat up our time and energy”.
The director of the school in Galati told us that the workload of the teachers increases from year to year: In the past, there were only two types of scholarships: merit and social. And I was doing better with the workload. Now there are many more. Which is why some teachers stay in school after they finish their classes and then work from home as well, depending on the type of scholarship they have to manage. Plus other things I do: preparing lessons, correcting papers, planning to be taught, different programs for different committees. Their work does not end once the bell has rung.”
The high school technologist and dual director: “I took work at home as well”
Professor Carmen Ștefan, director of the “Mihai Bravu” Technical College in Bucharest, has no less than 850 scholarships to manage. “They are of all kinds: social, technological, and merit. Every month there is something to do. In addition, we also have those in the dual system. Here we have to count absences, view grades according to operator requirements. And we only have 261 children. Each with his file”, explained the teacher for “The Truth”.
The director confessed to us that she is overwhelmed by the bureaucracy. “If I worked 24/7 for a month and still didn’t have enough time to get everything done. For example, when I sign diplomas, three, even four hours are lost that day. But I don’t just sign diplomas. I also make other certificates, notebooks, conditions, reports. Something always comes up”said the teacher.
The director told us that she also works at home. “I took my contracts to dual, to set them up. It’s work, it’s work. You have to be careful. When you’re disturbed all the time, you can’t pay attention”the director Carmen Ștefan also said.
The educational contracts were also a problem, the teacher says, because not all parents wanted to sign them. “They don’t want to sign them and I have nothing to do with them. Should I no longer accept the children at school? I have no way. Then, I won’t tell you how many requests we have from parents that we are obliged to respond to. Anyone can petition up to 800 times if they want. Someone came to us unhappy that their child had a psychology class in the timetable. I agree with the complaints, it’s their right to make them, but they should be well-founded. All these things eat up a lot of our time, energy and nerves”.
Florian Lixandru, Secretary of State: “Now it is not possible. See you next year”
The authorities of the Ministry of Education stated for “Adevărul” that the situation is known, but it is not possible, for now, to intervene. “At the moment, all scholarships are managed through pre-university education units and school inspectorates. We cannot make any changes to the management of school bursaries. If it is a petition, we will look into it and in a future methodology, which will apply for the 2025-2026 school year, we are open to communication. But at this moment I cannot say whether it is a feasible solution or not”, State Secretary Florian Lixandru stated. “From my point of view, if I were a director, I would have every interest in the verification being done very rigorously at the level of the educational unit, and then I call on the team I control, the team of teaching staff, the auxiliary teaching staff so that these lists be correctly drawn up”, Lixandru also said.
He explained that this is exactly what the Ministry wanted: the transfer of social grants from the responsibility of local authorities to the responsibility of schools. The reason? “To ensure both a unitary amount according to the pre-university education law and the payment of these scholarships. As long as these payments were the responsibility of the municipalities, there were gaps both in terms of the amount and in terms of the time of payment,” the official explained. “But it is up for discussion. To the extent that we can contribute to the de-bureaucratization of this school scholarship management process, we are fully open. We will take into account all the possibilities in such a way that the work of the teachers is made easier. Because, really, their role is to educate”, he also told us State Secretary Florian Lixandru.
