The Minister of Education, Daniel David, drew an alarm signal on the functional illiteracy in the Romanian society and sent a message to the teachers participating in the debate in Cluj-Napoca on the projects related to the framework plans for high school.
Daniel David was present online at the debate in Cluj-Napoca. Photo: Remus Florescu
The Minister of Education, Daniel David, participated, online, in the second public debate on the projects related to the framework plans for high school. The class of the Faculty of Economic Sciences and Business Management, within the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, was, on Friday afternoon, archip.
“We have come to the situation where, as you know, we have fully outdated textbooks and programs ”the minister said. David said that there is a great pressure to finalize the framework plans for high school, presenting several aspects of these pressures. Perhaps the most important pressure comes from the reality in which we live today in Romania:
“With the models we have at this time, with the way we think and how, in fact, the plan in plus the programs we have, plus the textbooks we have, education no longer becomes a modernization factor for the country. . The area of functional illiteracy is huge and grows at the primary level, grows at the gymnasium and grows greatly at high school. In the area of competence of adults, those who leave the gymnasium and high school, the situation does not look absolutely good in comparison with international environments. Any comparison I saw, things look bad, very bad. It’s no longer time we need to start working on these plans”, The minister said.
“We must light up the light in us”
Daniel David used a metaphor to characterize the education system “We have lights and shadows, but now we must actually turn on the light, bring knowledge first in our system and then transfer it to society, through knowledge, through culture.”
The former rector claimed that the role of teachers is for education to escape pseudo-science, pseudo-knowledge, pseudo-religion, obscurantism we find around us: “We must first be those who make our house orders, light the light to us, so that we can take it to the others, take to people, take it to society.“
David asked the teachers present at the debate to trust that their opinions will indeed be heard and they will be taken into account: “I said very clearly that these projects can be improved, more, they can change in their essence if over time, new ideas, new and interesting models appear. ”
The plans that will be completed in May, said the former rector, “They will think so that they have a wide support in our community, so that people enjoy that we make this change, not to be afraid, as we saw in the first days of these debates.”
David ended with the same metaphor: “Let’s build education together. Let’s We turn on the lights in educationso that we are good to us, to those in the system, and to be good for society. ”
Parents complain that they are not listened to
Professor Adrian Magdaș, the director of the best high school in Cluj-Napoca, the National College Emil Racoviță appreciated that greater flexibility is given to schools that can choose according to the resources to model their curriculum. “Moreover, I think that flexibility could be extended to how a foreign language is learned. For example, students will be able to give up the intensive study of a foreign language after 3 years high school, in order to focus in the last year of high school on other subjects ”.
Todea Anghel, director of the Napoca Tourism College, a school in the technological chain, services profile, appreciated that it is desired to increase the internship dedicated to practical training, but raised the problem of the human resource. The response from the representatives of the ministry was that the associated teachers should be used, a possibility that will be implemented more constructively in the future methodology.
Simion Breaz, who participated in the debate as a parent, raised the problem of eliminating the geography from the 11th and 12th real classes. Secretary of State Bogdan Cristescu, claimed that, in fact, geography will no longer be done where students no longer want to continue studying this subject.
The representative of the parents from the Gheorghe Coșbuc National College transmitted the point of view of the National Federation of Parents in which both positive elements of the projects are punctuated, such as reducing the overload of the schedule, several options regarding the study subjects, the increased autonomy of the schools. “In terms of less positive aspects, we mention the lack of real consultation of parents regarding the final decisions. Parents were not really convened in the initial phase ”he claimed. The response from the ministry’s representatives was that the projects will go through other filters that will be validated by parents representatives.
In addition, Secretary of State Bogdan Cristescu denied that the parents were not consulted showing that the parents were the ones who claimed that the students were overloaded, the parents demanded more flexibility and took into account their opinion in the ticking of the project suspected of debate.
“It would not be like asking the patient and his family how he wants to be treated?”
Gabriel Mircea, a teacher, claimed that it seems to him that parents and students are involved too much in the completion of the framework plan. “It would not be like asking the patient and his family how he wants to be treated?”
Răzvan Mustață, the office director of the Minister of Education, claimed that in high school and faculty he was a representative of the students respectively and as a rector of the Faculty of Economic Studies had the opportunity to find that young people can bring important value to the debate, if are treated with respect.
The president of the County Council of Students has raised more problems, including the decrease in the number of hours of Romanian language and the small number of hours of physical education. “There was also an hour of physical education. A World Vision survey shows that 81 % of students ie 8 out of 10 do not do physical activity outside the school ”the student said.
A more delicate moment was the one in which a representative of the geography teachers in the city argued why the geography should remain mandatory at the common trunk and insisted on sending a file to the Secretary of State present.
The conclusion was drawn by the minister’s office director, Răzvan Mustață, who reiterated Daniel David’s exhortation to “light the light”.
