The Minister of Education and Research, Daniel David, explained that recent changes in the educational system are the reflection of acute budgetary constraints and cannot be really considered reforms.
Minister of Education, Daniel David photo gov.ro
Survival measures, not reform
Daniel David was asked, live at Euronews, what criteria for separation could apply a school principal for the merit scholarship and if a methodology could stand for the threshold of merit scholarships to increase, from note 9, to 9.5, a threshold that was temporarily raised in 2020-2021.
“I tell you honestly that if it were after me, I would have thought the scholarship system differently. The problem is that we are in a situation. Do not forget, these are not reform measures, these are survival measures in crisis situations. the minister.
Despite financial restrictions, Daniel David stressed that his goal remains to apply a medium -term reform vision
“The mission of any minister, including mine, is that after or while we pass this fiscal-budgetary crisis, to bring a resource in the system and to think in a reform logic, not of austerity and crisis all these measures at this time. “,
he added, for the quoted source.
The scholarship budget, compared to previous years
Regarding the students’ scholarships, the minister pointed out that the available amounts are limited:
“This is the budget I could receive to offer a certain scholarship system. Attention, to know that no matter how decreased compared to the last 2 school years, this is a bigger budget than I had in 2022-2023.”
The statements come in the context of recent discussions about reducing the number of merit scholarships and adjusting the granting criteria, which has generated criticisms from teachers and parents.
Critics to austerity policies
On July 21, Daniel David warned that “mThe taxes assumed by the government are not measures that make education efficient. There are measures that do not leave some European practices, but we save the positions we have, the salaries and scholarships in the autumn. ”
The minister also explained that the system of merit scholarships has come to be applied in an inequitable way:
“It is abnormal to name” merit scholars’ what they take 30 % of the students in the system. In addition, the evaluation criterion is absolutely non -objective. ”
Daniel David stressed that without interventions, the situation would be degenerated into a “stock market”: “If I did not intervene now, we would have lost this battle in the pre-university, and the children would not have understood that the school is mandatory.”
The key measures of Law no. 141/2025
- increasing the didactic norm from 18 to 20 hours per week in pre -university;
- VAT increase to books from 5% to 11%;
- half -payment of payment by time and number of available rules;
- reducing the degreasing for directors (10 hours of teaching instead of 6; 14 hours for CCD, CJRAE and extracurricular centers);
- the abolition of the resilience and performance scholarships;
- merit scholarships only for students with average over 9.00 and for maximum 15% of the students of the class;
- increasing the maximum number of students per class by derogations (2-6 additional students);
- loss of legal personality for schools with under 500 students, 250 preschoolers or 200 pre -schools;
- Reduction of scholarships for students from teaching programs and didactic master from 3,700 lei to 2,570 lei;
- the ceiling of the fund allocated to the university scholarships at 10% of the minimum net salary per student;
- postponing the granting of the two compensatory salaries at retirement for university professors until the academic year 2027-2028.
