The protest of thousands of teachers who boycotted today the beginning of the school year and manifested in the center of Bucharest against austerity measures is not seen with good eyes. Which reproaches the last teachers in an online debate.
Thousands of teachers protested against austerity measures. Photo: Inquam Photos
Thousands of teachers protested on Monday in the center of Bucharest against the austerity measures adopted by the Government.
They demand the repeal of Law 141/2025 and renouncing the austerity measures in education, which they consider harmful to the whole system. Among the claims are the annulment of the increase of the didactic norm by two hours, stopping the combination of schools and increasing the number of students in the class, as well as returning to the reduction of scholarships and the decrease of the tariff to pay by the hour, from 60 lei to 22 lei.
The ceremonies to start the new school year did not take place in many educational institutions in the country, to the disappointment of students and parents.
On the Reddit platform, a debate on teachers ‘protests reveals that many parents do not support teachers’ protest. Some consider the legitimate claims.
“Why didn’t they ask for the program to change, after their salaries were increased”
One of the biggest dissatisfaction of the parents is related to the fact that the teachers, after obtaining, in 2024, the increase of wages, did not ask for the adoption of a modern program.
“I can’t be in solidarity with the teachers this time. They asked for higher salaries and received them. But after they received, why didn’t they ask for the program change? Why are there still unnecessary subjects as technological education where you read about how aluminum pipes are produced? Why at BAC a student has to memorize 18 works of which only one falls, and if he does not know perfectly he is penalized? Why in history the events are not taught in logical order, why not in geography are not learned how to read a map, why is the real reading in Romanian? Teachers know all these problems, but they choose to shut up. I’m not saying they are the only guilty for a defective system, but by passivity they become accomplices”, Said a user of the platform.
Others go further and state that the rigidity of the programs are maintained because many teachers would be unable to adapt:
“Unnecessary subjects exist for some to have a job”.
“If you change the works of bacon, bury most profiles. What makes you think they are able to read and analyze a new work? The system now is ultra-standard, everyone knows it as parrots ”.
Another heated theme is how history is taught:
“History surrenders so stupid that they would reveal many somewhat embarrassing truths: the rulers were not all the time, slavery has even existed, we committed pogroms and other massacres, we became from one side to the second in World War II. And many others.“
Instead, in the lessons taught to students, the cult of heroes predominate:
“Well, probably, the cult of personality is cultivated, not the realities in a certain period. It is not important what the situation was and how the world changes, everything that comes from those lessons is how tricky was Stefan cel Mare or how patriot was Mihai Viteazul.”
How much does a teacher work?
A commentator carried the idea that teachers would not work more than 27 hours a week, including the preparation of lessons.
“A teacher does not have to work effectively more than 27 hours a week. A normal employee works 40. Their norm must be increased to at least 24 hours of teaching per week, and the low staff.”supported a user.
He calculated that in fact, the teaching norm of 18 hours, as it was before the 2-hour increase that dissatisfies teachers, in fact, only 13.5 hours of effective work per week, given that the actual time spent with students in an hour is, in fact, 45 minutes.
The replica did not delay to appear: “The time calculated by you is a bad joke. The teachers have a lot of administrative tasks, they have to prepare lessons, to correct theses, to refresh the subject. The break between hours is not dead time, it is the need for work.”
The education law provides only the norm of teaching in the classroom, not including here the preparation of the lessons.
Another user stated: “” I laughed when I saw that you only took 45 minutes as effective working time for teachers. This is the thought of a small carpatin patron. The break between hours is not dead time, just as at the factory you will get a new piece in front. The catalog of the class you will teach and go to the next class.
The Minister of Education and Research, Daniel David, explained that, on average, this 2 -hour norm means a 24 -minute increase in the activity with the students. The stakes of this measure, in parallel with the one regarding the increase of the number of students in a class, was to abolish positions of substitutes.
Another user claims: “The work of a teacher is not limited to the time spent in the class. They have other shit to do.”
Regarding the administrative work of the teachers, someone claimed: “It corrects tests and “prepares the matter”, the latter probably find it at a pure theoretical level because “matter” is from the time of Gheorghiu-Dej. “
“You have no way to remove functionally illiterate on the treadmill and cry for extra hours of work.”
There are some voices that recognize both the need for higher salaries and the need to improve the quality of the human resource:
“Education should really be reformed, teachers should be paid better, but clearly not in this form and for the service provided now. You can not function functionally on the treadmill and cry for hours of work and scholarships. When Basescu said that the Romanian school removes the world angry, he was right, but he had the duty to correct this. ”
Others remind the effects of incoherent “reforms” of the last decades:
“For the state of the educational system we can thank Abramburica and the party of which it is part for the underfunding.”
Some of the commentators look at the protest with irony or even contempt:
“They seemed to strike and last year, they have increased their lefs, what do they want?”
“The poor teachers, how will they survive with 6,500 lei per 20 hours per week and four months of paid holiday?” A beginner teacher, earns around 6,500 lei a month, but this is the gross salary. A teacher with old age (25+ years), with teaching degree I, earns over 10,200 lei gross salary.
Others believe that the problem is not strictly of money but the quality of the educational act:
“They may not die without increases, but education is sure to be buried. Dead was before, dead is now, dead will be in the future.”
The protest of the teachers reopened an older debate: how is the right to decent wages reconciled with the obligation to deliver a quality education? While teachers demand more financial support and better working conditions, part of the company requires changes in school programs and teaching.
