Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan gave assurances on Wednesday that education will not be affected by other budget cuts, apart from those already applied through the 1st reform package.
Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan PHOTO Mediafax
“Considering the package that was adopted, in which didactic standards were increased for education and scholarships were reduced, there is no intention that next year measures will be taken on the pre-university education component that would mean other reductions”announced Ilie Bolojan, in a short statement for Edupedu.ro, adding that “on the education side, the measures have been adopted”.
Bolojan stated that following the measures already taken so far, per total budget, “we have seen the effects: it is the first time that we have decreased from 14.2 billion lei, which was the amount of expenses in one month, to 13.7 billion, so a reduction of 500 million. We must maintain this reduction trend, so that we can reduce our deficit and stabilize our budget expenses next year. This is the reality”.
On “pre-university, no other measures will be taken. The teaching norm established now (the norm established at 20 hours per week by the first reform package, thus increased by 2 hours from the previous 18 – N.Ed.) is maintained”.
The statement comes after the Executive began discussions on a draft Emergency Ordinance (EOG) that limits the cumulative salary-pension in the public sector and that includes numerous other measures to reduce expenses in the budgetary sector, such as the suspension of postings and transfers.
The project provides that, in thoroughly justified cases, the Government can adopt a memorandum by which certain categories of personnel are exempted from the measures, but at this moment no exception for Education appears in the consulted documents.
The Education Unions later reacted to the draft GEO and spoke about an intention of the Executive “to further reduce personnel expenses in the education system, through a new normative act that is being discussed these days behind closed doors at the Victoria Palace”. The teachers’ representatives asked the parties in the coalition to give up “these absurd measures”.
