High school changes, analyzed by education experts. What are the strengths and projects of the project

The framework plans for the high school that were debated on Friday, aroused controversies and heated discussions between teachers, parents but also students. As for Daniel David this is – I say voices in the system – the bravest minister I had.

The project presented by the Ministry of Education, although it does not seem at first sight, delivers us with another hat, considers the education expert Marian Stas, the promoter of the pilot schools in Romania. “In the 9th grade and the 10th grade there are 15 disciplines. It’s infernal! And we only talk about the mandatory subjects ”, warns the specialist. “This strikes in the first requirement that everyone had from the beginning, namely that the students are taught too many disciplines. And what do they do? I slam 15 materials from a short fire ”comments Marian Stas.

Student’s Freedom of Decision, A Fund Form

The expert said that the common trunk (50%), the specialized curriculum (35%) and the curriculum at the students’ decision in the school offer (15%) hide, practically, 85%framework component decided by the Ministry of Education. This means that most of the subjects remain imposed by the ministry, and students have an extremely restricted freedom. “The subjects in the common trunk are mandatory and imposed. Represents 50% of the children’s schedule. But the specialized curriculum means still a set of subjects decided by the ministry for each of the profiles. The percentage is 35% and has nothing to do with flexibility, with children’s options. It perpetuates, from my point of view, a poisonous component, namely presses on what these specializations mean. ”

Therefore, 85% of the curricular decision stands in the Pix of the Minister of Education while the percentage representing the students’ decision in the school offer is a very small one “Basically, a bottomless form. And here comes, in fact, a sad truth: next, the framework plans are designed for teachers’ norms and salaries. By no means what should be a framework for 21st century, for 21st century children ”.

On the other hand, the expert recognizes, the fact that students have the opportunity to choose is a historical decision in the Romanian education system. “It is a historical gain. Never in the history of education children have chosen. “

Outside he painted the fence ….

Marian Stas also draws attention to an extremely important aspect, namely the obligation to teach the religion in high school. “He is revolting. We no longer do geography in the 11th and 12th grade but instead we do Religion. It is clear that these two blockages, union and clerical, are the ones that hold in place these framework plans that I now evaluate in note 7. They were of note 6. because I saw the part of courage but, at the same time, these plans The frame is “member”, hidden, not said with all the words. The specialized curriculum is not at the student’s decision. 50% common trunk is too much, 15% at the student’s decision is small ”, said Marian Stas.

The document elaborated by the ministry is impeccable, exceptionally prepared, considers the expert. “Only the design premises are fundamentally wrong. They wrote there beautifully in the first 20-30 pages about the profile of the graduate but when you reach the tables you find that they are broken from another movie. It’s a thing that does not open the game, it is not designed to the future. With a single small exception: the existence of the students’ decision in the school offer, even if it has a very small impact ”, commented the expert.

A coin with two facets. About the beautiful side of things

Anca Tîrcă, promoter of modern education, learning facilitator and education developer believes that the framework plans submitted by the ministry have strengths but also points, indeed, weak. In a message posted on Facebook the specialist lists them by making the project an extremely concise x-ray.

The document, in itself, is a well -formed one, elaborated with rigor and attention, with a high explanatory level and a good organization of information. The expert appreciates the inclusion in the project of the paragraph entitled “Voice of the students”, but also the flexibility of the schedule. “We can have, for example, one hour a week for a discipline or two, with periods when we do not have the discipline in the hour, I like the formulation “The student chooses optional from the curriculum at the student’s decision from the school offer, to which he is consulted and can Participate with proposals ”, confessed the specialist.

The number of hours at the school’s decision has also increased, Anca Tîrcă observes. “From 3-4 at present, to 5-8, but it remains to be seen how the students will choose the courses and if some will have to offer and meet their interests and passions.”

Regarding the implementation of the curriculum at the decision of the students in the school offer, these hours can be held with students from different classes and the method can be implemented in the modular system. “This is how I was doing 20 years ago, when I was director-the time of optional time, the students from three classes of 6, for example, were going, mixed from the 3 classes, to the optional chosen from the 4-5 that existed for That time, the hours being held in the spaces of the three classrooms, library, gym, etc. ”. The specialist also considers the inclusion of the counseling time. “That is, leadership in the 11th and 12th grades; Currently these classes do not have hour of leadership”.

The project, “just a little step forward”

And in her opinion, the project does not bring a fundamental change, which will shake the system from the foundation. “It’s just a small step forward.”

As for the list of optional disciplines, this would be too long, says Anca Tîrcă. “Some overlap, for example, education for human rights democracy and European institutions. This list should be improved and supplemented with topics of interest and necessary for the world in which we live, for example, manipulation through mass media and social networks, legal education, use, entrepreneurship, etc. ”.

Last but not least, the specialist warns the number of hours per week has not decreased, “Although it is an aspect discussed a lot by the parents, the number is the same as in the current framework plan, 29-30 hours.”

“We are witnessing a fierce fight of teachers for the defense of educational thrones”

Prof. univ. Leonard Azamfirei, rector of the University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Sciences and Technology “George Emil Palade” in Târgu Mureș explained that at this moment we are witnessing a fierce fight for teachers to defend the “educational throne”.

“Each discipline is preparing to defend their educational” throne “, and teachers, inspectors and academics will fight with fierce to prove that without their subject, the students are lost in the chaos of universal ignorance.”

While Romanian language and literature teachers defend their subject to the detriment of grammar, mathematics teachers insist that their discipline is the “foundation of the universe”, considers the rector, ridiculing the guild of teachers, many of them focused on the bottomless forms.

And the history teachers are taken “in the collimator”, because while the teachers solemnly warn that who does not know their past, risk losing their national identity, students are psychically preparing to memorize another endless list of years and treaties. “Every ruler, every war, every end of the end seems vital to be withheld. Does it matter that the students sometimes confuse the battle of Rovine with the one from Călugăreni? ”

The textbooks, says the rector of the University of Medicine in Târgu Mureș, insist that authentic patriotism is measured in the ability to recite the years of the voivodes on the Bessarabian line. “It does not matter that the teaching methods seem to be left of the time of the Phanariots. Essential is to know “who signed The Treaty of Adrianopol ” – A knowledge that could, of course, change the fate of a generation … or not. ”

In all this chronological chaos, discussions about how history could become relevant to the present are completely missing. “How to teach students to analyze the decisions and mistakes of the past to better understand today? That would be a too ambitious requirement. We better let them tooth years and believe that “patriotism” means only to mechanically repeat lessons about the union of the Principalities. “

While the accurate science teachers are passing in the debate that the future of civilization is on their shoulders, sports teachers are in their role as national team coaches, convinced that physical health is the cornerstone of success in life, says the university. As for arts, “The prophets of these rock disciplines that without drawing and music the world would collapse in a gray and meaningless monotony. ”

The framework plans, concludes the rector, represent a chance to transform education into a way that responds to the real needs of the students. “However, the fundamental question is the following: will we choose to put the student at the center of the educational process or will we remain captive in a new bureaucratic battle, in which the norms and interests of each discipline dictate the rules of the game?

Saving solutions. Marian Ştas: “I would keep this project for the most dreadful schools”

“Daniel David can offer for each profile two, three framework plan projects with different, higher or smaller percentages than we have now ”, said Marian Stas.

“I would keep this for the most frightened, most conservative schools. After which I would propose a variant with 30-40% curriculum at the decision of the students in the school offer, and then the last one would with 50-60% the student’s decision ”.

Therefore, three variants from which schools choose what they think is suitable. “A conservative variant, an average, moderate and brave one. Then, if I were in his place I would propose the creation of 100-200 pilot schools this year ”.

Unfortunately, for the moment, the greatest pain of these framework plans is the curriculum at the decision of the students made rather just to say that it exists. “They wrote something there, but in their minds is the idea of ​​preserving the hours that teachers have in the classroom. But this is false because teachers do not lose their hours. It is also a law in this regard, which extends the concept of didactic norm. They do not remain without a chair ”, said Marian Stas. Basically, the teachers who would wake up with a diminished number of hours could do other activities in the school.