After the diagnostic report presented by the Minister of Education, Daniel David, Romania received on Tuesday, May 27, another cold shower: the conclusions of the OECD report highlights major problems in the educational system. The way the authorities will act from now on will determine whether, over five years, we will witness an improvement or aggravation of the situation.
The OECD report shows that only 11.4% of children are included in pre -preschool education: Archive
The Romanian high school education is “in the stone era, not even the Middle Ages”, and the statement belongs to the Minister of Education, Daniel David, the one who just said, at the presentation of the QX report, that the Romanian education system is playing half of the country. The statement was made on Tuesday, in the context of presenting the OECD report on education and skills in Romania.
“The ratio is solid, rigorous and puts the finger on the wound to the end, from the point of view of our pre -university education model. And the merit of Daniel David, if he can be deserved, is that he said, with all the words: brothers, we are in the primitive commune, not even in the Middle Ages. Do we realize what a minister of education means, after a report analysis, to make the diagnosis we are talking about here? It means that, in fact, the society and the public education system are in different elds. And this is the essential problem of national security of our educational model, namely that the 21st century Romania works with a totally inadequate educational model, exceeded, the pre -university ”, It is the appreciation of the Expert in Education Marian Stas.
“The 21st century Romania is with the legs and is with the hand brake, the name of the hand brake being its deep pre -university education system in this communist paradigm”, he added Stas. The essential attribute of communism is the fierce centralization, exactly what is happening in Romania, given that in fact we now need, as a society, “European subsidiarity ”which implies, explains the expert, that the strategic decision (vision, value, etc.) will be kept at the top, and the specific elements remain at the school’s decision.
“How to have a single framework plan that satisfies hundreds of thousands of children simultaneously? That’s crazy, you can’t do that anymore. And, from this point of view, today’s moment is a cold shower moment, cold water bucket, in which both actors, and the Ministry of Education and Schleicher’s team (n. Red. – Andreas Schleicher, OECD Education and Skills), they put, honest, acute, correct, cold, sec on this wound ”explained Stas.
If the OECD report will remain a document that we only remember from time to time, without the courage to put into practice the proposed solutions, depends on the political will, strengthens Marian Stas.
“If we do not have an extremely motivated political factor and very strongly focused on change, nothing will change. And that means completing a triumvirate, which, in my opinion, can have a historical purpose. The name of the triumvirate: President – Prime Minister – Minister of Education. We already have the president. And I think he lies open and can brave this story bravely. We need a prime minister of Ilie Bolojan’s caliber and we need a minister of education on behalf of Daniel David. That is, three, from my point of view, it is essential to be in the line of attack and action of leadership at the moment, because they complement each other and can generate the political strength, the political support necessary for the transformations we are talking about. “ specifies Stas.
“It involves administrative reorganization”
Like the QX report, the aspects reported by the OECD report paint a reality that we know, but there was no political will to be resolved.
“The OECD tells us that, no matter how painful or costly political, we cannot provide quality educational services in small, isolated schools, with few students. In order to carry a competent and complete teacher body, to have teachers for all disciplines, to have a school counselor, you must produce a reasonable agglomeration of students, that is, a number of students who cannot be 12, 26, 32 students, as there are still pre -university education units that operate in Romania ”, R, R, R, REmarcă Education Expert Daniela Vișoianu.
The OECD director looked in our eyes and explained very clearly that he understands that he is complicated politically and can create disturbance and discomfort, but nowhere in the world, no matter how much money you have, you can not secure in small schools, with few students. “And this implies the administrative reorganization or the acceptance of some communes that they will have to give up the school they have on the territory and to combine the high school students in larger schools so that teachers can be provided to everyone and the simultaneous education,” adds Daniela Vișoianu.
And for other solutions that Minister Daniel David spoke in the QX report is needed.
“The limits in the educational system in Romania are now no longer the money. Schleicher said the United States spends 10 times more money than Vietnam and Vietnam gets better results. (…) This means that, at one point, when you make investments, you have to look at how the processes are reorganized. And the basic process is that you do not offer quality education either in the rural area, where you have few students, but neither in the developed urban area, where you have three exchanges and reduce the learning time. Basically, what you offer to children in two shifts or three exchanges is a decrease in learning time. Or an mismatch of learning time with the times of maximum attention of the children ”, emphasizes Vișoianu.
In order to restructure the processes, however, the need for adequate infrastructure, or in Romania, has renovated at most, the construction of new schools being the exception, adds Vișoianu, giving example of Timișoara, in which the first new high school in the public system built after 1990 was opened. “In 2025 we are talking about the first new high school. As with hospitals, and in the education system, at one point, it is no longer enough to renovate the old infrastructure, because the old infrastructure does not allow you to approve by the ISU, for example. (…) So you have this infrastructure development limit, you have this development limit with processes and one of the limits is correctly identified in the QX report ”, Vișoianu says.
And for the innovative idea to bring together three existing institutions today – school inspectorate, CCD and CJRAE – in a single institution there is a need for political consensus, although the combination of the three institutions would solve a problem otherwise not to be neglected in pre -university education, that of the chairs reserved for the occupants of the functions of the institutions as the three, as not as
“Finland abolished the inspectorates in a moment of budget crisis and they tell: I knew we had to cut money from education and we thought about cutting some processes that did not directly related to the students. And the school inspectorates were abolished, and those who were then in the reform say – two years I was going as a dark. I didn’t know if things are going well in the system or it doesn’t work well, because we couldn’t inspect all the schools and all the others. And I was a kind of service firefighters for two years, some schools took off, because they had management teams, or they were in a context where they could be given very well and other schools needed to be helped. But the cost of the aid that the schools who had problems received was a lower cost than maintaining
The abolition of the school inspectorates and the merging of the three institutions means less director positions in the county, and the political parties must accept this reduction of the positions that political nominations can make.
The condition for such measures to be put into practice is clear. “The minister put this mandate on the table and said: If you want to remain a minister, two conditions must be met. One is to be Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan and the second to have political support for this program ”, Remember Vișoianu. Political support will also be needed to pass through Parliament the law that beats the operated changes, and oppressors may occur even in the phase where the law is consulted.
“The mandatory education from the middle group was done, but it is obligatory with payment from the parents”
Two other aspects, says Daniela Vișoianu, held the attention when presenting the OECD report. The director of the OECD has noticed that university education is free in Romania, instead of preschool education is costs for families. “So a process that you should restructure is to look, for example, at kindergartens that have a short program and see if it can turn them into a long program. To look at the fact that the mandatory education has been done, but it is obligatory with payment from the parents, because the food is still paid by the families. There are sufficient places in the country everywhere in the kindergarten from the age of 4 ”, notes Vișoianu.
Another aspect underlined by the OECD director is related to the process of admission to the high school and the possibility that high schools to choose their students, which could increase the inequities, which is also noted by other actors in education, reminds Vișoianu.
“The minister, to remove the high school from the stone era, quickly overcome the Middle Ages and bring it closer, it would mean looking at the transition from gymnasium to high school. In my opinion, the only possible transition that brings more equity and quality from high school to high school is the rounding. The child goes to the nearest high school near the house, I do not abolish the high schools in the small cities, on the contrary, they strengthen them ”, adds Vișoianu.
The framework plans for the high school, which will be advertised soon in final form could be the first test stone for Minister David and the proof that the system reform is really desired, if they will be presented to high schools to choose and it will be proved to have been able to overcome the change that the system manifests.
