Austerity on all levels. This is what the “Train Ordinance” provides, through which the Government tightens its belt trying to cover the financial deficit for the year 2025. In Education, however, the budget cuts have produced real chaos. Students have already taken to the streets, and education unions are also threatening massive protests. These days, Romania is sitting on a powder keg ready to explode amid social unrest that reminds us of the historic teachers’ strike of 2023.
The teachers strike of 2023 was a historic one and paralyzed the entire education system. Archive
Students took to the streets today to call for their rights. The young people lost their transport discounts, but also their scholarship money, because the funds from which they were paid were frozen. As for the teachers, the austerity measures cut their teaching premiums and vacation vouchers. And the news doesn’t stop there, as teachers will be affected by both the salary freeze and the job freeze. The students were not forgotten either. In addition to the fact that they will no longer receive increased allowances, many of those who come from disadvantaged families will no longer benefit from educational vouchers. Including the vouchers for children with CES have been stopped.
Despite all these measures and complaints, before the adoption of the Ordinance, Prime Minister Ciolacu declared that he did not regret anything he decided. “I do not regret any of these measures. I did justice for millions of people”. He also stated that the “Train Ordinance” is not an austerity or poverty ordinance, but one that requires measures to reduce the budget deficit to 7% in 2025.
The train ordinance, the main provisions that will affect Education
According to the GEO adopted by the Government, teaching premiums are granted only if they can be settled from non-refundable external funds. The transformation of the ISJs into county departments is postponed, while the teachers who coordinate European projects will no longer benefit from the reduction in the didactic norm. The government is also trying to raise money from schools: the standard cost supplement for disadvantaged schools is being cut, and the limits on the number of students in high school classes are suspended. The “trainulet ordinance” is also running on children’s money.
Specifically, it is about the education vouchers for students from poor families that will come only from non-reimbursable external sources, which is very unlikely to happen this year. Then, vouchers for children with special educational needs are also delayed until the start of the 2026-2027 school year. The Government also “walked” on students’ money: discounts on train tickets were restricted and scholarships were frozen.
“We’ll only get discount on the train on the way home to college,” Sergiu Covaci, president of the National Alliance of Student Organizations from Romania, told “Adevărul”. This, given that students had a discount on train tickets wherever they wanted to travel around the country. “This measure to eliminate discounts will seriously affect the mobility of students and their access to educational, cultural or professional opportunities in other localities. We want an audience, an open discussion with the prime minister to present our point of view”, Sergiu Covaci also specified. “And we want to find out the reasons why the Government decided on such measures in the context where the budgetary impact is extremely small”.
Sergiu Covaci, representative of students from Romania. Archive
Student: “The budgetary impact of transport discounts is minimal. For us, however, every leu counts”
Sergiu Covaci refers to the fact that the elimination of discounts on train transport does not bring much money to the budget. On the contrary. The amount would be, in fact, a small one. “Around 0.006% of GDP“, explained the student. “We carry out training projects for students, for transversal skills, soft skills and others like that. We have around 1,800-2,000 beneficiaries per year. This means they are making a round trip for that project. A student from Bucharest, for example, who wants to get to Cluj will have to pay 300-400 lei for that trip”, Covaci scored.
He stated that the stock exchanges were also frozen. “The most interesting are the social scholarship and the performance scholarship. And we expected the amounts to increase this year. Because they are linked to the guaranteed minimum wage. If it had increased, then there would have been more money in the scholarship fund.”
Teachers, with frozen salaries and no vacation vouchers. Unions threaten street protests
The “train ordinance” also hits the teachers’ pockets hard, which is why the unions are also threatening street protests. The Federation of Free Trade Unions in Education, the Federation of Trade Unions in Education “Spiru Haret” and the National Trade Union Federation “Alma Mater” ask the Government not to freeze the salaries of education employees and not to change the way of granting holiday vouchers. The unions request the parties in power to respect the commitments made following the general strike from May – June 2023.One thing must not be forgotten: promises must also be respected, just like legal provisions!”trade unionists warn.
Regarding salaries, say the representatives of the education unions, and after the recent increases, the salary of a debutante teacher reached approximately 4,000 lei net, “insufficient salary, taking into account the importance of the work performed and the costs of life in Romania. Normally, today, a beginning teacher should receive at least 6,000 lei net, a salary that, unfortunately, a teacher has towards the end of his career”.
Regarding the granting of holiday vouchers, namely 800 lei from the Government, on the condition that the employee purchases tourist packages of at least 1,600 lei, the trade unionists claim that this measure will primarily affect low-income employees . “If the government cannot afford to grant approximately 1,400 lei, as it has done so far, it would be good to grant at least those 800 lei, without imposing the minimum co-participation of 800 lei. Otherwise, the employees will also lose, the tourism employers will also lose and, implicitly, the Romanian state”. mention the trade union federations.
According to the trade unionists, these are only part of their grievances, threatening to resume some protest actions. “Under these conditions, it is very likely that, in the immediate next period, the first protest actions will take place in Piaţa Victoriei in Bucharest”, trade union federations in education also warn.
Daniel David, Minister of Education, a reserved optimist. The dogs bark, the caravan passes
Daniel David, the new Minister of Education, also reacted on his blog saying that Romania has a very large budget deficit, which, if not reduced, hinders its development. The Minister stated that this is how democracy works: while people have the right to protest, the Government has a duty to make the country work. “I can now only have reserved optimism, given that, as the discussions are now, the education-research system will still receive a slightly larger budget than last year, through which it will function adequately and we will be able to start implementing some measures from Governance Program. In a wise democratic approach, people in the system have the right to demand their rights – some officially assumed quite recently, after the end of the strike in the system and/or through the new education laws – while the Government has to, at in turn, everything related to it in order to reduce the budget deficit, thus ensuring the functioning of the country and a development that will then even allow the priority satisfaction of these rights that the people are demanding now”. David specified.
Marian Staș, expert in education. Archive
Education expert: “A harsh reality that blew up in the minister’s face”
Marian Staș, expert in education, told “Adevărul” that the minister has an extremely difficult mission. The specialist believes that Daniel David has to manage “very intelligent and very subtle the immense expectations that the educational community has of him”. “The train ordinance” put Daniel David in an ungrateful position to say the least, continues the expert, because his visionary speech came into direct conflict with the harsh financial reality in which we find ourselves. “A reality far beyond his ability to manage it. Because the margin for maneuver is extremely narrow in terms of the use of funds. I’m really curious what the education budget will look like. But the starting point is a hard and uncomfortable one for him, as a minister”, Marian Staș explained.
The great reforms and transformations that the minister had in mind and that he was going to implement are coming in now “in direct collision with this harsh reality that exploded in his face: the little train ordinance in which everything is cut and nothing remains as before”. the expert points out. It remains to be seen, therefore, how the minister will “dance”on this very thin wire between budgetary financial reality and everyone’s deep skepticism towards changes in education”, says Marian Staș.
The expert believes that Daniel David has a huge responsibility. “It all comes down to his knack for making things happen. I would be happy if the Minister of Education had the wisdom of an unambiguous, unvarnished speech, giving voice as it should, professionally, to reality. To promote change projects and not try to sell us black as white. Because the world is catching on quickly and is no longer running smoothly. I am convinced, however, that it will not happen like this”, Marian Staș also scored.
