Radio România Internațional

Tag: 2nd semester

  • Back to school online

    Back to school online

    The winter holidays break ended, so around 3 million students in the pre-university education system in Romania resumed classes on Monday, but still online, as in the previous months. Since March 2020, except for less than two months, September and November, children have no longer gone to school. Due to the new coronavirus pandemic, classes have been held exclusively online all over Romania, so the sequence of holidays and periods of school activity from home, in front of the computer, have become routine. On the one hand, the National Students’ Council has called for the decentralization of the decision on the way in which to resume classes, so that the children’s physical presence in schools should be possible in the many Romanian localities where the contamination rate is below 3 per one thousand inhabitants.



    Recently, the Council has drawn a warning signal, arguing that doing school online is tiring, inefficient and completely unsustainable in the long run. There are many students, especially from disadvantaged areas and backgrounds, who do not have access to education because they do not have computers, tablets or internet connection. These students also need a plan to recuperate the information they have lost, because learning gaps accumulated since the start of the pandemic might no longer be bridged. At the same time, since the national exams are approaching, the National Students’ Council would like to discuss with the top-level decision makers about the exams organization, since they need to prepare more scenarios, for the tests to take place according to plan.



    On the other hand, the Education Ministry officials announced that they would decide, by the end of this month, whether, in the second semester, which begins on February 8, children would be present physically at school or would carry on with distance learning. The education minister, Sorin Cîmpeanu, announced that the authorities’ top priorities were to reopen schools physically as well as to make up for the losses incurred by the education system during the pandemic. Minister Cîmpeanu also said that he would take into account the proposals made by students, parents and teachers, but that he would make a decision on how classes would unfold depending on the epidemiological situation. “I would like to believe that it is possible to reopen schools on February 8; we cannot lose another semester and an entire generation” the deputy Prime Minister Kelemen Hunor has recently pointed out. He does not rule out the scenario of school re-opening in stages and by region. (tr. L. Simion)

  • Are schools in Romania opening on February 8?

    Are schools in Romania opening on February 8?

    Classes in Romania will remain in online format also in the last three weeks of this semester, after which the situation might change. The education minister, Sorin Câmpeanu, has expressed confidence that schools and kindergartens will reopen on February 8, in one form or another. On Thursday, the minister met with teachers, trade union representatives, parents and student associations to discuss the current issues in the Romanian education system at the beginning of his term in office. Minister Câmpeanu has admitted though that everything depends on the epidemiological situation and has explained that either all schools will be opened or only those from the areas where the contamination rate is low.



    Priority is given to primary education and kindergartens, which are the most difficult to manage online. Top priorities are also the national exams for the 8th and 12th graders. The education minister has underlined that he really wants the simulations for these students to also be held in schools, while taking all the precautions, so as to allow the correct evaluation of students’ online learning outcome. This stage might be followed by a change of the curriculum, depending on the way in which students assimilated the information taught by teachers online. He promised that, by February 15, data would be made public regarding the subject matters for the examination of 8th and 12th graders, as well as data on the way in which the exams will unfold. According to the education minister, the problems of online teaching are structural, not circumstantial, and any country is facing such problems.



    Sorin Câmpeanu has added that the health of teachers and students is important, but recuperating the information lost during the online classes is equally important, given that some students are going to take the National Assessment and Baccalaureate exams. For the time being, the School Inspectorates are expected to provide lists with the number of teachers who want to be vaccinated against Covid-19, some surveys showing that less than half of the teachers intend to be vaccinated. The education trade union representatives have asked to be informed about the vaccination process, but not to be obliged to get the vaccine. In turn, the parents representatives have called for a budget increase for the education domain.



    Minister Câmpeanu has also stated that he wants the setting up of a single integrated national registry of diplomas and study documents, which should include baccalaureate, bachelors, masters and doctor’s degrees. He has underlined that, in this way, it will be easier to verify the authenticity of degrees and diplomas and the scourge of plagiarism in the Romanian education system will be thus eliminated. The students representatives have agreed with this approach and have expressed their wish to also develop a single platform at national level for enrollment and admission to higher education. “Education remains the priority of this government,” the education minister has said. (tr. L. Simion)