Radio România Internațional

Tag: Campeanu

  • School – between online and in-person education

    School – between online and in-person education

    The
    National Committee for Emergency Situations has altered the epidemiological
    conditions for the pre-university education in Romania.


    Under
    the new regulations issued by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of
    Health, the occupation rate of hospital beds by Covid-infected patients will
    from now on be considered in the process of switching from traditional to online
    education.


    In-person
    classrooms will become available in all the counties where this rate stays
    under 75%. Above this level, schools must turn to e-learning and aren’t allowed
    to revert to traditional education unless the county rate goes below 70%.


    Health
    departments with every county council, including Bucharest, are required to
    post on their own webpages this index every week on Thursdays, based on data
    released by the Ministry of Health.


    In-person
    courses are to be suspended for a period of 10 days if there are three
    confirmed infection cases in a group of students attending one form or another of
    pre-university education. This year preschoolers and students will not have a
    holiday between the first and the second semester of the year, which is due to
    begin on January 17th. The next holiday, known in Romania as the
    spring holiday, is going to last from 15th April to 1st May.


    In
    another development, trade unions from education staged a protest in Bucharest
    on Thursday, denouncing the government’s failure to implement a pay raise in
    compliance with the 2017 law on payment.


    According
    to them the insignificant 4% raise at the beginning of the year has only enraged
    the employees in the education system who are threatening with further
    protests.


    Teachers
    are complaining about the fact they are the only state-employees who do not
    benefit bonuses. A decision by the Education Ministry to raise the grades for
    merit scholarships from 8.50 to 9.50 has also triggered discontent among students
    and parents alike. According to student organisations, hundreds of thousands of
    them are losing this financial incentive under the new government decision and they
    have commenced various forms of protest.


    On the
    other hand field minister Sorin Câmpeanu says that a total number of 660
    thousand students will this year benefit several types of scholarships.


    (bill)

  • February 8, 2021 UPDATE

    February 8, 2021 UPDATE

    School – More than 2.4 million school students out of Romanias almost 3 million returned to school on Monday for the second semester. Students and teachers will have to wear face masks in classroom at all times and children have to sit within at least 1 meter of each other. Education minister, Sorin Cîmpeanu, on Saturday told a TV station that education during the pandemic has been of low quality, largely because of on-line teaching, but also because of poor access to technology in some places, especially in rural areas. The education minister has also added that that there are big gaps between different schools and children, and that it will be difficult for them to catch up with the information lost. He has also said that his ministry will closely monitor the recovery scheme, which benefits from 30 million Euros worth of funding.



    Budget – The 2021 state budget will be on Parliament’s agenda this week. According to the Government, the budget is based on a deficit of around 7% of GDP and aims to boost economic recovery and to put an end to excessive and unjustified public spending. Liberal Prime Minister Florin Cîţu has said the budget also takes into account restructuring loss-making state companies, which will be denied funding unless they carry out reforms. The government plans to cut bonuses in state-owned companies, which amount to 120 million Euros. The prime minister said that while staff expenses doubled in the last four years, public administration did not become more efficient. The Social Democratic Party in opposition has come up with its own budget bill, saying its goals are healthcare, education, economic recovery and raising peoples living standards.



    Film – The film ‘colectiv’ by Alexander Nanau – a Romanian-born German director- was designated the best documentary at this years edition of the London Critics Circle Awards, held on Sunday in virtual format. The film follows a journalistic investigation into the corruption of the Romanian healthcare system, after the 2015 devastating fire in a Bucharest club called Colectiv in which dozens of people died. This is also Romanias nomination in the “Best International Feature Film” category of this years Oscar Awards. In December 2020, colectiv was nominated Best Documentary at the European Film Academy Awards. The main trophies of the Critics Circle Awards were won by the American feature film “Nomadland” by Chloé Zhao and the British horror film “Saint Maud” by Rose Glass.



    COVID-19 — Another 1,319 new cases of infection with the new coronavirus have been reported in the last 24 hours in Romania, after more than 9,500 tests were made. The total number of cases exceeded 746,000, according to data provided on Monday by the Strategic Communication Group. Also, 80 deaths were registered, which brings the death toll to almost 19,000. Almost one thousand people are in intensive care. On the other hand, the eighth tranche of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has no longer arrived in Romania on Monday as scheduled, because the flight was canceled due to bad weather in Germany. The tranche consisting of almost 164 thousand doses, will arrive on Tuesday by air at the airports in Bucharest, Cluj (northwest) and Timisoara (west). The vaccination process continues both in the centers from Bucharest and from across the country. According to the delivery schedule, the next tranche would be brought to Romania in a week’s time. As for the delivery schedule of the doses, Pfizer has announced that it will increase their number around February 15. As the new tranches arrive in Romania, the registration application is being updated, allowing for the registration process to continue, which has been stopped for the time being. So far, in Romania, over 656,000 people have been vaccinated, mostly with Pfizer / BioNTech doses. For a week people in Romania have also been vaccinated with Moderna doses. On Sunday, a first tranche of over 80,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses were distributed in Bucharest and other cities of Romania. The vaccine will be given in Romania only to people between 18 and 55.



    Visit — The Romanian Prime Minister Florin Cîţu will pay a working visit to Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday, during which he will have a series of meetings with EU high-ranking officials, including the presidents of the European Council and of the European Commission, Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen. According to the Government, the PM’s schedule also includes meetings with the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, as well as with the Executive Vice-Presidents of the European Commission Frans Timmermans, Margrethe Vestager and Valdis Dombrovskis. The Romanian PM is also going to have official meetings with the European Commissioner for Transport, Adina Vălean, and with the NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana. The agenda of his visit also includes meetings with representatives of the political groups within the European Parliament.



    Chisinau – The Prime Minister designate of the Republic of Moldova, Natalia Gavriliţă, presented, on Monday, in Parliament, the government program and the executive membership. Advisers to the pro-Western President Maia Sandu and deputies from the Action and Solidarity Party which she founded, have been nominated for several key portfolios. Like the Moldovan president, the prime minister designate is in favor of early legislative elections, stating that the new government is professional and ready to be voted by the future parliament. According to the legislation of the Republic of Moldova, if the government is not invested after at least two attempts, the Parliament will be dissolved. Maia Sandu states that Natalia Gavriliţă is a person she trusts and an “honest and responsible professional”, from whom she expects a government program focused on economic development and cleansing the state institutions of corruption. An economist by profession, Natalia Gavriliţă is the general manager of the Global Innovation Fund (GIF), based in London. She also holds a masters degree in public policies from Harvard Kennedy School. Since 2017 she has been a member of the Action and Solidarity Party — PAS and in 2019, she was finance minister in Maia Sandu’s government. The Moldovan government is currently led by an interim PM who is also the acting foreign minister, Aureliu Ciocoi, after the former Prime Minister, Ion Chicu, resigned on December 23, 2020, on the last day of the term in office of the former pro-Russian President Igor Dodon. (tr. L. Simion)

  • Romanian students are going back to classrooms

    Romanian students are going back to classrooms

    Get children ready for school – is the
    message Romanian president Klaus Iohannis on Tuesday conveyed to parents. However,
    the president has pointed out that Romania still hasn’t got rid of the pandemic
    although the infection rate diminished in the last weeks. According to him, citizens
    must still comply with prevention rules, wear masks and keep social distancing.
    Furthermore, the resumption of face-to-face school will be done in accordance
    with the infection rate in every region and strict measures are in place for
    every school so that students and teachers may come back to school in good
    conditions.




    Klaus
    Iohannis:
    Kindergartens and 1-4th graders
    will have face-to-face classes almost everywhere, except for the regions in
    quarantine. All children are allowed to go to schools in the regions with a
    lower infection rate. Where some cases have been reported, only kindergartens, 8th
    and 12th graders are returning to schools and where the infection
    rate is higher only kindergartens and 1-4th graders are allowed to come
    back to school, the rest are taking online courses.




    At present over three quarters of the Romanian
    counties have a Covid-19 infection rate under 1.5 cases per thousand. Bucharest
    has an infection rate of 3 per one thousand, which means that kindergartens are
    open as well as schools for students in the 1-4th grade and for high-schoolers
    in their last year. According to Prime Minister Florin Citu, the reopening of
    schools is a step towards normalcy. The Romanian official has given assurances
    that such a move will be made by means of a well-established plan of measures
    drawn up by the Ministry of Education jointly with the Health Ministry for the
    protection of students and the personnel in the country’s education system. In
    turn, education Minister Sorin Campeanu said that students are allowed to sit
    in desks and the plastic protection shields used by some schools in autumn will
    be scrapped. However, the official considers face-covering in schools as essential.




    Opposition PSD leader Marcel Ciolacu says the
    president’s announcement on the resumption of schools was long-awaited, but he
    criticized the timing and the shortage of funds caused by the passing of a new
    draft budget. ‘Authorities must buy medical equipment wherever needed, because
    otherwise we are opening schools only to close them down again later’, the PSD
    leader went on to say. The Social-Democrats have called on the Prime Minister
    to go to the Chamber of Deputies for talks over the state budget and the
    measures to freeze salaries in state-owned institutions. The Social-Democrats
    have also invited Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu for talks.


    (bill)





  • January 9, 2021

    January 9, 2021

    SCHOOL The National Committee
    for Emergency Situations in Romania decided to extend the online education
    process until February 7th. The suspension of activities involving
    the physical presence of preschoolers and students in schools and other
    education facilities comes right after the winter holiday. Education Minister
    Sorin Campeanu had earlier specified that students could return to schools
    starting February 8th. At a meeting with trade unions in the field,
    representatives of parents and students’ associations, Campeanu said that it
    all depends on the evolution of the pandemic adding that schools are going to
    open differently taking into account the infection rate in the region. The
    opposition PSD and AUR as well as the ruling UDMR are favoring the reopening of
    schools, which they believe can be done next week.










    REPATRIATION The Romanian sailor kidnapped from the Agisilaos ship off the
    shores of Togo has been released and is to be repatriated in the following
    days, the Foreign Ministry in Bucharest has announced today. According to the
    same sources, in order to settle the incident, the Crisis Management Cell set
    up on this occasion, has made a lot of efforts, which involved the company
    which hired the Romanian and other international partners. On November 30th
    2020, sources with the Foreign Ministry in Bucharest announced that Minister
    Aurescu had summoned an inter-institutional crisis management cell to address
    the incident in Togo involving the Agisilaos, where several sailors, including
    a Romanian citizen, had been kidnapped.










    DECISION The government in Bucharest is expected to pass an emergency
    ordinance to grant additional sums of money to the medical personnel involved
    in the anti-Covid National Vaccination Campaign. Under the draft, physicians
    are to receive 20 Euros per hour and nurses 10, Health Minister Vlad Voiculescu
    said. Family physicians are also going to get more money as they are considered
    an essential pillar in the immunization campaign. Roughly 100 thousand people
    have been immunized since the onset of the campaign; out of these only 314
    reported minor side effects. Romania has so far received nearly 300 thousand
    doses and 120 thousand of these doses have been directed to vaccination points.
    Roughly 5,000 fresh Covid infections were reported on Friday, most of them in
    capital Bucharest. The death toll exceeds 16,500 and 11 hundred are in
    intensive care.










    HANDBALL Romania’s vice-champions in
    women’s handball, CSM Bucharest are in Budapest to take on local side
    Ferencvaros Budapest in their first match counting towards the Champions League
    Group A. The first game went to the Romanians 25-19. CSM ranks second in the
    group with 11 points whereas Ferencvaros comes fourth with 8. On Sunday in the
    Champions League’s Group B, Romanian champions, SCM Ramnicu Valcea are taking
    on another Hungarian side, Gyor in a home match. The Romanians are last in
    their group with no point out of 5 games played. Two other Romanian sides are
    making their debut in the European League: Minaur Baia Mare takes on Norwegian
    side Storhamar Handball Elite, while Dunarea Braila are up against French side
    Fleury Loiret on Sunday.








    (bill)

  • 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)

  • Renten: Neuberechnung nach Vorgaben des Verfassungsgerichts

    Renten: Neuberechnung nach Vorgaben des Verfassungsgerichts

    Über 230.000 Rumänen, die nach dem 1. Januar 2011 in die Rente gegangen sind, werden um 63 Lei höhere Renten bekommen, so die rumänische Arbeitsministerin Rovana Plumb. Es geht um eine Differenz für die Monate November und Dezember 2013. Rovana Plumb kommt mit Einzelheiten:



    “Die absolute Zahl zeigt nicht, wie spektakulär die durchschnittliche Erhöhung ist. Es geht um 63 Lei. Eine korrekte Umsetzung des Verbesserungsindex war notwendig, um eine bessere Korrelation zwischen dem Lohn und der Rente zu sichern.”



    Eigentlich handelt es sich um eine Neuberechnung der Renten, die im Dezember vergangenen Jahres von der Regierung beschlossen wurde, nachdem der Verfassungsgerichtshof im November 2013 das verfügt hatte. Der Verfassungsgerichtshof hat festgestellt, dass die Exekutive den Verbesserungsindex falsch umgesetzt hat. Dieser Index stellt eine Komponente der Berechnung der Renten dar. Der sozialdemokratische Premier Victor Ponta hat erklärt, die Renten seien im Vergleich zu den Bedürfnissen zu klein. Er hob aber hervor, es gehe um ein Anhebung nach den Kürzungen aus dem Zeitraum 2009-2011.



    Die Erklärungen des rumänischen Ministerpräsidenten führten zu Kritik seitens der Opposition. Die Liberalen meinten, die Demagogie und die Heuchelei der Spitzenpolitiker der Sozialdemokratischen Partei seien umso grö‎ßer, desto mehr sie wissen, dass die Neuberechnung der rund 200.000 Renten durch Dringlichkeitserlass im Dezember 2013 beschlossen wurde. Für die Umsetzung dieser Ma‎ßnahme habe sich die liberale Ex-Arbeitsminsterin Mariana Câmpeanu eingesetzt. Die Nationalliberale Partei (PNL) behauptet, dem Premierminister Ponta sei nichts zu verdanken. Die Liberaldemokratische Partei (PDL) erklärte durch Claudia Boghicevici, ehemalige Arbeitsministerin, es sei nur ein Lüge in einem Wahljahr. Die Regierung sei schon seit fünf Monaten verpflichtet gewesen, die Renten neu zu berechnen. Boghicevici sagte, eine andere Lüge des Premiers und der Arbeitsministerin sei die jährliche Indexierung der Renten. Die Regierung sei durch ein Gesetz, das von der liberaldemokratischen Regierung gebilligt wurde, verpflichtet, die Renten um Inflationsrate und die Hälfte des Durchschnittslohns zu indexieren.



    In einem Wahljahr mit Europa- und Präsidentschaftswahlen werden derartige Meinungsunterschiede und gegenseitige Vorwürfe zum Alltagsleben gehören.