Radio România Internațional

Tag: online classes

  • When will the school year resume?

    When will the school year resume?

    Interim
    Education Minister, Sorin Cîmpeanu, said pupils in Romania will resume classes starting
    November 8, after the two-week mini-holiday imposed due to the pandemic.
    However, on Friday, jointly with health authorities, the Ministry will decide
    whether pupils will return to school physically or if classes will move online.
    Also at the end of this week, the Ministry will make other announcements
    regarding teaching activities, such as the reduction of the number of final exams
    and changes in the grading system. Minister Sorin Cîmpeanu said that a document
    will be made public in this respect and gave more details:




    Pupils in the
    5th, 6th and 7th grades will sit final exams
    in math and Romanian. 8th-grade pupils had three finals before, and
    now they will have only two. High-school pupils had four finals, with the exception
    of technological schools, and by order of the Education Ministry they will only
    sit three final exams.


    The interim minister
    said the exams can be taken starting December 6, and their share in the final grade
    will be 25%. All exams will be taken with physical attendance.


    Pupils who
    won’t be able to sit the exams physically for reasons beyond their control, and
    of course here we refer to cases of infection or quarantine, will be able to
    take the exams upon their return to school, even in the second semester.


    Minister Sorin
    Cîmpeanu said that the anti-COVID-19 vaccination rate among pupils has gone up
    of late. According to official data, the vaccination rate has exceeded 25% of
    the total number of pupils over the age of 12. Right now, 80 thousand pupils
    aged 12-15 and some 223 thousand pupils over the age of 16 have taken the jab. Minister
    Cîmpeanu called on every county school inspector and individual schooling unit to publish all vaccination-related data on their websites.


    All county
    school inspectorates have published the vaccination rate at local level, and in
    some cases this exceeds 90%. Additionally, each school will publish on its
    website the level of vaccination amongst the teaching staff, with the full
    observance of personal data legislation. By virtue of example, I’ve also
    published the rate of vaccination among the employees of the Education Ministry,
    which I must admit is below expectations, 66%.


    Minister Sorin
    Cîmpeanu also said the forced holiday will be rescheduled in early January. (VP)







  • New health protection rules

    New health protection rules


    The Romanian authorities are taking new measures to fight the coronavirus epidemic, given that the number of coronavirus infections remains high and the health system is hardly coping with the situation. Thus, wearing protective masks in open spaces will be mandatory in all the localities of Romania’s counties where the cumulative rate of COVID-19 cases in 14 days exceeds 1.5 cases per one thousand inhabitants. The decision was made on Monday evening by the National Committee for Emergency Situations. So far, the mask was mandatory in the open air only in those areas where the contamination rate exceeded 3 cases per one thousand inhabitants, but the authorities have lowered the threshold in an attempt to limit the number of infections.



    Also on Monday the PM Ludovic Orban underlined that in the localities with a high risk of virus spreading, the authorities may decide on mobility restrictions during the night. He also referred to the upcoming New Year’s Eve parties, reminding that activity is banned inside restaurants in those localities where the virus spread rate exceeds 3 cases per one thousand inhabitants. Asked about private parties, the PM answered that they might be equally banned if the current infection rate remained constant. As to shopping malls, PM Orban said they did not pose any risk so the authorities were not considering closing them. He went on to say that most important these days was for everybody to get mobilized. ‘If people observe the health protection rules, we will be able to return to normal soon’, the PM concluded.



    As regards education, more than half of Romania’s schools and kindergartens are in the red and yellow scenarios, which imply online or hybrid classes. As many as one million Romanian pupils, that is more than 30%, have classes exclusively online. The education minister Monica Anisie called on the school inspectors to intensify monitoring the online courses, given that more and more students and parents reported that online teaching activities were not actually held. All school contests and Olympiads have been suspended for the time being. In Bucharest, schools will operate online until November 16.



    In another development, the authorities announced that the Military Emergency Hospital in Cluj Napoca (northwest) became a COVID-19-support medical unit. It has 30 beds for infected patients, of which 25 are for moderate and severe cases and 5 for critical cases in intensive care. Also the National Committee for Emergency Situations has updated the list of countries, areas and territories with a high epidemiological risk, for whose citizens home isolation for 14 days is imposed upon arrival in Romania. These states are: Andorra, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Luxemburg, Slovenia, Armenia, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, France, the Netherlands, Croatia, Georgia, Guam, Slovakia, Poland, Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, Montenegro, San Marino, Italia, the UK, Portugal, Northern Macedonia, Argentina, Gibraltar, Malta, Jordan, Hungary, Bulgaria and the French Polynesia.(tr. L. Simion)