Radio România Internațional

Tag: school

  • School back to in-person teaching

    School back to in-person teaching

    All high schools, schools and kindergartens in Romania
    began the second semester with in-person attendance, as changes were made to
    the criteria based on which schools can switch to online teaching. The authorities
    decided to no longer take into account the local infection rate or the level of
    vaccine uptake among the school staff. Instead, schools will only move to
    online teaching if the hospital beds for Covid patients in the respective
    county are 75% occupied. Education minister Sorin Cîmpeanu:




    The reference day for what happens the following week
    will be Thursday, and as far as teaching is concerned, the week will not be fragmented,
    so it will be either in-person teaching or online teaching for the whole week if
    the 75% mark is reached. The second change refers to the switch to online
    teaching if three infection cases are reported in a classroom over the course
    of seven consecutive days. The whole school will move online when at least half
    of the number of classrooms are conducting online classes.




    The return to in-person teaching will take place when
    the occupancy rate of hospital beds for Covid patients in the respective county
    falls below 70%. Pupils are criticising the new rules, saying that in order to
    decide the move to online teaching, a complex algorithm is needed to calculate
    the epidemiological risk in a given school that takes into account the incidence
    rate, the number of available hospital beds, the vaccination rate among the staff
    and pupils and the ability of the school to ensure compliance with sanitary
    norms and to provide testing. Things are taking place at a slow pace, however,
    given that schools have run out of testing kits and the authorities keep
    changing the rules hoping that schools can stay open longer. Sorin Cîmpeanu told
    Radio Romania:




    We all want predictability, but we can’t predict what
    form each variant of the virus takes. We can only observe the situation and take
    the best measures. This crisis is anything but predictable. We have a duty to
    take the most responsible and stable measures.




    Last November, after a holiday imposed by the
    epidemiological context at the end of October, the education ministry also made
    changes to the structure of the school year. Children’s only holiday in the
    second semester is in almost three months’ time, while the summer holiday is
    set to begin on 11th June. (CM)

  • Alina Grigore, recipient of the Golden Shell Award at SSIFF

    Alina Grigore, recipient of the Golden Shell Award at SSIFF

    Alina Grigore’s
    debut feature, Blue Moon, last year scooped the Golden Shell award for best
    film at the International Film Festival in San Sebastian (SSIFF), Spain, one of
    the most prestigious events of its kind in Europe. Blue Moon was written and
    directed by Alina Grigore and features Ioana Chițu, Mircea Postelnicu, Mircea
    Silaghi and Vlad Ivanov in its cast. The script draws on Alina Grigore’s
    personal experience, who spent part of her childhood in a village in Neamț
    County. Girls my age in particular were given no chance of developing. The physical
    and psychological abuses we endured were commonplace in our village, Alina
    Grigore recalls.

    Blue Moon tells the story of Irina, a young girl who wants
    to leave her dysfunctional family and dreams of studying in the capital city,
    yet fails, plagued by the violence surrounding her. The main prize in the San
    Sebastian competition went to a low-budget film produced by a very passionate group
    of filmmakers at the National Center for Cinematography. We spoke to Alina
    Grigore about the prize she won, how she managed to turn her own experience
    into a film and about her unusual behind-the-scenes work ethic.


    I used to
    live in the countryside for a while. I was seven when I left Bucharest to live
    in a village in Neamț County,
    and it was quite the culture shock for me. Moving felt even more shocking since
    I was very young and used to living in a different kind of community. So I
    started penning a diary of everything that happened, and I continued writing about
    it even later, when I revisited my diary. First of all, parents had no interest
    in educating their children, because their top concern was surviving. Children
    were encouraged to either stay and take care of the household or seek work abroad.
    I recall one time when I went home to do my homework, and my best friend was
    going home too to work the land. This was back in the first or second grade, in
    the 90s. Unfortunately, things haven’t changed much ever since. Children
    in the rural area are not encouraged to continue their studies. Inspired by
    everything I’d seen, I started writing the book I hope to publish one day. We
    produced this film using the InLight acting school method, meaning we come up
    with an idea and everyone pitches in to develop it. Once I wrote the script, it
    was a sustained effort, which required talking to the actors about their
    characters and cut-scenes, with the image director and editor. That’s how we
    started to discover what actually drives our characters.


    The director of the film Blue Moon told us more
    about the use of the InLight acting technique, which also gave the name of an
    acting school founded by Alina Grigore together with a team of artists:


    The novelty
    about InLight is that we focus on collaboration with the actors and other
    members of the team. In other words, we encourage everyone in the team to say
    how they see things, we talk to the director of photography, to the editor, we
    analyse the script and we discuss the characters and situations. In my opinion,
    it is quite captivating. We put together character descriptions, we come up
    with suggestions, we improvise. As far as the plot goes, we have looked for and
    found common memories-and given that the topic is family, it is impossible not
    to find things in common. And all this research, all this background work is
    very helpful for actors. It is a great help, when you are on the set, to
    discover things you have in common with others, to know the motivations of your
    partner in that particular scene. This is one aspect. Secondly, I was
    interested in what the actors think about the script, how they approach it. For
    me, this kind of collaborative work is very important. When a text is
    translated, I am even interested in what the translator thinks about the text,
    so obviously the suggestions coming from the actors and the rest of the team
    are very important for me. I think collaboration is more efficient because,
    when you allow the others to explore, they reach a higher level of creativity,
    which is useful to you as a director because you can benefit from this
    creativity. In contrast, if you are the kind of director who only coordinates,
    there is not much communication. So, this is what InLight is all about:
    collaboration. And if you trust this kind of approach, it is my belief that you
    invite more emotion, especially in character building. And finally, you have a
    happier team, where each member knows they can express themselves freely, although
    obviously within some limits. There were several scenes where the actors were
    absolutely free, and I’m thinking especially about a scene with Mircea
    Postelnicu and Ioana Chițu, which everybody said came out like a dance, like a
    tango between the director of photography, the director and the actors. And this
    is exactly what I want-I want making a film to be like a dance with the others.


    Until Blue Moon, director Alina Grigore was mostly
    known as an actress. She played in several series and in the feature film Illegitime
    directed by Adrian Sitaru, for which she was also the screenwriter. (tr. V. Palcu, A.M. Popescu)

  • 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)

  • The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on schoolchildren

    The COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on schoolchildren

    We’ve had
    the COVID-19 pandemic for over year now. All sorts of restrictions are still in
    place, school went online, for its greater part, some of the classes were held
    with physical presence, but with a higher risk of contamination. All that has definitely
    affected the youngsters’ emotional well-being. This is also the outcome of an
    analysis carried by the Save the Children Association. As of late, Save the
    Children has offered free of charge psychological counselling to pupils in
    several cities around the country. The conclusions of a survey carried among
    those who resorted to such services have revealed that one child in three had
    to face states of anxiety and needed counselling and psychological and
    emotional support. And at that, a higher percentage was reported for
    adolescents, even reaching 50%. Also, 90% of the children who were in need of
    psychological therapy in the last year have had emotional problems related to
    the pandemic context. No exhaustive and official research on that has been
    conducted so far, unfortunately. However, in a separate move, there are nonetheless
    data about the manner in which school has informed pupils about the dangers of
    the pandemic, and about how sanitary safety measures have been implemented in
    classrooms. Such measures have obviously influenced children’s emotional
    well-being. It was also the Save the Children Association that carried a survey
    taking up on such topics, jointly with the National Council of Pupils. The survey
    was themed Feeling safe in your own school. Almost 22,000 pupils took
    the time to respond to it. As for the conclusions of the survey, here is the
    president of the National Council of Pupils, Silviu Morcan, with the details.

    Silviu Morcan:

    As for the information activities, we noticed that info on the
    prevention of disease transmission did live up to certain quality standards,
    for the greatest part of the educational units. More than 86% of the pupils stated
    they fully understood the information conveyed by the school staff. In much
    lower percentages respondents stated they would have needed many more clarifications
    on ways to contain the spread of the SARS-COV-2 virus or they did not even get any
    info whatsoever related to the topic. The vaccination information campaign that
    should have been organized in schools reached fewer pupils. More than one third
    of respondents, around 36%, states such campaign
    were run in their schools. Under the circumstances, is school perceived as a safe
    environment from a sanitary point of view?

    Silviu Morcan:


    The feeling of safety school gives students was another topic we intended
    to tackle. And, despite the high frequency with which going online has been
    reported because of a classmate getting infected, we noticed the feeling of safety
    prevailed when they were at school the sample average standing at 3.53 points
    on a 1 to 5 scale, with 1 standing for not at all safe and 5 for
    completely safe. More than half of the respondents pointed to a high level of
    that safety feeling. Otherwise, the answer to the open-ended questions we had
    in the final part of the survey are extremely diverse with opinion being
    equally divided between those who would like school to go online completely and
    those who stated that face to face schooling was their favourite and safest
    option. Equally divided were also opinions on prevention measures such as the ear-loop
    mask or the social distancing as part of the respondents wanted those measures
    to be more strictly implemented wanted to give up on such measures altogether.


    Notwithstanding,
    anxiety and the way it creeps into people’s hearts and mind are extremely insidious.
    Therefore, it is hard to say what exactly such a disorder is triggered by and
    how it manifests itself. Similarly, it is difficult to find out where school
    alone or the pandemic context in its entirety are the cause of the anxiety At
    any rate the authorities have admitted that as we speak there is no instrument
    by means of which data can be collected, regarding pupils’ psychological and
    emotional condition. However, there are nonetheless clues teachers can take
    into account, observe and try to sort out with the assistance of school
    psychologists.

    Education Minister Advisor Radu Szekely:


    As a result of the discussions we’ve had and with help provided by
    specialists, we reached a conclusion: anxiety exists among children and
    youngsters in schools. It’s just that it hasn’t been noticed long enough. Children
    do not put their anxiety into words. And, emotionally, it is signalled through
    gestures of fear, of panic expression, sometimes even through a lack of
    interest at cognitive level. Otherwise, children aske about certain things
    which, indirectly, signal the fact that their real concern lies elsewhere,
    whereas we, in the education system, more often than not come up with answers
    to the questions asked without taking the time to look into what lies behind
    them. But it is the role of the teacher and the parent and I am keeping my hope
    alive it will soon be the role of the school psychologist assigned to each and
    every school to notice the aforementioned signs, to identify them, their
    causes, and then try to solve such situations, all the more so as, when anxiety
    is high, some of the symptoms are likely to go physical with children and youngsters.


    Also, when
    at home, parents need to watch their children carefully and talk to them, even
    though we are a society that tends to suppress emotions and children do not
    have the opportunity to express their feelings, according to psychiatrist
    Carmen Trutescu.


    Carmen Trutescu:

    Any change in the daily routine or behaviour is an alarm signal. If a
    child used to sleep 10 to 12 hours daily and now, he sleeps 18, 20 hours, or he
    doesn’t sleep at all, if he changes his eating habits, if he is extremely irritable,
    as anxiety is hard to put into words yet his becoming irritable can be a sign, all
    that means there is something going on. We do not demand that the parent
    diagnoses his child, yet the parent can notice the change in his emotional
    condition. From that moment onwards, whether we speak about anxiety, about
    depression, or the adaptation disease, whether it’s bullying or a condition of
    a different kind, that’s for the specialist to say when he sees the child. It
    would be perfect if advise should be sought from the teacher, so that we can
    have a twofold perspective. So I would really love it if teachers could detect
    such patterns of behaviour that are atypical: the fact that a child doesn’t
    leave his desk, doesn’t talk to the others, he cries or he doesn’t eat
    during the break. A child who doesn’t speak in public, who does not speak when
    his classmates are around, maybe there is something peculiar about their development.


    A recent legislative
    initiative will create the opportunity for teachers and parents to cooperate to
    that effect. Psychologist’s offices will be set up in every educational unit, where
    children can be tested frequently and solutions can be found, for the remedy of
    the psychological and emotional disorders that have been thereby detected. However,
    for the time being, that legislative initiative is still subject to parliamentary
    debate.

    (Translation by Eugen Nasta)



  • School begins in Romania

    School begins in Romania

    Classes began again in Romania after the summer holidays,
    being held in-person in most schools, but with special measures in place. It’s
    the second year that children and teens begin school during the pandemic, with
    the number of new daily cases almost double this time last year. The majority
    of Romania’s three million children in school and pre-school education will be physically
    present in class, but there are almost a few thousand who will begin the new
    school year remotely because of the high number of coronavirus cases where they
    live or because various repair works carried out in their schools have not been
    finalised yet. Education minister Sorin Cîmpeanu explains:




    2,400 children are studying in the 12 localities where
    the infection rate hit six per 1,000 on Friday. We should add to this the
    schools with infrastructure problems. So, another 2,000 around the country,
    2,723 in Bucharest, in total 7,000 pupils out of three million will have to
    study remotely.




    According to the authorities, classes will be held in
    person, with face masks mandatory, until the infection rate hits 6 per 1,000
    inhabitants in the respective locality, when all pupils will switch to online
    learning, with the exception of those in the special education system and crèches
    and kindergartens. Prime minister Florin Cîţu asked public health directorates
    to make sure enough face masks are available in schools and warned that situations
    still exist that need to be addressed as soon as possible:




    There are 253 schools that did not meet the required
    hygienic and sanitary conditions. This situation needs to be solved as soon as
    possible. There are another 53 schools that lack the needed cleaning, hygiene
    and disinfection products and another 139 that have problems with their heating
    systems. It will be cold soon and we can’t keep children in such conditions. This
    situation must be addressed.




    The authorities said they hoped significant progress
    will be made in the vaccination of pupils once school begins, as mobile
    vaccination units can be arranged to take the vaccine closer to where schools
    are located. 61% of Romania’s 300,000 education employees and 15% of pupils
    over the age of 12 have received the vaccine, according to official figures. The
    current school year will have 34 weeks and will end on 11th June 2022.
    All pupils will have two breaks: for the winter holidays, between 23rd
    December and 10th January, and for the spring break, between 15th
    April and 1st May. Kindergarten and school children in years 1-4
    will have an additional holiday between 25th and 31st
    October. (CM)

  • School begins in Romania

    School begins in Romania

    Classes began again in Romania after the summer holidays,
    being held in-person in most schools, but with special measures in place. It’s
    the second year that children and teens begin school during the pandemic, with
    the number of new daily cases almost double this time last year. The majority
    of Romania’s three million children in school and pre-school education will be physically
    present in class, but there are almost a few thousand who will begin the new
    school year remotely because of the high number of coronavirus cases where they
    live or because various repair works carried out in their schools have not been
    finalised yet. Education minister Sorin Cîmpeanu explains:




    2,400 children are studying in the 12 localities where
    the infection rate hit six per 1,000 on Friday. We should add to this the
    schools with infrastructure problems. So, another 2,000 around the country,
    2,723 in Bucharest, in total 7,000 pupils out of three million will have to
    study remotely.




    According to the authorities, classes will be held in
    person, with face masks mandatory, until the infection rate hits 6 per 1,000
    inhabitants in the respective locality, when all pupils will switch to online
    learning, with the exception of those in the special education system and crèches
    and kindergartens. Prime minister Florin Cîţu asked public health directorates
    to make sure enough face masks are available in schools and warned that situations
    still exist that need to be addressed as soon as possible:




    There are 253 schools that did not meet the required
    hygienic and sanitary conditions. This situation needs to be solved as soon as
    possible. There are another 53 schools that lack the needed cleaning, hygiene
    and disinfection products and another 139 that have problems with their heating
    systems. It will be cold soon and we can’t keep children in such conditions. This
    situation must be addressed.




    The authorities said they hoped significant progress
    will be made in the vaccination of pupils once school begins, as mobile
    vaccination units can be arranged to take the vaccine closer to where schools
    are located. 61% of Romania’s 300,000 education employees and 15% of pupils
    over the age of 12 have received the vaccine, according to official figures. The
    current school year will have 34 weeks and will end on 11th June 2022.
    All pupils will have two breaks: for the winter holidays, between 23rd
    December and 10th January, and for the spring break, between 15th
    April and 1st May. Kindergarten and school children in years 1-4
    will have an additional holiday between 25th and 31st
    October. (CM)

  • June 19, 2021 UPDATE

    June 19, 2021 UPDATE

    RAINFALLS New code orange and code yellow alerts for heavy rainfalls, storms and flash floods have been issued in Romania for most of the Romanian territory, except for the north-west. Hydrologists have also warned against possible flooding along 11 rivers until Monday night. Thousands of households were flooded or left without electricity following recent heavy rainfalls in Romania. According to the Inspectorate General for Emergency Situations, 49 towns and villages and the capital city were affected, with firefighters moving in to pump out the water in several households, over 100 yards and scores of streets in Bucharest alone. The wind caused several trees to fall over parked vehicles, and road traffic was also disrupted.



    COVID-19 The number of new Covid-19 cases
    in Romania
    continues to drop, with 63 new infection cases reported on Saturday, and 164 patients
    in intensive care. Hospitals are gradually resuming their regular activity and,
    according to some managers, they are better prepared for a possible surge in
    cases. Meanwhile, experts warn against the risk of a 4th wave of the
    coronavirus pandemic in Romania. The health minister Ioana Mihăilă said the Indian
    strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus may come to prevail in Romania as well, which is
    why it is all the more important that as many people be immunised. According to Romania’s representative in the World Health
    Organisation Alexandru Rafila, with the current vaccination trend, only 7
    million people at most will have been immunized by autumn, which is below the
    authorities’ target. Some 25,500 people received the vaccine in the past 24
    hours. So far over 8.7 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in
    Romania, with nearly 4.35 million people having received both doses of vaccine.



    DEFICIT The EUs Economic and Financial Council extended to 2024 the deadline for Romania to put an end to the excessive deficit situation. The Council said that an extension to the original deadline for Romania to correct its public deficit would be important in order not to compromise the economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. The recommendation also says that, in order to meet the new deadline, Romania would need to achieve a general government deficit target of 6.2% of GDP next year, 4.4% of GDP in 2023, and 2.9% of GDP in 2024. Romania is expected to present the European Council with a report on its strategy regarding these targets by 15 October, the Romanian Finance Ministry announced.



    ACCIDENT At least 3 workers, one of them from Romania, died when a school under construction partly collapsed in Antwerp, Belgium, AFP reports. Nine others were injured in the incident on Friday afternoon. The school was still under construction, so no students were present.



    OECD The Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu reconfirmed Romanias commitment to join the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development as soon as possible. Aurescu had a meeting on Saturday with the organisations new secretary general, Mathias Cormann, on the sidelines of the Diplomatic Forum in Antalya (Turkey). On the same occasion, the Romanian diplomat discussed the Black Sea security situation with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.



    IRAN Hardliner Seyyed Ebrahim Rais al-Sadati won Fridays presidential election in Iran from the first round, with over 62% of the votes, according to preliminary results made public on Saturday. A former magistrate, the Conservative al-Sadati is close to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Reuters comments. The new president will have to resume the negotiations started in Vienna for the restart of the 2015 deal regulating the countrys nuclear activities.



    TENNIS Horia Tecău (Romania) / Kevin Krawietz (Germany) qualified into the doubles final of the tennis tournament in Halle (Germany), ATP 500, after defeating the Belgians Sander Gille / Joran Vliegen, 7-6, 7-5. Tecău and Krawietz are playing their 3rd final this season, after having lost the ones in Rotterdam and Barcelona. Also in tennis, the Romanians Monica Niculescu and Elena Gabriela Ruse Friday qualified into the doubles final of the ITF tournament in Nottingham (UK). They will play against the Australians Priscilla Hon and Storm Sanders. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • May 19, 2021

    May 19, 2021

    Vaccination. Over four
    million Romanians have been immunized, so far, against COVID-19, the country
    occupying the seventh place at European level with regard to the administration
    of the complete vaccination scheme. Vaccination is now possible without
    appointment, so anybody can go to a vaccination center with just an ID. Tens of
    thousands of people have been immunized in recent days in the drive-through
    system and in so-called vaccination marathons held across the country. In
    another move, the Strategic Communication Group reported 707 news cases of
    infection with the new coronavirus in 24 hours, out of 31 thousand tests
    performed, confirming the downward trend of the pandemic. In 24 hours, 54
    patients diagnosed with COVID-19 died.






    School. 93% of the total
    number of pupils in Romania, i.e. 2.7 million, have physically returned to
    school today. The Minister of Education, Sorin Cîmpeanu, has announced that, if
    the downward trend of the infection rate with the new coronavirus is confirmed,
    the 200,000 children who still take online courses, in 534 localities with an
    incidence of more than 1 per one thousand inhabitants, will also be able to return
    to school soon. The minister urges school principals to ensure compliance with
    the protection measures and rules in place, explaining that if a school cannot
    provide a differentiated schedule and there are too many children during the
    break, then they will have to wear a mask.








    GDP. Romania’s gross domestic product increased by 2.8% in the first quarter of
    this year, compared to the fourth quarter of 2020, and remained flat compared
    to the same quarter last year – according to the National Institute of
    Statistics. Liberal Prime Minister Florin Cîţu has spoken of a historic
    comeback and promised that the center-right government will prepare new
    measures to make the post-pandemic economy stronger and more competitive. In
    reply, the president of the opposition Social Democratic Party, Marcel Ciolacu,
    has stated that the only historic thing is the collapse of Romanians’
    purchasing power.




    Immigrants. Border police
    from Petea, Satu Mare County (northwest) found a minibus driver who had hidden
    in a specially arranged place in the luggage compartment seven citizens from
    Syria and Bangladesh, with the intention of illegally crossing them the border to
    Hungary. During the preliminary verifications, it was established that the
    driver from Timişoara, as well as two other Romanian passengers in the minibus were
    the guides of the seven foreign citizens, aged between 20 and 41. The border
    police are investigating the crime of attempted fraudulent crossing of the
    state border for the seven foreign citizens, as well as the crime of
    trafficking in migrants for the three Romanian citizens.






    Eurovision. Romania’s
    representative at Eurovision 2021, Roxen, did not qualify, on Tuesday evening,
    in the first semifinal of the competition held in Rotterdam. Roxen had competed
    in 13th place with the song Amenisia. Romania’s best performances
    in this competition were: twice the third place (Luminiţa Anghel & Sistem -
    Kiev, 2005; Paula Seling and Ovi – Oslo, 2010) and once the fourth place (Mihai
    Trăistariu – Athens, 2006). The Eurovision Song Contest, which has reached its
    65th edition, will continue on Thursday with the second semifinal, the grand
    final being scheduled for Saturday, May 22nd.






    Football. The CFR Cluj
    (northwest) football team won its fourth consecutive title of Romanian
    champion, on Tuesday night, after defeating FC Botoşani (northeast) with the
    score of 1-0, away from home , in the ninth (penultimate) stage of the play-off
    phase of the First Football League. CFR has thus won its seventh title. The CFR
    Cluj football team will be Romania’s only representative in the Champions
    League. (MI)

  • May 11, 2021

    May 11, 2021

    COVID-19 According to the latest updates, 620 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Romania in 24 hours, out of 11,000 tests conducted. Most cases occurred in Bucharest. The authorities also announced another 68 COVID-19 related deaths and 962 patients in intensive care. Meanwhile, the vaccine rollout continues, at a record high rate of over 100,000 jabs per day. Measures such as vaccination marathons and drive-through vaccination centres helped increase the number of people immunised every day, and so did the involvement of family physicians. Coordinator Valeriu Gheorghita said on the other hand that there is not enough scientific data to confirm the need for a third vaccine dose to cover possible viral mutations.



    ALERT The state of alert will be extended by another month as of Thursday, the government of Romania decided. Certain restrictions have been lifted, such as the ones concerning participation in religious processions or pilgrimages, while others, including in the hospitality sector, remain in place. Pilot cultural and sports events will be organised, attended by people who have got the vaccine or recovered from COVID in the past 3 months, as well as those who test negative for the disease.



    TRAVEL The National Committee on Emergency Situations updated the list of countries with high epidemiological risk for which quarantine is required upon entering Romanian territory. The number of countries in the list went up from 57 to 75. Countries like India, Nepal, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Monaco and the United Arab Emirates are new on the list, joining the Netherlands, France, Germany and Hungary or summer tourist destinations like Greece, Croatia or the Maldives.



    EXERCISE The president of Romania Klaus Iohannis and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda are attending today a multinational military exercise in Galaţi County in the east. The exercise takes place at the Smârdan base, and Poland takes part with the military forces it has deployed to Romania as part of the Allied matched forward presence in the eastern flank through the NATO multinational brigade stationed in Craiova. Justice Sword 21 is a tactical exercise aimed at testing the capacity of participating structures to implement planned actions and measures, as well as Romanias ability to provide support to the military forces and equipment that transit its territory.



    ATTACK At least 11 people, mostly children, were killed, and many others wounded by an unknown number of attackers in a school shooting in the Russian town of Kazan, some 725 km east of Moscow. The town is the capital of Tatarstan, an autonomous republic with mostly Muslim population. Russian media quoted by international news agencies speak about one or two teenage shooters. School shootings are uncommon in Russia. A similar incident was reported in 2018, in Crimea, annexed by Russia 4 years before, where a student killed 19 people and killed himself. In September 2004, some 325 people, mostly kids, were also killed after Russian special forces stormed a school in Belsan, North Ossetia, where pro-Chechen mercenaries were keeping over 1,000 hostages.



    TENSIONS The EU called for an immediate end to the clashes between Israeli and Palestinians. According to the EU, rocket strikes from Gaza strip against civilians in Israel are unacceptable and fuel escalation. The US also condemned “in the strongest terms the Hamas rocket attacks, calling them “an unacceptable escalation. The UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab also condemned the attacks and called for immediate de-escalation on both sides. Tensions have been reported in the region since the start of the Ramadan, the Muslim fasting and prayer month, with many Palestinians angry over the Israeli police restricting access to some sectors in Jerusalem. (tr. A.M. Popescu)

  • THE WEEK IN REVIW 3-9 May

    THE WEEK IN REVIW 3-9 May

    Vaccine rollout goes
    smoothly in Romania


    Romania is doing ‘extremely
    well’ in terms of its vaccine rollout, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis said
    on Thursday after the daily ceiling of 100 thousand people vaccinated had been exceeded.
    Authorities in Romania have diversified the ways through which Romanians can
    get the vaccine, easing the people’s access to various vaccination centers. The
    authorities’ goal is to have 5 million people vaccinated by June 1st.
    Since the vaccine roll out kicked off in Romania in late December, out of the 6
    million people vaccinated, 2.2 million have got the the booster. Romania has
    this week started to use the single-jab vaccine produced by
    Johnson&Johnson.




    Donation for the
    neighboring Romanian-speaking Republic of Moldova


    The government in Bucharest
    has this week endorsed a new humanitarian aid for the Romanian-speaking
    Republic of Moldova consisting in 100 thousand doses of the Astra Zeneca
    vaccine in an attempt to assist this country’s efforts to contain the pandemic.
    According to government sources, authorities in the two countries have
    concluded an agreement on reselling the vaccine, 200 thousand doses per month.
    The government has also passed a series of technical elements concerning the
    donation of 100 thousand doses to the neighboring Ukraine.




    School resumes in Romania


    Schools in Romania
    reopened on Wednesday and are presently functioning on-line and in-person
    depending on the infection rate in certain areas across the country. Schools
    reopened after the four-week spring holiday. According to the country’s
    Education Minister Sorin Cimpeanu, children are now physically attending primary
    schools and kindergartens and in the regions where the infection rate has
    dropped under one per thousand, secondary schools and high-schools are also offering
    in-person courses. According
    to the latest official data, over 1,800 localities in Romania are now in the
    green scenario in terms of Covid-19 infections, with less than one case per
    thousand inhabitants. In the other approximately 1,400 localities, where the
    infection rate is higher, middle and high school pupils resumed online classes.
    8th and 12th graders, who are to take exams this summer, will resume school on
    May 10.




    New relaxation measures in
    Romania as of June 1st


    Authorities in Romania are
    considering new relaxation measures after June 1st, when people are
    allowed to give up face covering while on trips in the mountains, on the beach,
    in gyms and swimming pools. Under the new measures vaccinated persons will be
    allowed to attend private parties whereas some businesses, such as restaurants
    and hotels may be allowed to function at full capacity if all personnel and
    customers have been immunized. Only vaccinated fans will be allowed to attend
    the football matches part of the European Football Championship Romania is due
    to host this summer. According to Romania’s Prime Minister Florin Citu, this is
    the solution proposed by the UEFA, which he also agrees. Referring to
    large-scale events such as the music festivals Untold and Neversea, the Prime
    Minister says they cannot be staged starting June 1st but rather
    after August 1st.




    The Government in Bucharest
    has endorsed the Convergence Programme and adjusted the National Recovery and
    Resilience Plan (PNRR)


    Romanian
    government has endorsed the Convergence Programme comprising a series of
    reforms assumed by the executive in various fields such as the pension system,
    payment, state enterprises and public administration. The country’s Prime
    Minister Florin Citu has explained the document is part of the Fiscal-budgetary
    Strategy and the National Resilience and Recovery Plan. He mentioned the talks
    he had with ministers over the PNRR asking them to get directly involved in the
    process of completing it shortly before the upcoming talks with the EU
    representatives. Citu has mentioned that upon the EU recommendation, the PNRR
    budget has been trimmed from 42 billion euros to 29 billion Euros. The Romanian
    official has given assurances the plan will absorb all the EU funds available to
    Romania.


    GRECO report on Romania


    Romania continues to lag behind with
    regard to judicial reforms and the fight against corruption, according to the
    latest report by GRECO, the Council of Europe’s specialized body. According to
    the document, Romania has implemented only five out of the 18 GRECO
    recommendations. Overall, the Bucharest
    authorities appear determined to remedy or abandon many of the controversial
    legal reforms adopted during the previous Social Democratic administration, the
    report reads. However, Romania’s level of compliance with its
    recommendations to prevent corruption in respect of MPs, judges and prosecutors
    remains globally unsatisfactory despite some progress and planned reforms that
    still are at an early stage. As for Members of Parliament, the level remains
    unchanged, with the exception of some procedural requirements, with only two of
    the nine recommendations implemented. Given the importance of these
    recommendations for preventing corruption among parliamentarians, GRECO emphasizes
    that more determined action is needed to implement them. Regarding the prevention of corruption among judges and
    prosecutors, the report shows that much more determined steps are needed in
    this direction as well. The report also shows that a stronger role for the
    Supreme Council of Magistracy in this process is still needed, and the
    involvement of the executive power, i.e. the Minister of Justice, in appointing
    or removing top prosecutors should be diminished to ensure judicial
    independence. It is also necessary to establish clear and objective criteria
    for the promotion of judges and prosecutors, taking into account their real
    qualifications and merits. In
    Bucharest, the Liberal Prime Minister Florin Cîţu says that the GRECO report
    shows that Romania is on the right track. Justice laws will no
    longer be abused and we will not witness again what happened between 2017 and
    2019, Citu says.


    (bill)



  • Scenarios for class resumption

    Scenarios for class resumption

    Pupils in Romania returned to school on Wednesday, after a four-week spring break. All primary school students, including children from kindergartens, returned to school physically, and there where the infection rate is below 1 per thousand, middle school and high school students also resumed physical classes.

    According to the latest official data, over 1,800 localities in Romania are in the green scenario in terms of Covid-19 incidence, with less than one case per thousand inhabitants. In the other approximately 1,400 localities, where the infection rate is higher, middle and high school pupils resumed online classes. 8th and 12th graders, who are to take exams this summer, will resume school on May 10. Also, the national evaluation of pupils in the 2nd, 4th and 6th grades will take place this month.

    The Minister of Education, Sorin Cîmpeanu, explained which are the two scenarios that will be used until the end of the school year:

    All primary school pupils will return to school, including those in the preparatory class, plus children from kindergartens. We are talking about 1,400,000 children, and also pupils from special classes. There are 185 special schools, in which over 27,000 children learn. Unfortunately, for the time being, 5th, 6th, 7th, 9th, 10th and 11th graders from the areas where the infection rate is over 1 per one thousand will not be able to go to school physically. They will learn online until the infection rate and the vaccination campaign allow physical attendance.

    For the time being, because of the epidemiological situation, both pupils and the teaching staff must observe the health measures in place, to wear masks and observe social distancing rules. In an interview on Radio Romania, Sorin Cimpeanu said he was sure the rules were observed in schools better than in other places and going back to school was essential for children’s development.

    Sorin Cimpeanu: Coming back to school, physically, is an essential step towards returning to a normal situation and ensuring the right conditions for the education of the future generations. The pandemic has caused a lot of damage in this regard, not only from an educational point of view, but also emotionally and socially. Children have started developing behavioural problems and their capacity to focus has also been affected. Teachers have suffered too, so resuming physical attendance is a must.

    Moreover, according to the minister, some 155,000 employees from the education system, which is half of the total, have been vaccinated. (MI)

  • May 4, 2021

    May 4, 2021

    Pandemic Romania. 994 new coronavirus cases and 94 related deaths were
    recorded in Romania on Tuesday. Hospital cases continue to drop as some 8,000
    Covid patients are currently receiving hospital treatment, of whom around 1,200
    in intensive care. The national incidence rate dropped to almost 1.5 cases per
    1,000 people in a fortnight. The capital Bucharest still has the highest
    rate, at a little under 2.5. Army hospitals in the big cities will from today
    also be administering the Covid vaccine to the general population. Those who
    wish to get the vaccine can simply show up at any time, without an appointment.
    More than 3.7 million people have received at least one dose of the Covid
    vaccine in Romania since the start of the mass vaccination campaign on 27th
    December last year, with 2 million being fully vaccinated.




    Parliament. The Romanian Parliament resumes work this week. Today, the Senate
    is discussing a proposal to amend the criminal code to comply with a ruling of
    the Constitutional Court from 7th April according to which courts
    will be obliged to publish the justification of their judicial decisions
    together with the decisions in question. Also, the deadline for delivering a
    verdict cannot be postponed beyond 120 days. The Senate is also expected to
    vote on an initiative from the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Alliance
    for the Union of Romanians (AUR) to set up a parliamentary committee to investigate the evacuation and transfer of
    patients from Bucharest’s main orthopaedics hospital when the latter was turned
    into a Covid hospital. A month ago, dozens of orthopaedic patients were moved
    in haste, others were discharged and yet others saw their surgeries postponed.
    The Chamber of Deputies will meet in full session on Wednesday, its agenda
    featuring several bills already rejected by the specialist committees, such as
    an initiative to raise child benefits and the periodic review, every 3 year, of
    documents based on which an employee is assigned a given occupational category.




    School. Schools are reopening on Wednesday in Romania after a 4-week
    holiday. Education minister Sorin
    Cîmpeanu said in-person learning will resume for all nursery school
    and primary school children, as well as
    for secondary and high school children where the Covid infection rate is below
    1 case in 1,000 residents tested. According to the latest data, there are 1,800
    such localities. In the other 1,400 localities with a higher infection rate,
    only final-year secondary and high school pupils will resume in person learning
    from 10th of May.




    Pandemic world. The Indian Covid
    variant has been detected in a number of European countries, with the World
    Health Organisation warning against the relaxation of protection measures and
    saying that the world is not safe as long as the huge outbreak in India is still
    wreaking havoc. The Organisation called on the world’s richest nations
    gathering at the G7 summit to provide the missing funding to ensure fair access
    to vaccination around the world. In the European Union, member states’
    ambassadors will discuss a proposal from the European Commission to allow entry
    of travellers from non-EU countries with a good epidemiological situation and
    who are fully vaccinated with the jabs approved in the Union. In Europe, states
    began to ease restrictions. In France, internal travel is now allowed, schools
    have reopened and shops, cinemas, restaurants and museums will also reopen at
    limited capacity from 19th May. Germany, however, has cancelled
    Oktoberfest next autumn for the second time in a row. In the US, the Florida
    governor announced the lifting of all restrictions following the success of the
    vaccination campaign and New York will resume round-the-clock subway service.
    Turkey, on the other hand, goes into its first full lockdown from today.




    G7. The foreign ministers of the
    world’s biggest economies will meet in London for their first face-to-face meeting
    in the last two years. Talks will focus on new ways to defend international
    regulations from external threats. UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab will chair
    discussions on the crisis in Myanmar and the relations with Russia, China and
    Iran. This first in-person meeting after two years is viewed by the UK as an
    opportunity to consolidate support for a rules-based international system at a
    time when China’s economic influence and Russia’s activities are threatening to
    undermine it. The G7 group is made up of the UK, Canada, France, Germany,
    Italy, Japan and the United States. Australia, India, South Korea and South
    Africa have also been invited to the 3-day summit.




    Tennis. World no. 3 Simona Halep is today facing
    Belgium’s Elise Mertens in the third round of the Madrid tennis tournament
    worth over 2.5 million euros. In second round on Sunday, Halep defeated China’s
    Saisai Zheng. She has two titles in Madrid, winning here in 2016 and 2017 and
    losing two finals, in 2014 to Maria Sharapova and in 2019 to Kiki Bertens.(CM)



  • March 24, 2021

    March 24, 2021

    Restrictions. Romanian president Klaus Iohannis
    said the authorities do not want to impose a national lockdown and called for
    compliance with the restrictions in place and for the acceleration of the mass
    vaccination. He said a lockdown in Bucharest is also not a solution, despite
    growing infection rates, but called for additional measures, such as
    restricting movement at the weekend and reducing opening hours in shopping
    centres. The Bucharest public health directorate is considering imposing
    further restrictions in the capital city, such as closing schools and
    kindergartens, restricting the number of shoppers at one time, changing working
    hours, banning private events or activities for children an enclosed spaces and
    closing playground areas in parks. The authorities say they are not planning
    imposing a lockdown in Bucharest for the time being despite the high infection
    rate of over 6 cases per 1,000 inhabitants. Ilfov county, near Bucharest, hit
    the mark of 7 cases in every 1,000 people tested, followed by Bucharest and
    Timis, in the west, with 6, while eight other counties across Romania have
    passed 3 cases per 1,000 people tested. On Wednesday, Romania saw more than
    6,100 new Covid infections and 137 related fatalities, as well as a new record
    number of ICU admissions.






    Schools. The spring break for pupils will be
    extended from 2nd April to 4th May to include both the
    Catholic and Orthodox Easter and reduce movement in April, when Covid
    infections are expected to see a new peak. Education minister Sorin Cîmpeanu
    also explained that the high school entrance examination will be delayed for 5th-8th
    July, while the written baccalaureate examinations will be held on the
    same dates, between 28th June and 1st July. He said
    schools will also remain open in places with more than 6 cases in every 1,000
    people tested and that they would only be closed if the places in question go
    into lockdown.






    Vaccination. More than 1.8 million people have received at least one
    dose of the Covid vaccine in Romania. The coordinator of the mass vaccination
    campaign Valeriu Gheorghiţă said that from 1st April the vaccine
    booking platform will also show the type of vaccine provided by each centre and
    that GPs will also be able to give their patients the jab. Also from next
    month, the number of persons receiving the vaccine in each inoculation hub is
    expected to increase from 60 to 90 per day. Gheorghiţă said the booking
    platform will also provide an estimated waiting time until vaccination for
    those on the waiting lists. Over 775,000 people are now on these lists.
    Timisoara, in the west, has opened the country’s first vaccination centre to
    work round the clock.




    Bill. Romanian deputies passed a bill on the
    dismantling of a special department for the investigation of crimes in the
    judiciary in the version received from the legal committee and which contains a
    number of amendments, including one from the group of ethnic minorities stipulating
    that magistrates can only be prosecuted with approval from the Superior Council
    of Magistrates. The ruling coalition agreed to this new version to get the bill
    voted. The Liberal leader Ludovic Organ said dismantling this department was
    recommended by the European Commission and must be adopted amid discussions on
    the lifting of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism. The leader of the opposition
    Social Democratic Party Marcel Ciolacu said his party would challenge the bill
    in the Constitutional Court if voted by Parliament. The Senate is the
    decision-making body for this particular bill.




    Football. Romania are playing the Netherlands today in
    their opening match at the European Under-21 Championship hosted by Hungary and
    Slovenia. They are in a difficult group that also includes European
    vice-champions Germany and Hungary. Romania, who featured for the second
    consecutive time and an overall third at a European youth championship, will be
    hosting the competition in 2023 together with Georgia. Tomorrow, Romania’s
    senior side will be facing North Macedonia in their first match as part of the
    2022 World Cup qualifiers. They will next play Germany on Sunday at home and
    Armenia next Wednesday away. Iceland and Liechtenstein
    are also in their group. The best-ranked side in each group qualify straight to
    the World Cup, while the second best-placed sides will go into play-offs.




    Olympic Games. Fencer Ana-Maria Popescu is the 60th Romanian
    athlete to qualify for the Tokyo Olympic Games after finishing first in the
    epee world ranking, said the Romanian Fencing Federation and the Romanian
    Olympic and Sports Committee. These will be her fifth Games, having won a
    silver medal in Beijing in 2008 and a gold in Rio in 2016. She also took part
    in Athens in 2004 and London in 2012. Romanian athletes will be competing in 13
    disciplines in Tokyo: swimming, athletics, rowing, football, gymnastics, 3×3
    basketball, cycling, wrestling, shooting, canoeing, table tennis, boxing and
    fencing. Due to take place last year, the Olympic Games were postponed because
    of the coronavirus pandemic and will be held this summer between 23rd
    July and 8th August. (CM)

  • 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)





  • School in the countryside, where to?

    School in the countryside, where to?

    According to great Romanian scholar and founding
    father of Romania’s modern education, Spiru Haret, ‘the way school looks today,
    the way the country is going to look tomorrow.’ In the past years however, Romania’s
    education system has been facing numerous challenges and the present pandemic
    has deepened these issues. School in the countryside is currently bearing the
    brunt of the present situation.






    BookLand, a non-profit organization, has set out to
    improve this situation and offer children in the countryside a chance to
    high-quality education. Besides a roving book fair, cultural camps and various
    conferences for the young people, the aforementioned organization has also got
    involved in the restauration of several schools fitting them with equipment
    necessary in the education of students.


    Mihaela Petrovan, founder of BookLand, has told us more about the accomplishments, challenges
    and future projects of this organisation.




    Mihaela
    Petrovan: ʺI believe in education, I believe that education is beneficial to the Romanians’
    state of health. And I am not exaggerating. We, the team of BookLand, are a
    bunch of honest, hard-working individuals who kept our word and even went the
    extra mile to fulfil our pledges. Last year for instance, we pledged to refurbish
    10 schools and ended up refurbishing 14 instead. Why schools and why in the
    countryside? Well, I can say I have a great passion for books and education in
    general. I was born in the countryside, in a village, and I am proud of that.
    Growing up in a village is what gives me power, strength…And this passion for
    education somehow comes naturally to me. I want to tell that we got the idea to
    help and get involved from the teachers of a certain school who called us and
    asked for help with some activity. It was not complicated to write in excel
    that a certain school needs doors and windows or roof or desks or whatever…What
    was complicated was to go to certain companies and ask them to provide
    materials and skilled workers. Suchlike restoring activities cannot be
    performed by drones or robots. What you need is workers. And that was the great
    challenge, to find enough money for this activity. ʺ




    But Mihaela Petrovan and her colleagues from BookLand didn’t give up and in spite of
    the funds shortage, they managed at first to refurbish one school, then another
    one and another. Companies and enterprises got more and more involved in this
    project and eventually schools have each been allotted close to 31 thousand
    euros on an average. Within a year and three months 14 schools have been
    refurbished.


    The most important accomplishments? One school has a
    new roof while another one has a brand new heating system. Here is Mihaela
    Petrovan again.




    Mihaela
    Petrovan: ʺWe focused on Romania’s poorest regions and we went to the country’s
    most disadvantaged region, Moldova, which in spite of being inhabited by great,
    hard-working people didn’t have the chance like Transylvania to attract
    investment. I was born in Transylvania but we have chosen Moldova because it is
    there where our efforts are needed most. Of course we also worked in southern
    Romania, because here we have some of the oldest schools in the country, some
    of them in dire need of restoration. Some of these schools were built 100 years
    ago. You cannot ask performance from students forced to learn in schools that look
    like barns, schools that are falling apart. And it’s a pleasure to take lessons
    in a school where everything is new and smells fresh, not of mildew and
    dampness. If we respect our children, they are going to show respect to the
    country as well. ʺ




    According to statistical data posted on Bookland’s
    Facebook profile, 82% of Romania’s schools were built before 1970, 16% before
    the anti-communist revolution of 1989 and only 2% after 1989. Some of these
    education facilities still have toilets outside, no running water or sewerage
    systems. Due to poverty, oftentimes, only 77 out of 100 village children go to
    school and 21% of the rural population benefitted only from primary education. Only
    4.74% of these people graduated from faculty and over 42% of the students
    failed the baccalaureate exam. Also 40 out of 100 rural households do not have
    access to the Internet and that’s very sad because due to the present pandemic,
    Romania has resorted to online education.


    Here is Mihaela
    Petrovan with more on the issue.




    Mihaela
    Petrovan: ʺIn some places one can see school maintenance out of nothing, so to
    say. Those people did real miracles like covering teacher desks in cloth so
    that the holes may not be seen. It’s
    heart-rending! Nowadays you cannot teach people without Internet connections.
    There were schools without blackboards, they simply had a couple of painted
    boards. Students lack these mere facilities and we are talking about online
    education, tablets and so on. Let’s be honest, we are a bunch of ignorant
    hypocrites if we don’t care about education in the rural area, as most of us
    are coming from there. Village children don’t have the education facilities of
    their city counterparts and that’s not fair. We are not criticizing anyone but
    started to do something, because we believe we can. And anyone can do what we
    are actually doing!ʺ






    Bookland intends to refurbish 20 schools in rural
    Romania this year and also wishes to accomplish something else. Here is again
    at the microphone Mihaela Petrovan.






    Mihaela Petrovan: ʺOur dream this year is to conclude some partnerships and build the
    first reference-school for Romania; built from scratch, after the Finnish
    model, a school as all the schools in Romania should be, of course adjusted to
    our Balkan traditions, with our teachers and a curricula proposed by
    us…everything for free…