Category: Society Today

In the European Union, the cost of treating brain-related disorders has already reached 1.5 million Euros every minute. That is why the month of May 2013 has been declared “European Month of the Brain”, a full month packed with events and activities.

At the start of this initiative entitled “The European Month of the Brain,” the European Commission allotted some 150 million Euros for 20 new international projects for brain research and advances in neuroscience. This has raised the total investments made in brain research in the EU to over 1.9 billion Euros since 2007.

The 20 projects that have been put on the list of EU resource allocation should provide new information to help decipher how the brain works and bring innovation in key domains such as traumatic brain injuries, mental disorders, pain, epilepsy and behavioural problems in children.

Although these projects can not be mentioned in detail before non-reimbursable financial agreements are signed, they should start this summer, with the declared aim of stimulating innovation and solutions to daily problems. Why did decision makers come to the conclusion that larger investments should be made in this domain? Neurologist Iustin Ionescu has further details on the growing number of people affected by brain disorders.

Iustin Ionescu: “The most common diseases affecting the central nervous system, especially brain disorders, include vascular diseases, which are on the rise in most countries. One of the best-known vascular diseases is the cerebrovascular accident (CVA), or the stroke. Other diseases with a high rate of incidence are the degenerative ones, or Alzheimer-type of diseases. The growing number of such diseases is caused by many risk factors, which fall into four major categories, which are actually dubbed ‘the four knights of the Apocalypse’: diabetes, arterial hypertension (or high blood pressure), cholesterol and smoking. Another factor which leads to an increasing number of cases is life expectancy, which is higher, and brain-related disorders emerge as a direct consequence of an aging brain cell and vascular bed.”

Research shows that approximately 165 million Europeans are susceptible of suffering from a brain-related disorder during their lifetime. Consequently, finding better ways to prevent and treat brain-related disorders has become an urgent issue.

As far as research is concerned, Romania is in line with international breakthroughs, but the situation caused by a high incidence of brain-related disorders is far from being solved.

Neurologist Iustin Ionescu has further details: “What should be done: first of all prevention measures should be taken, through medical education, raising people’s awareness of the risk factors, and regular routine investigations. All this needs the state’s intervention and support, both from an administrative and, most importantly, from a financial point of view. Medical care is expensive: equipment is extremely expensive, and in more developed countries some 10-12% of the GDP is used for healthcare, whereas in Romania only 4% of the GDP goes to this sector. As regards brain-related issues, a joint effort should be made by both the population, which should be aware of these risk factors, and the state, which should give people the possibility to have medical checks, and thus prevent the occurrence of many diseases. Because if an accident happens, for instance a CVA, that is stroke, the state will spend more on those patients, who will be left with disabilities, because of that general lack of involvement.”

Healthcare is the subject of one of the eight recommendations made to Romania in 2013. The European Commission notices major imbalances in the Romanian healthcare system, particularly because of an inefficient use of resources and flawed management.

The European Commission recommends that Romania should make additional efforts to improve cost efficiency in the system, by reducing excessive hospitalisation and by improving ambulatory treatment services.

At the start of this initiative entitled “The European Month of the Brain,” the European Commission allotted some 150 million Euros for 20 new international projects for brain research and advances in neuroscience. This has raised the total investments made in brain research in the EU to over 1.9 billion Euros since 2007.

The 20 projects that have been put on the list of EU resource allocation should provide new information to help decipher how the brain works and bring innovation in key domains such as traumatic brain injuries, mental disorders, pain, epilepsy and behavioural problems in children.

Although these projects can not be mentioned in detail before non-reimbursable financial agreements are signed, they should start this summer, with the declared aim of stimulating innovation and solutions to daily problems. Why did decision makers come to the conclusion that larger investments should be made in this domain? Neurologist Iustin Ionescu has further details on the growing number of people affected by brain disorders.

Iustin Ionescu: “The most common diseases affecting the central nervous system, especially brain disorders, include vascular diseases, which are on the rise in most countries. One of the best-known vascular diseases is the cerebrovascular accident (CVA), or the stroke. Other diseases with a high rate of incidence are the degenerative ones, or Alzheimer-type of diseases. The growing number of such diseases is caused by many risk factors, which fall into four major categories, which are actually dubbed ‘the four knights of the Apocalypse’: diabetes, arterial hypertension (or high blood pressure), cholesterol and smoking. Another factor which leads to an increasing number of cases is life expectancy, which is higher, and brain-related disorders emerge as a direct consequence of an aging brain cell and vascular bed.”

Research shows that approximately 165 million Europeans are susceptible of suffering from a brain-related disorder during their lifetime. Consequently, finding better ways to prevent and treat brain-related disorders has become an urgent issue.

As far as research is concerned, Romania is in line with international breakthroughs, but the situation caused by a high incidence of brain-related disorders is far from being solved.

Neurologist Iustin Ionescu has further details: “What should be done: first of all prevention measures should be taken, through medical education, raising people’s awareness of the risk factors, and regular routine investigations. All this needs the state’s intervention and support, both from an administrative and, most importantly, from a financial point of view. Medical care is expensive: equipment is extremely expensive, and in more developed countries some 10-12% of the GDP is used for healthcare, whereas in Romania only 4% of the GDP goes to this sector. As regards brain-related issues, a joint effort should be made by both the population, which should be aware of these risk factors, and the state, which should give people the possibility to have medical checks, and thus prevent the occurrence of many diseases. Because if an accident happens, for instance a CVA, that is stroke, the state will spend more on those patients, who will be left with disabilities, because of that general lack of involvement.”

Healthcare is the subject of one of the eight recommendations made to Romania in 2013. The European Commission notices major imbalances in the Romanian healthcare system, particularly because of an inefficient use of resources and flawed management.

The European Commission recommends that Romania should make additional efforts to improve cost efficiency in the system, by reducing excessive hospitalisation and by improving ambulatory treatment services.

In recent years Romanians have been increasingly drawn to the ultra-processed food known as “junk food”. An opposite phenomenon has nevertheless been gaining ground. The “Food Revolution” movement initiated by the English chef Jamie Oliver has earned a great deal of supporters in Romania. This year, on May 17, Bucharest joined large European cities in celebrating the second anniversary of this movement by means of cooking contests and talks with famous chefs, held in a retail center in the capital city Bucharest. Romania even has its own “Food Revolution” ambassadors. One of them is Miruna Meirosu from the Public Relations Department of Curtea Veche Publishers, which owns Jamie Oliver’s copyright in Romania. She told us more about the main principles underlying the “food revolution”:

“This movement fosters the return to cooked food, because it is a healthy habit. It militates for providing children and anyone who does not have healthy eating habits with a minimum food education. Obesity has become one of the main causes of death worldwide. This phenomenon can be stopped through small-scale, daily activities”.

Although the number of adults and particularly children affected by obesity has started to increase significantly in Romania of late, ‘Food Revolution’ ambassadors believe their campaign to promote cooked and fresh food will appeal to Romanians. Here is Miruna Meirosu.

“We, Food Revolution ambassadors, feel that we are here to attend to a real need. Shortly after the debut of our campaign in Romania we received lots and lots of messages of support and many have encouraged us to keep up the good work. Last year we had only two ambassadors trying to work some programmes aimed at helping kids to learn more about healthy food, but now we have five ambassadors so we can double our efforts and mount even larger-scale events.”

Matei Martin, producer of ‘literary programmes’ with the Culture Channel of Radio Romania and moderator of the ‘Pork with Pepper’, an event staged daily at the Bastille Bookshop in Bucharest, has a slightly different opinion.

“It’s a positive sign that steps have been taken in that direction in Romania too, although the traditional local cuisine is not entirely based on healthy recipes. Romanian staple dishes mainly rely on pork and lard and after a century-old tradition of eating grilled minced meat rolls, it’s very difficult to make a salad revolution. However, such a revolution could catch on, because we live in a Westernized culture, where emphasis is laid on good looking bodies and the idea of healthy food has become popular almost everywhere.”

Long before learning about the ‘Food Revolution’, Florentina Tzene used to cook dishes for her children at home. And because she likes what she does, she has honed her skill to perfection and got the first prize in a cooking contests staged on that occasion. In the following minutes she will tell us what healthy food means to her.

“Eating as many salads as possible; I also stay out of sweets as much as I can and if I cannot entirely avoid them, at least I eat only homemade sweets. I have always avoided eating out and tried to prepare homemade dishes as much as possible. I’m not very much into eating out, you know.”

Florentina has reaped the first prize for a season dish, fresh and healthy.

: “I made a salad of everything, all sorts of vegetables, and I added some grapes and corn. It didn’t look very well, but I mainly went for the taste and not for the look. For me it’s important that the food is tasty and healthy.”

Nutritionist Mihaela Bilic too is campaigning for homemade and diversified food.

“Healthy food means diversified dishes catering for individual needs. Not all that comes from the food industry is unhealthy, but large quantities and improper cooking can turn food into an enemy. Romanians have passed through a period of experimenting and excessive shopping. And maybe it’s the right time we got back to a normal relation with food. We are living at extremes now. It’s either we believe everything is bad and unhealthy or we deny traditional dishes and are willing to experiment with food. For instance we seem to forget about forest fruit and blackcurrants, which grow in Romania, preferring goji berries instead. New food doesn’t necessarily mean good food.”

With or without ‘Food Revolution’ the habit of cooking fresh fruit and vegetables and even lean meat is not only healthy but could also be a pleasant, relaxing way of spending time with family.

The European Initiative for Media Pluralism was started at the beginning of the year, as per EU prerequisites, by seven Member States. It urges European institutions “to safeguard the right to independent and pluralistic information”. Ioana Avadani, general manager of the Centre for Independent Journalism and one of the initiators of the project, believes that at present access to comprehensive and honest information is in danger.

Ioana Avadani: “The Citizens Initiative seeks to put pressure on European bodies, on the European Commission and Parliament, to work out a legal way of solving the so-called “tycoonization” of the press at EU level. What we Romanians regard as problems that are specific to the local media landscape are in fact common in Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Portugal as well. There are but a few countries that aren’t experiencing any such problems at present, where political power and mass-media are not that intertwined as to affect freedom of expression”.

The European Initiative for Media Pluralism is the result of efforts carried out by seven entities from Romania, Spain, the UK, Hungary, France, the Netherlands and Bulgaria. The process of registering a citizens’ initiative with EU institutions is no easy task. First you must collect 1 million signatures from supporters all across the European Union. Then you need to draft the text of the initiative and the potential Directive, which must be submitted for debate and negotiation to the European Commission, the European Council and the EU Council of Ministers. This process could take years to complete, but is an extremely important step, because throughout the process regular citizens can get involved in the establishment of laws with direct impact on their lives and in the protection of their fundamental rights. One of these rights is the right to information, which is objective and free of the economic interests of media tycoons.

What are the main risks threatening media pluralism and citizens’ right to information in Romania at present? Mircea Toma, the representative of the Press Monitoring Agency told us more:

Mircea Toma: “The main risk currently facing our country is an increase in the concentration of media ownership. The phenomenon has been gaining momentum in Romania in the early 2000s, especially at local level, where private media tycoons first emerged. The main danger is for someone to be able to control and influence communication addressing citizens and influence them to support him to hold high political office and make his business more profitable. There has been a lot of talk recently on the so-called “moguls”, a word reportedly describing media ownership from a judgmental point of view. Being a media proprietor is not a bad thing per se, but problems appear whenever repeated abuse is reported. The latest report on freedom of expression in Romania points to the fact that two media tycoons have turned their private television stations into overt political propaganda tools.”

Anyone who wishes to shield themselves against these dangers under the European law can access the website of the European Initiative for Media Pluralism, www.mediainitiative.eu and sign the citizens’ initiative for media pluralism.

Children drop out of school before finishing their obligatory school cycle for a wide range of reasons. In many cases, the reason is poverty, or living in a social environment that places little value on formal education. A lot of times, the cost of books and notebooks, as well as extra-curricular activities, places too high a burden on some parents, who sometimes are less than encouraging regarding their children’s education. According to the Eurostat, on an overall average in all member states, 12.8% of kids in the EU drop out of school, down from 13.5% in 2011. The same source informs that Romania had an 18% dropout rate in 2010, going down to 17% in 2012. Unfortunately, this data is not very relevant when it comes to shedding light on the whole phenomenon in Romania, because it applies different definitions for dropping out and how to measure it. For instance, the definition used by the EU is: “The dropout rate is defined as the percentage of people between 18 and 24 years old who have secondary studies at the most and who are no longer registered in the education or vocational system.” Bogdan Goroceanu, an education expert with the World Vision organization in Romania, explains:

“Education practice in Romania defines dropping out as leaving school early. In Romania, dropping out means leaving school in the years of obligatory education. Figures in Romania on dropping out are much worse than in the rest of the EU. In terms of dropping out during obligatory education years, the figures differ greatly depending on who makes the measurements. UNICEF and the Institute for Education Sciences use the cohort system, measuring the number of children going into the school system one year and the percentage that manages to graduate the eight obligatory years. The Ministry of Education, on the other hand, measures drop out rates annually. They measure the number of children going in at the beginning of the school year, and at the end of the year they count the ones managing to finish. The balance is reported as drop out figures. For a child to be considered a dropout, they have to be out of school for three years in a row. We have a critical mass of children that we cannot call one way or another. The situation is quite uncertain, because we have not yet defined the concept of ‘in danger of dropping out’ or ‘dropping out risk’.”

However, no matter what method one uses to measure the phenomenon, Bogdan Georoceanu from World Vision told us about the figures in Romania:

“According to the Report on the State of Education, the Ministry of Education tells us that the overall drop out rate in Romania is 1.5% per year. In the countryside, the rate goes up to 1.7 or 2%, depending on gender and school cycle. When we talk about 9th and 10th grade, things are much worse. The entire rural environment faces this problem. We can rather say that there are peaks of attendance. I am talking about places that are better off, have infrastructure and school transportation, as well as qualified teachers. However, in poor and isolated communities, the situation is deplorable.”

In these poor and isolated communities, many of them villages, but also urban periphery, children drop out in larger numbers. Many schools are closed, access to those that are left is difficult, and sometimes children walk for miles to get to the nearest school. Also, many children are held back at home by their parents to help around the household, others are abandoned by parents going to work abroad, and generally they drop out of school for lack of encouragement. In order to help these kids, the World Vision organization has been running for a few years the ‘I Want to Go to 9th Grade’ program. So far, they helped 277 children from the countryside to continue their high school studies with help from sponsors willing to pay them a monthly scholarship. Among the beneficiaries is Ema, a senior in a rural high school in Ialomita county. Ema lives in a disadvantaged area on the edge of a town with two brothers and her parents, who have been unemployed for a long time. Ema told us how she enrolled:

“I got in touch with World Vision through social workers who told a few of us with higher grade averages that we could get a scholarship. Because I needed this scholarship, it was offered to me in 10th grade, it’s been almost three years now. The scholarship is 100 lei a month, which allows me to get school stuff, even clothes when I need to, and food as well. It is not much, but I am happy I’m getting it, because I get it for being good in school.”

In spite of her precarious material situation, Ema said she was never in danger of dropping out, which she loves. She would have managed even without that scholarship:

“I would have good results anyway, under any conditions. Due to this scholarship, I have much better study conditions, and I can afford books. I am sure, though, that I would get good grades even without it.”

Her sponsors, just like the sponsors for most other children, prefer to keep out of the public eye. However, Ema knows who they are.

“Not directly, only through letters. It’s a beautiful gesture on their part. They don’t help only by this monthly scholarship, they also send us gifts for holidays. We don’t ask them for anything, they do it at their own initiative. The sponsor gave us even a computer to help me study. That widened my horizon. What can I say about other problems? There have been a few school trips I couldn’t go on…”

It is obviously difficult for a child to talk about their troubles, which are not her fault. It is equally obvious that that child should get help when the family is unable to provide it.

You have been listening to Society Today, a feature you can revisit on our website, rri.ro.

At a time when we are swamped by news about how bad for us much of the food on the market is, and how our nutrition habits are anything but nutritious, we definitely need a change. European institutions have been on the issue for years now, coming up with programs like the one of distributing fresh fruit and vegetables in schools.

The EC has been underwriting this program for five years now, and the growing number of children getting its benefits shows its effectiveness. In the 2011-2012 school year, more than 8.1 million children in EU member states received regular servings of fresh fruit and vegetables in school. Romanians have not missed out: since 2009, they get one fresh apple on their lunch break every day. Irina Creanga, European business adviser for the ministry of agriculture, explains how this program unfolded and how it was received:

Irina Creanga: “Since the start of this program, we have only distributed apples, and we may continue with just apples, it hasn’t been decided yet. The program is aimed at years first to eighth. This year, as a first, we included the preparatory year. For instance, in 2010-2011, over one million pupils in 6,200 schools reaped the benefits of the program. The program was very well received among students. Around two thirds of them said they ate their apple. 86% of them believe that the program is useful and is worth pursuing. As for preferences, apples are among their favorites. The report also shows that in the countryside, children prefer exotic fruits, such as bananas.”

The program also seems to be a success in other EU member states where it has been applied. MEP Claudiu Tanasescu, sitting on the environment, public health and food safety committee, told us about it:

Claudiu Tanasescu: “In the report to evaluate this program it is shown that it brings a necessary and adequate contribution to ensuring that kids have a more balanced nutrition. Both children and schools are enthusiastic about the program, and want to take part in it in the future. In participating countries one can clearly see a rise in fruit consumption in schools, with consumption exceeding the quantity that was distributed. However, one cannot yet say if the program will lead to better eating habits in the long run.”

The success of this program convinced the European Commission to beef up funding for the 2013-2014 school year, bringing it up to 90 million Euro. The main beneficiaries will be Italy, with 20.5 million Euro, followed by Poland, 13.6 million, Germany, 12 million, Romania, 4.9 million, France, 4.7 million, Hungary, 4.5 million Euro, Spain, 4.4 million Euro, and the Czech Republic, 4.2 million Euro. Of course, these are the figures before adding the co-financing supplied by each country. In Romania, the fruit will be distributed for 100 days, starting in November 2013. It is estimated that 7,500 schools and 1.7 million students will get the benefit of the program.

The fruit distribution for schools program also has an education component: students learn healthy eating and how the fruit they eat grows.

Irina Creanga: “First and foremost, the aim is in terms of health and education, such as promoting a healthy lifestyle based on consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables, learning healthy eating habits, and awareness of the advantages of this type of eating. Besides health and education, one of the aims is to bring children closer to the rural environment. We are talking about organizing visits to orchards and vegetable farms, to fairs and exhibitions, to Harvest Days. Also, schools organize courses and contests for gardening, so called health education classes.”

Even though they are pleased with the initiative, parents believe that these measures adjacent to education are not properly understood and applied. Here is Adrian Topor, vice-president of the National Federation of Parents Association, talking about the distribution of apples in schools:

Adrian Topor: “We have signals that in certain areas things did not go smoothly. The apples got there late, and were of questionable quality. From our point of view, this program has not been applied fully, and was not oriented towards what we want for our children: teaching the kids to have healthy food behavior. If we simply hand them an apple and tell them to eat it, that is not enough. If we, as adults, don’t eat fruits and vegetables, they won’t either. If we tell them to eat one piece of fruit and one vegetable, we lose them. What would make sense would be to explain to them why it is good to eat that. Also, we have to make sure the apple is tasty, not dull or sour. There is another problem as well: the lack of spaces where our children can sit down and eat, places that are very clean. They have to eat their fruit, or milk and croissants as schools offer, sitting at their desks.

The European Volunteer Year was first celebrated in 2011. On that occasion, a series of not-so-optimistic statistics were made public. A sociological survey conducted in 2007 revealed that 14.4 per cent of Romania’s population said they’d done volunteer work in the last 12 months. In 2008, according to a public opinion barometer focusing on youngsters, the participation in volunteer activities and the affiliation to nongovernmental organizations stood at an extremely low percentage.

More than half of the youngsters were not willing to take part in nongovernmental organizations as volunteers. More than one third of them expressed their willingness in principle, for volunteering activities, while a small part of them actually participated in the activities. However, most of those doing volunteer work are youngsters, and their numbers have since been growing. And to reward their efforts and dedication, the entire month of April is devoted to them at the first volunteers’ festival –Volunteers’ fest. The volunteers themselves organized the event, through the Volunteer Brigade Association. We sat down and spoke with Cristina Mercioniu, the project manager, herself a student and a volunteer, who told us what was in store for the volunteers in April.

”We have broken down the month of April which is dedicated to them. We started the festival with a play, and we shall also close it with a play. The first performance on April the 1st was entitled “Just a Volunteer” and it was a Forum theatre production. Then the creative week followed with lots of workshops meant to stimulate their creativity, such as origami, fashion design, drawing. Then we carried on with an educational week when we set up several training courses, which included events-organizing courses. Towards the end, we scheduled the applied week, with a contest dedicated to NGOs and the sports week, with the volunteers’ Olympiad. We also have a concert we organized and where we’re going to party all night long. “

Thus the volunteers who actually work during concerts and who cannot enjoy them, have their fair share of the much-coveted relaxation. Furthermore, the festival can also be seen as an incentive for young people to try that activity as well. About other incentives — which so far have not gone beyond the project stage — here is Cristina Mercioniu again.

”Through that project we want to implement a volunteer record book benefiting all volunteers. It is a pilot project we will first implement in the “Volunteers Brigade.” It is a record book which is quite similar to the one a pupil has and where the experience is recorded of a person working as a volunteer, the number of events he took part in. Thus they are more credible when they may wish to sit in for a job interview. Other benefits would be discounts for the public means of transport. Students benefit from such discounts anyway, but volunteers are a different kind of students, they are students who give something back to society, they don’t just wait for discounts”

Set up in 2013, the “Volunteer Brigade” is an association that gathers volunteers for various activities. Ionut Tunaru, who founded the association, attended the festival to share with the younger volunteers some of the tricks that could make their work more efficient.

“An event organizer has contacted me to ask whether I can gather a team of volunteers for a festival. I said yes. I initially thought that I could do it by myself, but I couldn’t. By that time I had already started to set up my own team. I was able to put together a team of volunteers for that event, I collaborated again with the event’s organizer in 2009 and as of 2010 we have worked with other organizers. The number of volunteers is quite impressive. I believe we have 800 people in our data base, who already take part in various events.”

There are several advantages that volunteer work brings. Ionut Tunaru: “They acquire some new skills and manage to put into practice some of their ideas. It’s easier for them to get a job later, not necessarily in the same field. They know how to work in a more effective manner. Everything has to be effective, because if someone is late, that prevents another 30 or 40 people from doing their job properly. So everything has to be done quickly and properly.”

Volunteer work is also a great opportunity for young people to spend more time with people of the same age, in a different environment. This is exactly the story of Andreia, a 1st year student with the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, who also works with the “Volunteer Brigade”.

“I started working as a volunteer during my first year at the university. There are many associations that recruit students within the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies anyway. I liked them because they were full of life. I didn’t understand from the very beginning why everybody wanted to work as a volunteer. I hadn’t worked as a volunteer before but when I saw them I realized I wanted to join them at various events. I really like doing this job.”

The last event within the “Volunteers Fest” was scheduled for Wednesday, April 24th, a day of concerts given by bands of young musicians.

Romania has a number of state schools that are run by certain churches, the so called confessional schools, which, while teaching state curricula, have something different too. To find out what is different there, and what makes them attractive to the students going there, we went to one of them. It is the St. Joseph Roman Catholic College of Bucharest, where we talked to one of the students, Razvan. He is a 9th grade student, specializing in math and IT. He’s been going there since first grade. Obviously, his parents picked the school for him at first, but when he went to high school, he had a choice, and opted to stay. Here he is telling us about it:

“I like the fact that we study hard. We don’t need private tutoring, because teachers do their jobs really well. There are no drugs, there is no drinking, as opposed to other high schools, where you can even see physical fights. It is a small high school, so teachers have time for each and every one of us.”

Since his specialization is math and IT, Razvan has only one class of religion per week. However, Francesca, a 12th grader, specializes in theology, so she has more religion oriented classes. She is Christian Orthodox, and she likes being in a Catholic high school, where they encourage a balance between learning and spiritual peace.

“To me and my parents, order in life was important, and as opposed to the people specializing in math, I have four of five classes weekly which include religion: the history of religion, religion, which are specialty subjects, but are equivalent with history and Romanian classes, they have a lot in common.”

Sister Rodica Miron, director of the St. Joseph college, as the high school is known in Romania, believes that the main aim of this confessional school has a job additional to intellectual training, that of shaping kids in line with the ethical and spiritual lines of the Gospel. She told us about it:

“Typical of our high school is how we approach all subjects. The entire atmosphere of the school helps kids develop spiritually, culturally, shape themselves as people. There is even a spiritual headmaster, there are a few people working here exactly for that, sisters and priests, who are there for the children when they have questions about anything.”

This spiritual atmosphere, however, is what puts some parents and children off. Here is Sister Rodica Miron once again:

“Some get here by chance, and then leave. We don’t proselytize. We don’t ask kids what they are, Catholic, Orthodox or Neo-Protestant. It is true that we only take Christian children, because we have a Christian approach. We work the same way with all of them. In the high school’s entire history, which is over 20 years long, I think we’ve had only one student who became a priest. There are a few nuns, but the majority choose lay careers.”

In the town of Oradea there is another confessional high school, the Iuliu Maniu Greek Catholic High School. 60% of the students are Orthodox, and around 30% are Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic, with the rest having different Christian affiliations. According to headmaster Aurelian Cristea, the purpose of the high school is to educate children in a Christian spirit, not along the lines of dogma:

“In our general knowledge cycles we have one religion class a week. In specialty theology cycles, we have three or four specialty classes a week. Once a week, on Fridays between 8 and 9, we have a mass for all students. In addition, we have a lot of extra-curricular and out of school optional activities for children, helped by volunteers who are priests or teachers of religion, which, with their complexity, attract children, and shape their personality according to moral principles, love, altruism, compassion for the needy, reacting to problems in life with prayer and trust for those around us.”

Father Vasile Gavrila set up the Three Holy Hierarchs High School of Bucharest in order to offer Orthodox children and parents an alternative to regular education, which is closer to their faith. They are trying to do this following the curriculum offered by the Ministry of Education, especially by having teachers act differently. As opposed to other confessional schools, the Three Holy Hierarchs High School is a private school, accredited by the ministry and blessed by the head of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Daniel. This grants them a certain independence. Let us listen to Father Gavrila talking about it:

“Everything that is studied is studied from the perspective of revealed heavenly truth. There is no antithesis between science and culture, we try to blend culture with revealed truth. Being a private school, we can register only the children we want. There is a selection by mutual agreement between the school and the parents. Our priority, besides education, is to shape children in the Christian Orthodox spirit.”

Iulian Capsali has two children who go to high school. As a practicing Orthodox Christian, he wants his children to grow up in the faith. He is not happy with public schools:

“If you behave in an Orthodox fashion at home and you have the same thing at school, then certain things flourish in a child’s soul. He grows in the spirit of the church. It is even better if this spirit can be found in school. My other kids come from school with things that trouble them. Imagine, they have colleagues who take drugs and sell them in school. I don’t think there are high schools in Bucharest where this phenomenon does not exist.”

The Internet is now an integrating part of young people and children’s universe. Small children are capable of using various devices to access the Internet, with or without their parents’ supervision. The Internet allows them to find out all sorts of information, use educational programmes and communicate faster. However, specialists say the Internet is also a very dangerous place, especially for children, who are not yet capable of distinguishing reality from the fiction they are faced with on-line.

A study conducted by the Save the Children organisation has revealed that an increasing number of children are surfing the Internet using a whole range of devices, which also translates into a higher number of dangerous behaviours in the cyber space. Here is Gabriela Alexandrescu, the executive president of Save the Children Romania:

“In Romania, most children access the internet daily or almost every day. 65% of these children use mobile devices, which makes it difficult for parents to monitor their online activities. Children are exposed to many threats, considering that 90% of them say they use at least one social network, and 21% keep their profiles public. The information and education programmes run in schools have been efficient, in the sense that the number of users who make their social network profiles public has dropped, though not dramatically. Children have started to learn that certain type of information should not be public. Still, in Romania 43% of the children say they have seen images of a sexual nature in the past year. 70% of them point to the Internet as the source of such imagery.”

The average age at which children start using the Internet is 9, as compared to 10 in 2012. The number of mobile devices, whether phones or tablets, has also increased, from 17% in 2010 to 65% in 2012, as their prices have become more accessible. According to the survey compiled by the Save the Children organisation, when it comes to teenagers, who are in a difficult and confusing stage in their lives, the Internet does more harm than good. They prefer to stay on the Internet instead of studying, practicing sports or spending time outdoors.

Half of the children who participated in the study said they had unpleasant interaction while online, while half said they met in person with people they first came to know on the internet. After such meetings with unknown people, 10% of the children said they had been offended. So, the access to mobile devices and the fast development of social networks raise new problems, as Liliana Preoteasa, the general director of the Education and Life-Long Training Directorate with the Romanian Education Ministry has told us:

“The websites that student access during classes can be controlled in schools, and there are ways to do that. At home, there are also ways for parents to control their children. However, it’s becoming extremely difficult to supervise children who access the Internet via their mobile phones.”

Unfortunately, education about the Internet is almost inexistent in Romania. 79% of parents allow their children to use the Internet with no restrictions whatsoever. Many of them are not aware of their children’s negative experiences online, while others don’t know themselves much about computers and Internet, so they are unable to monitor what their children are doing on the Internet.

Save the Children organisation and the Education Ministry have suggested the introduction of a school guide containing both theoretical information and practical applications, to promote the safe use of the Internet by children. Also, Save the Children specialists provide counselling for both children and adults interested in finding out more about the Internet and how to be safe while online.

Following the publication of the study, the head of the Romanian police office for fighting cyber-crime Virgil Spiridon said cyber-crime in Romania has not reached an alarming level, but that the global trend is upward. Bank fraud, the unauthorised access to confidential corporate or government data, blackmailing and cyber bullying are all taking place on the Internet now, and they tend to spread at a fast pace. Virgil Spiridon:

“In statistical terms, last year there were over 1,000 cyber-crime cases in Romania. 200 of them, which involved 1,200 different offences and 542 people, were solved, in the sense that they went to court. As regards children’s safety on the Internet, the school and the family are the key factors.”

Gheorghe Serban, with the Professional Association of Electronic Services Providers explains what the Internet is all about these days:

“Today there are some 7 billion devices that are interconnected via the Internet. Overall Internet traffic will grow three times by 2015, while Internet traffic using mobile devices will 11 times. So, there will be some 15 billion devices connected to the Internet in 2015.”

As to whether the Internet is good or bad, specialists say this depends very much on the individual user.

Almost 45% of the Romanian population lives in the countryside, and a lot of these people still don’t work to capacity, both in personal and in societal terms. The most disadvantaged category in the countryside is women, even though 56.6% of Romanian women live in villages. Most of their work is in the household, and as such it is obscure to most people outside of their immediate vicinity. 67% of women in the countryside are homemakers, working exclusively in their households, which is obviously not paid in wages. Their occupation, therefore, provides no financial and social independence in itself, as a paid job would.

A trade union federation in farming, Agrostar, wants things to change. They launched the E-Word project for the emancipation of women in rural communities, financed through the POSDRU European program. The target group for the project were 2050 women from the countryside, from 6 development regions in Romania. The project was aimed at offering courses and advice for women who want either to get a job or to become entrepreneurs, in order to gain financial benefits from their work. Project coordinator Oana Calenciuc told us what was achieved through the project:

“We set up four information and counseling centers for rural women in the counties of Arges, Timis, Dolj, and Galati. Over 800 people have taken advantage of our services. Over 48% of them attended vocational courses. All the centers provide services such as information and counseling, small business consulting, vocational courses, support in balancing work and family life.”

Depending on the options of women in each region, five vocational courses for 1,200 women were organized. The courses offered training in manicure and pedicure, babysitting, shopping assistant, canning and baking. Oana Calenciuc told us about the results of the courses:

“The most popular courses were those training people to work as a shopping assistant, in a cannery or in a baking shop. Babysitting was the least popular course. All the participants were also helped in looking for a job. By the end of the project, 130 women found a job or started their own business. We also held a course in basic computer skills for five groups of women from Olt and Dambovita counties, for a total of 100 students. At the end, all the participants passed a test.”

The courses encouraged some of the women to start their own businesses or tap European money for an existing business they owned and ran. Elena Odagiu of Olt County, mother of two boys, turned her passion for flowers into a thriving business:

“Flowers have always been a passion of mine, so I applied for European money for a project dealing with growing vegetables and flowers in protected areas. It is my own business, I am in charge of my own life and my time. I decide what I do, when to take a vacation, how much I want to work. This is one of the advantages. However, the most important aspect is that I spend a lot of time with my family, I am next to my children and husband. Psychologically, the fact that that I won my business makes me feel great.”

For Ecaterina Olteanu, from Prahova County, European funds have also been an opportunity to turn household chores into a job:

“My husband accessed European funds for agriculture and built our farm. After that I attended a course in processing fruits and vegetables, and we started canning them based on traditional methods and recipes.”

This business helped Ecaterina organize her time better, and improved her living:

“I can say it gave me a lot of courage. Once I learned more than what I used to know, that gave me the courage to start off. It is a privilege that I am close to my family most of the time and I am in my own household, where I know exactly what I have to do. What I do now is great for me and my family.”

Mariana Feraru from Valcea County has nine children, the oldest 23 and the youngest five and a half. In March she will be giving birth to another. These courses have really encouraged her in her work:

“I attended the courses offered by Agrostar. I want to set up a company, I filled in the paperwork, I’m now waiting for the final approvals. It is a retail and transportation company. We have to guide our children on a better path. In my life, agriculture has come first. I would like every parent to guide their children towards farming, that’s what keeps us alive.”

For all these women, the main perk of this program remains the fact that it enabled them to be closer to their families while earning a living.

The Romanian undergraduate education system has undergone many changes over the past 20 years. But the efficiency of these changes has been frequently questioned, given the poor results of high school students in the latest baccalaureate exam. In many Romanian counties less than 50% of the high school students managed to pass the baccalaureate exam, which is indicative of the lack of maturity of both students and the education system.

In Romania under 1% of schools are private, the oldest ones being set up in 1995, so private schools have not been a strong competitor for the public education system. The state system has been struggling with many logistics and staffing problems. There are not enough classrooms, hygiene standards are not met, especially in the countryside, teachers have very low salaries, which results in lots of vacancies or the selection of poorly qualified teachers. In spite of all these flaws the undergraduate education system in Romania meet the needs of students in terms of the school offer: communication in their mother tongue, minority languages included, as well as the teaching of the skills required for social integration, such as using a computer.

At international level Romania is falling towards the bottom of a classification based on the PISA tests introduced by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 1997 for a comparative evaluation of the skills acquired by the 15-year olds from several countries. Although highly criticised, the results of the PISA tests raise the issue of quality in education. Remus Pricopie, the education minister warns:

“If we don’t weigh what we do and why we do this or that, and the value of our actions within the education system, we cannot get results. Of course, classifying countries according to the PISA tests is not like the Academic Ranking of World Universities. PISA is much simpler: if a student cannot read and interpret a text and make calculations at a certain age, that means the system is highly flawed. But one could argue that even if students cannot read and interpret a text, they still have other skills, for instance they can use computers. I believe that PISA, with all reservations, should be considered at least one of the quality indicators of the education process in all countries, Romania included. So we know that our position in this ranking is not good.”

In spite of the drive for change prompted by these conclusions, Remus Pricopie seems interested in a more in-depth analysis:

“We shouldn’t focus on overnight changes. When it comes to quality, we need to know what a teacher thinks about this concept. We must start from the current reality. There is no point in promoting a policy that has nothing to do with the outlook of teachers. There are hundreds of thousands of teachers in the system. So we should be interested not only in ensuring consistency in terms of what happens in schools, but also in creating values related to quality. So I suggest we should talk about integrated policies, because whenever we think about quality, we should think about teachers first. The quality of the teaching act essentially depends on the quality of the teacher. Only then come the labs, the classrooms, the buses, which are, of course, important. But the quality of teaching is first and foremost the quality of learning, from kindergarten to life-long learning. And the quality of teachers depends on how much you pay teachers, on how much you invest in teachers.”

A close observer of the Romanian education system for six decades, Romanian Academy member Solomon Marcus has identified other shortcomings as well. Beyond the need to solve the more practical problems of textbook and curriculum structures and of the teacher-student relationship, Solomon Marcus says the very goal of education seems to be misunderstood:

“I think the object of education is inadequately defined. From what I read, I understand education is about acquiring knowledge and developing cognitive skills. I’m not saying this is not true, but it’s not the essential. I would replace this definition with another one: education is about developing understanding skills. I would replace knowledge with understanding, and I mean both understanding and behaviour in standard situations, and in unusual situations. The key concept here is to understand, not to know. I think we should start from the needs and rights of children, teenagers and youth. Because now we don’t take into account that one of the fundamental needs of children is to understand. Kids also need a correlation between effort and reward. And here we must also keep in mind children’s right to make mistakes without being punished. And there is also their right to play. What I see as a failure is our approach to the greatest game, that of learning and of creating, with the right to make mistakes and fall short.”

Schools can be rebuilt, classrooms can be redecorated, and textbooks can be re-printed. What we really need is to encourage children’s interest in education and to make them aware of its importance, so that the desire to know more may come natural to our youngsters.

For more than two years, people who suffer from cancer have found it really hard to find the medication they need. Patients’ associations have drawn attention to this fact, and the Romanian Health Ministry had to admit that there were problems in the supply of more than 20 chemotherapy drugs, particularly for leukemia and Hodgkin’s lymphoma. How could this happen? Bureaucracy could be the answer, says Vlad Mixich, a journalist specializing in medical issues on Hotnews. ro:

“Under the Romanian law, people suffering from cancer can get free-of-charge medication, whether or not they pay healthcare contributions. The current situation is the result of the Romanian state’s incapacity to finance the services it promises to provide, and even more so the result of the state’s failure to handle a management problem. Many of these drugs are actually rather cheap, but the Romanian state’s policy is to impose the cheapest price in the European Union for the medication it buys. It is a price imposed on producers. And for that minimum price, medicine providers in Romania are not interested in bringing chemotherapy drugs to Romania because they make no profits.”

Aside from private providers, there is also a state-owned company called Unifarm, which is in charge with medicine procurement and provision. Faced with underfinancing, UNIFARM had some bureaucratic problems. Earlier this year, it was discovered that in fact some of the chemotherapy drugs that were unavailable in hospitals could be found in their storage rooms. But why didn’t these drugs reach patients and hospitals? Vlad Mixich:

“It was the bureaucratic inferno again. UNIFARM says it announced hospital managers that it had the drugs. In turn, hospitals say they asked the ministry to get those cytostatic drugs. What we know is that UNIFARM said they could not deliver those medicines to hospitals, while the hospitals say that, although they announced they were short of supplies, nobody would provide them with the cytostatic drugs. Hospital managers could not purchase the medicines from UNIFARM because the National Health Insurance Agency gives hospitals the refund for those drugs around 200 days after the purchase, whereas UNIFARM wants immediate payment. So although UNIFARM had the medicines, they could not reach patients.”

While hospitals, insurance agencies and UNIFARM struggle with bureaucracy, the patients fight against a much more ruthless enemy: cancer. This is why they let the authorities grapple with the bureaucracy they created and took the matter in their own hands, looking for solutions. One such solution is the “cytostatic drugs network”, a name put forth by Vlad Mixich, who was the first to make it public.

“The network is quite simple, in terms of operation. There is a web site, www.medicamente-lipsa.ro, which can be accessed by anyone who needs those medicines. People browse a list, which is regularly updated. If a patient finds the drug on that list, she or he then fills in a form, and send it to the site administrators. That drug is then searched for by a network of hundreds of volunteers in every EU country. They go and look for the drugs in local pharmacies in the European city they live in. If they find it, they let the site administrators know about that and the patient is in turn notified. As soon as the patient gives his consent, the volunteer buys it with his own money, using the prescription he has received from the Romanian patient. Once the medicine reaches the patient, the patient pays for it himself, and the money is returned to the respective volunteer.”

Hundreds of people have already registered on the network site. Most of the volunteers in the chemotherapy drugs network live in the European Union, since the EU legislation allows any chemist’s in a EU member state to sell medicines based on a prescription issued in any other member state.

Cristian Cojocaru, diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, is a member of the chemotherapy drugs network, which he found after having unsuccessfully resorted to various associations for help and after having looked for the medicines on the Internet. He even got in touch with medicines producers from Japan and the US. Cristian Cojocaru:

“I haven’t looked much in Romania because I knew from the very beginning I couldn’t find it here. But I managed to find the drugs I needed quite quickly. At some point I even called all pharmacies in Debrecen, Hungary, to ask if they had it, because it would have been easy for me to go there and pick them up. But that was only my case. If we think of a mother from a small village in Galati for instance, who, on top of everything, can’t get to the nearest town because of the heavy snow, the situation changes dramatically. It’s almost impossible for her to get the medicines she needs.”

So although they have a prescription for chemotherapy drugs, not all patients can start the treatment. The government has finally taken a decision last month, aimed to solve this crisis. The Health Ministry borrowed 800,000 euros from the State Treasury to transfer to UNIFARM, the company in charge with purchasing cancer drugs in advance. Nevertheless, Cristian Cojocaru is rather pessimistic:

“I have already ordered another set of medicines the same way as before. I’ll have them next week and in two weeks I can start the treatment. Things can’t change from one day to the next. The drugs should be available when you need them, not a week or a month later.”

Until chemotherapy drugs can be found in hospitals, the Health Ministry announces other good intentions, such as a revision of the national health program, with an emphasis on education, prevention and early diagnosis, as well as a national registry aimed at ensuring equal chances as regards the access to diagnosis and treatment services.

It’s no longer a secret that teaching jobs are in very low demand, while many teachers look for jobs elsewhere because of the low salaries and the high amount of stress in the education system. The situation has become worse with the outbreak of the world economic crisis. Teachers’ salaries were cut by 25% as part of austerity measures taken by the government. As a result, 40,000 teachers have left the education system in the last three years and the exodus is likely to continue according to a poll conducted by the Federation of Free Trade Unions in Education. Simion Hancescu, the federation president, explains:

Simion Hancescu: “A large percentage of the people we interviewed, more than 41%, say they plan to leave the education system in the next five years. Approximately 30% haven’t made up their minds yet about their professional future. These figures are worrying. The people cite a number of reasons or their dissatisfaction. First and foremost, they are not happy with their salaries. A young teacher receives a net monthly pay of about 800 lei, which is barely enough to survive. Many of these young teachers still have to count on their parents for financial support. Some of them are commuters living in the city and working in the countryside. Under the law they have the right to claim a transportation allowance, but few local councils have applied this law so the teachers have to spend half of their salaries on transport.”

That pre-university teachers wish to leave the system is hardly news and it’s not always the financial aspect they blame for it. Other flaws in the system have also been invoked.

Ana, for example, worked as a primary school teacher for five years, a job she took as soon as she graduated from a teaching school. She didn’t quit the system because of the low pay, but because she didn’t agree with some of the changes that were being implemented at the beginning of the 2000s.

Ana: “School directors and deputy directors began to be politically appointed, which caused a lot of problems between the management and the teaching staff. Not to mention that while these so-called changes were taking place, the actual teaching and learning areas remained the same. It was applying glossy paint over an old fence to hide that it’s actually falling apart. I also didn’t like that children had to carry so many books with them to school. They are expected to do so much homework, so they no longer have time to enjoy their childhood.”

Ana also had to fight the mentality of many colleagues and parents:

Ana: “I used to wear trousers, which was a problem. I was supposed to wear a skirt at school. Another problem was that I didn’t do maths or reading during sport classes or history and geography during music classes as other teachers.”

In the meantime, Ana left the education system and chose instead to build a career in television. Her financial worries are now over, but there’s one thing she still misses from her teaching years:

Ana: “I miss that miraculous moment when 26 pairs of eyes look straight at you as if you were the most important person in the world.”

Before the economic crisis, Aura taught French in two high schools in Bucharest. She left the education system mainly because of the low pay. She continues to teach French, however, but works for a training firm where she teaches French to business people:

Aura: ”I still have the profession I’ve studied for. I like teaching very much. I didn’t leave the state system because I didn’t like to teach, but because I didn’t have a decent salary. One other thing is that now I’m working with adults, which is easier than working with children and teenagers. I can’t say that I regret leaving the education system, because my life has improved a lot. It’s true that sometimes I’m nostalgic about the satisfaction I had when working with children. They get so attached emotionally to their teachers and if you treat them nicely and take good care of them, they give you a lot of affection in exchange.”

Unfortunately, teachers are massively abandoning the state education system, which Aura believes will have a negative impact on the education of today’s children and the generations to come:

Aura: “As long as teachers don’t have decent salaries, we can’t expect a lot of achievement. I don’t agree with people who say teachers should first prove themselves and then ask for more money. There should be a balance between a teacher’s performance and his or her salary. This lack of balance has a negative impact on the quality of education. “

One last problem is that many of the people working as teachers do not really have a vocation for this profession, but only accept teaching jobs until something better comes up.

The answer, however, is definitely yes, now maybe more than ever, if we look how well matrimonial sites and agencies are doing. Moreover, in 2010, when the crisis was in full swing, a new system was successfully introduced in Romania, that of speed-dating. Simona State, the founder of the first such agency in Romania, tells us what speed-dating is.

Simona State: “These are dates set between an equal number of men and women, for them to engage in short, 7-minute conversations, to decide whether they want to meet again, whether they like each other and want to exchange contact data through us. It sounds difficult, if you haven’t tried it, but scientific research has proven that it takes only 30 seconds to get an impression of the person in front of you. Also, you don’t need more than 7 minutes to decide if you want to see that person again. So, what matters is to see whether you want to meet again and continue talking. It’s not the point where one can start a relationship yet.”

Actually, Simona State does not believe that her firm is a dating agency, but just an offline social networking environment. People get to know each other, have fun together, become friends and, maybe, even fall in love. Besides the over 100 relationships registered, her firm’s speed-dates also resulted in one marriage. The average age of the clients is 35, though people from various age brackets participate. Meetings are held in two coffee shops in the elegant old center of Bucharest, and for those who go there, the speed of the date is no peculiarity, because they are all busy people. Simona State tells us more about her clients.

Simona State: “Some of them are shy, but most of my clients are people who are very active from a professional point of view, and they decide it’s easer and more effective to find somebody through us. We organize the dates after we’ve first filtered them based on certain standards and criteria. They come at a certain hour and meet new people in a very short time. The busy ones save a lot of time this way.”

Moreover, agencies specializing in corporate dating have been established recently. Their clients are employees of multinational corporations, people who have common habits and aspirations. Despite their busy schedules, people appreciate the direct contact provided by speed-dating, instead of the virtual one.

Simona State: “We bring people together. This is our main goal. We apply certain criteria to be able to bring them together and find minimal compatibility. But we only organize face-to-face dates in the real world, not in the virtual environment. We don’t use chat rooms or online dating. For many years online dating on certain sites was a common practice in Romania. Now people have started to feel the need to meet face to face, given that they spend a lot of time on Facebook, either at work, or at home. People need real contact, authentic communication. And this is where we come in, to facilitate genuine interaction.”

Despite the novelty of speed-dating, the companies that adopted this concept do not feel the financial crisis at all. And this is also valid for classical dating agencies. Daniela Bogdan, the manager of a dating agency, believes that, despite failures, people continue to look for the right person.

Simona State: “Few people find the right person at the very first attempt. Many need to try a second or third relationship; actually, these relationships help them get to know human nature better. That’s how we evolve. Many couples separate, so each individual needs to start anew and that’s where a dating agency comes in, to help them meet the right people. Quite frequently life doesn’t offer too many chances to some people. And everybody knows that the daily routine — work, work, work — does not give one the chance to meet a lot of people.”

Although the Internet is very useful in the sense that people can fill in the registration form online and can also access the others’ profiles on line, Daniela Bogdan encourages face-to-face dates.

Daniela Bogdan: “We want to help people meet face to face, because ‘one look is worth a thousand words’. We organize a date after both people have seen each other’s profiles and say they are interested in each other. This way the chance of success is very high. They have practically chosen each other. It’s easier to pick someone whose picture you liked at first sight and whose words about himself or herself, about his or her aspirations are to your liking.”

Although the Internet facilitates the choice of a person that you consider appropriate for you, it cannot replace face-to-face encounters and intimacy.

There were however a lot of obstacles to overcome, such as a different kind of university admission, a higher education system that was different from the Romanian one, forms to fill in that were unknown until then and, last but not least much higher fees to be paid, which most Romanians could not afford.

All this cut the students’ wings and their wish to study abroad, but it did not do away completely with it. As a rule, those who knew they stood the chance to study in leading universities in Europe, the USA or Canada would get ready in time and, with support from their family, they would submit their files to several universities. As scholarships were few and rare, university admission was not only a great joy but also a big financial burden.

Years passed, Romania joined the EU and the facilities given to Romanians willing to study abroad have multiplied. Experts turned up, who are willing to counsel them. One of them is Englishman Simon Parker, whose experience as administrator of a British college gave him a good insight into the British higher education system. Willing to change his career, he arrived in Bucharest in 2003 to teach English at the “George Cosbuc” bi-lingual high school.

There he was pleasantly surprised not only by the students’ thorough training, but also by the fact that they looked forward to studying at a university in Great Britain. And since students had a lot of questions to ask and the answers were hard to find, Simon Parker set up a consultancy firm. He successfully prepares Romanian students for admission to a top British university. Some of the difficulties they are confronted with are not very different from those that students in Great Britain encounter.

So to convince the admission commission, applicants need a style of their own in showing their interest in certain subjects and their skills. In this respect too, Simon Parker has noticed certain similarities between Romanian and foreign students, but also some differences.

In the 2010-2011 academic year, all students counselled by Simon Parker were admitted to prestigious universities in London, Wales, Scotland, Liverpool, Exeter and Warwick. Their success however involved teamwork.

Since 2007, with Romania’s EU accession, funding was no longer so difficult to obtain: Romanian students have the right to apply for tuition fee loans in Great Britain. The loan is given in advantageous conditions. Students can cover their daily expenses from part-time jobs, a solution adopted by Romanians too, as Simon Parker says.

Simon Parker has worked with students with all social backgrounds, from those whose parents could pay their fees to those who worked to make a living. Now he wants to assist students from disadvantaged families to show the community that you can be successful if you truly want to.

A new emergency ordinance in keeping with the European directive on parental leave came into effect as of March the 1st. The new regulation encourages fathers to be more present in their children’s lives. We spoke to Lacramioara Coches, the director of the General Social Assistance Directorate within the Romanian Ministry for Labour, Family and Social Protection. She told us more about this new government ordinance:

”After carrying out a number of studies, the European Union arrived at the conclusion that for men and women to have equal opportunities it is necessary that both members of the couple get involved in the raising and education of the children. The European Union therefore asked all its member states to introduce in their respective national legislations a law according to which each parent has to stay at home with the newborn child for at least one month starting on the 1st of March. This will mostly apply to fathers, as it is commonly known that in 90% of the cases it is the woman who stays at home with the child.”

This percentage can be explained if we look at a report made public in Brussels to mark European Equal Pay Day, which says that in Europe women earn nearly 17% less than men. Statistics show that in most cases the salary is the key factor in deciding which parent stays at home with the newborn baby. In Romania, parental leave is currently one or two years, as chosen by the parent. Under the new ordinance, the baby will have to spend at least one month of this period with the other parent.

For parents who refuse, this month will be deduced from the parental leave or allocated to the other parent, who will not, however, receive any allowance for it. Although it was hailed as a positive initiative, the ordinance in its present form has triggered a wave of criticism on the grounds that it does not take into account the reality of being a parent in Romania. With details, here is the president of a mothers’ rights group, Ana Maita:

”It is cynical to say that parents in Romania choose to have a baby based on financial calculations. The government wants to encourage people to be responsible when they decide to have a child, which means making sure they can afford to raise the child and provide for the child’s education, but at the same time it deprives middle class couples of legislative predictability. You simply cannot change the rules in the middle of the game.”

When this happens, parents are left with no choice but to resort to solutions that are not in the spirit of the European directive we spoke about earlier. Stefan Dumitrescu is about to become a dad. For a lawyer working with a private company, the new government ordinance is an infringement of parental rights.

“I myself don’t think it is good legislation, because it basically denies parents the leave that had already been set at precisely one or two years. Basically we are in the absurd situation in which the state gives you the right to stay home for a month, and if the parent refuses or doesn’t claim that month, then the rights of the parents and children are violated, because their leave is cut back”.

At the same time, an association militating for the rights of fathers stands against this legal measure, and suggested the government take a number of measures meant to encourage both parents to become involved in the life of their children. In a letter to the prime minister, the attorney of the association, Bogdan Draghici, said:

“Our proposal is for parents to be able to get, aside from this year of parental leave, a bonus for the other parent who also opts for the leave. We propose a period of three months on top of this year of leave, and since this is a longer period, measures can be taken in the workplace, such as finding staff able to replace the people who take three months leave for parenting, so as to cover the period recommended by experts for breastfeeding, creating favourable premises for recovering the huge losses we suffered in terms of earlier legislative changes. These changes concern the reduction of maternity leave and smaller child benefit contributions. We need to sustain the birth rate and keep families going, in order to have healthy children”.

Right now, 33,000 dads are on parental leave in Romania. Even if their number will increase through this law, some people argue that this will not solve all the problems. That is because in Romania fathers will have to fight a system that favours the mother. Here is Bogdan Draghici once again:

“We have a large problem in Romania when it comes to visiting sick children in hospital. A father who is on parental leave cannot spend a night in hospital at the bedside of their child. Hospital managers ask mothers and grandmothers to stay there – the female relatives. We are facing an absurd situation. The father on leave takes his child to the hospital because the child is sick and he is told: you can’t stay, the mother has to be here. But the mother can’t be there because she doesn’t have childcare leave, because she can’t, since the father has taken it. There are a lot of problems to be solved against a legal framework that is based on the principle of ‘We’ll see what happens’. “

For the time being, the parents of children born after 1 March 2012 have to give their partner a month of the legally granted leave. Polls show that few couples in Romania are ready to put this new directive into practice, preferring to go back to work sooner rather than disrupt the functioning of the family and the life of their child.