Mark Percival
|
It seems that the credibility of Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu is dropping ever further from one month to the next. After the fiasco of the premier's abortive resignation in the summer, and the missed opportunity of early elections, the disunity in the Cabinet was once again brought to the fore over the debate on the draft budget for 2006. After Tariceanu had already lost one of his best ministers, Mona Musca, who resigned over the premier's revocation of his "irrevocable" resignation, he has now also seen the departure of his Education Minister, Mircea Miclea.
The government is now faced with a wave of industrial unrest, of which that in the education sector is the most serious. In its election campaign, the Liberal-Democratic Alliance made bold pledges of greatly increased spending on education, including the doubling of teachers' salaries. The Alliance also undertook to provide an education budget worth 6% of GDP. Now, teachers are striking to demand that the government respect its promises to the electorate, in the most serious crisis the education system has faced since 1990. The resignation of the Education Minister, who effectively sided with those currently on strike, has made it increasingly difficult for the Prime Minister to resist the teachers' demands with credibility.
Education should have been a key test of the Alliance administration's commitment to real change. For a long time, teachers have been grossly underpaid, with salaries which in most cases are impossible to live on without additional sources of income. In the last few years in particular, teachers have seen the explosion of prices for many basic necessities outstrip meagre increases in their pay, making their situation even worse. Today a new entrant into the profession is unlikely to be able to afford even to rent a studio flat from a basic salary, while the cost of books has multiplied several times in recent years. The communist system created the anomaly whereby industrial workers, train drivers and others considered to represent the "working class" were paid much more than teachers. In the post communist period this has never been fully corrected.
Consequently, nearly all teachers earn extra money by giving supplementary private tuition, but there is a danger here that the time required for this additional work can lead to neglect of official teaching duties. As a result, a situation has arisen which is very similar to that in the health sector. In theory, the state provides a service free to all citizens. In practice, however, to obtain real attention, it is necessary to resort to payments to private individuals, and those children whose families are unable or unwilling to finance the supplementary tuition are at a severe disadvantage.
However, this is merely the tip of the iceberg as far as the problems in the education sector are concerned. Corruption inevitably comes into play here too, as some teachers supplement their miserable salaries not only through offering extra tuition, but also through the receipt of "presents" from parents with the understanding that these will lead to improved marks for their children. There have been several scandals too, particularly in universities, in which students have paid bribes, either to see examination questions in advance, or to influence marking.
The only solution to resolve the education crisis is considerably improved salaries, combined with a policy of zero tolerance of corruption, as in many other areas of public life. In addition, schools need to be far better equipped, particularly in rural areas, to prevent a large part of the population missing out on the technical advantages of the modern world, creating serious difficulties for their future employability. Reform will require political vision, since the education sector represents long term investment, whose results materialise long beyond the next election campaign, which is one reason why the problem has been neglected for so long by Romania's rulers. The solution is for parents in particular, but also citizens as a whole to show their support for the teachers and make clear to their elected leaders that education reform will be an important benchmark of the government's record once it faces the polls, most likely in 2008. Education represents a priority for the entire country, and politicians must not be allowed to neglect this sector through short term thinking.
Copyright © 2004 Bucharest Daily News
http://www.daily-news.ro/article_detail.php?idarticle=19043
Vali
*** sustineti [romania_eu_list] prin 1% din impozitul pe 2005 -
detalii la http://www.europe.org.ro/euroatlantic_club/unulasuta.php ***
| Dvd region free | All regions dvd player | Conservative politics |
| Organizational politics |
YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
- Visit your group "romania_eu_list" on the web.
- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
