Daniel David, Minister of Education and Research. Photo: Inquam Photos / Octav Ganea
The Minister of Education states that the number of rules for payment by time will decrease half compared to 2024, from about 30,000 to 15,000. He points out that the measures applied “do not represent reforms, but crisis and austerity solutions”, meant to provide salaries and scholarships until the end of the year. Daniel David claimed that the “stake” for the next period is “the rethink of the profession of school director, which must be detached from the exclusively didactic paradigm”.
“Last year we had about 30,000 rules, this year we will probably reach around 15,000 to pay the hour. I am not talking about hours for the holders and I do not talk about the norm of the substitutes, I talk about the payment by time,” said the Minister of Education at Profit.ro – the future of education in Romania, quoted by News.ro.
He admitted that the measures create dissatisfaction, but rejected the “alarmist” scenarios conveyed at the beginning of the discussions: “Of course it is a situation that creates discomfort. Nobody is happy, neither the ministry who had to take these measures nor the people who are affected. But from these measures and to the fact that half of the holders will be the start, which will be the starting, which will be the starting, which will be the starting, which will be the start, which will be the start,
According to the minister, over 98% of the holders managed to complete their norm through the two overtime added in the same high school or school. “We are trying to see and facilitate the activity of others even if we speak of 1.4%, each man matters. By the order of the minister we tried to ensure that the fragmentation is not done in a completely non-non-non-rational manner, that is, if you have more than three or four school units, we will not fragment the norm even more,” explained Daniel David.
The “stake” of changes: the status of the school principals
The Minister of Education explained that the status of the directors must be rethought, because at present the position is designed in a “didactic paradigm”, in which the teachers become directors, but also keep their hours in class. “The teacher becomes a director, he has another salary or a plus in the salary, but he has hours and you have seen that we have not been able to defend the degreases that existed in the past years,” he said.
As an alternative, Daniel David claimed that there is a managerial model in which the directors are suspended from the position of teacher during the term of office and deal exclusively with the management duties. “There is a model in which some directors can suspend themselves from the didactic position and become managers during the mandate. I do not say that one model is better than the other, but we will have to determine which model we want, why we can not both models, let the schools choose different models,” said the minister.
Competitions for directors, the challenge of 2025
The Minister of Education said that one of the biggest challenges of next year is the organization of competitions for the positions of school principals. “Our challenge will be to organize competitions for school unit principals. Competitions will have to be organized in the first part of next year. But we should start the discussions now, especially since the directors have passed a difficult test. But you know that the minister has passed a difficult test, that not for me it was not easy.
He mentioned that in the universities there is also discussed between two models of management, academic and managerial, most institutions traditionally choosing the option in which the rector is also a teacher. “It is part of the tradition, people feel more comfortable,” said the minister, who added that the same type of option could be left to schools.
Crisis measures, not reform
The official explained that the education discounts were dictated by the budgetary constraints: “These measures are not reform measures. I have seen that some speak of reform. There are crisis, austerity measures, necessary to end the year, the education needing about two billion lei so that we can end the year with salaries and scholarships, in these conditions, in these conditions.
Daniel David also mentioned the “principles” that were the basis of all decisions: “The measures were made constrained by education, from me and my colleagues, by some principles: a principle of rationality, that is, the measures taken must be found somewhere in the European Union space, and a principle of decency, as much as possible.”
