Education unionists protest in front of the Ministry of Education for the third day in a row

Education unionists are protesting in the front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Education and Research for the third day in a row demanding the resignation of minister Daniel David.

The unionists chanted: "Transparency!", "Resignation", "Shame on you".

"You accuse us of not being well prepared, you accuse us of being too conservative. And, as a result, for years, the Ministry of Education has directed hundreds of millions of euros on projects that, supposedly, should have taken us out of the zone of conservatism, should have professionalised us as our university professors supposedly failed to do. Tens, hundreds of millions of euros have been spent. (...) Illiteracy is still the same, dropout rates are still increasing. (...) I think the irregularity is with you. Don't you think we should know transparently what you spent that money on? Let's see who benefited from the funding, let's see how efficient the programmes in question were. Maybe you will find the money there necessary to pay salaries and to maintain the teaching norm as it was before Law 141 and for hourly pay as it was done before this law appeared," Marius Nistor, leader of the "Spiru Haret" Federation of Trade Unions in Education told the representatives of the Ministry of Education.

Representatives of education unions on Tuesday demanded the resignation of the minister of education and research, Daniel David, and announced that starting on Wednesday they will protest in front of the ministry's headquarters.

"The Federation of Free Trade Unions in Education, the Federation of Trade Unions in Education "Spiru Haret" and the National Federation "Alma Mater", on behalf of the over 250,000 employees whose interests they represent, express their revolt against the provisions of Law no. 141/2025 regarding the educational system. Despite all the steps taken and the arguments brought forward in recent times: discussions with the president of Romania, as well as the request addressed to him not to promulgate this law, discussions with the prime minister of the Romanian Government and the Minister of Education, discussions with the leaderships of the political parties that support the current Government, as well as the protests in front of the Romanian Parliament, unfortunately, this deeply antisocial law was published in the Official Journal," the trade unionists stated on Tuesday, in a press release.

In their opinion, the Government is causing "an unprecedented crisis in the last 35 years" in education.

At the same time, the three unions claim that the measures were taken "out of the blue", without conducting an impact study.

According to them, the measures taken "severely hit" Education and Research: increasing the teaching norm by 2 hours; merging hundreds of educational units, which "will lead to layoffs" of auxiliary teaching and even administrative staff; increasing the number of students in the classroom; decreasing the hourly rate; increasing the obligation to hold a chair for directors and inspectors; "underfinancing" higher education, by not updating the standard cost per equivalent student.

The unionists also complain about the "underfinancing" of research institutions and central university libraries by not updating the necessary costs for human resources and utilities.

The three organizations announced that, on September 8, the first day of the new school year, over 30,000 union members will participate in the "Education Rally".