Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan told a press conference on Wednesday that in recent years there has been an unsustainable increase in scholarships and specified that merit-based scholarships will be awarded in limited numbers, while social scholarships will be awarded based on criteria.
"I know it's not a popular issue, but we have to be fair again. In recent years, as I said, there has been an unsustainable increase in scholarships, especially for pupils. Consider that three years ago we had scholarships in Romania amounting to RON 188 million, and last year, and obviously this year, we reached an amount of RON 4.7 billion. So, a tenfold increase, and apart from the fact that it is a very large amount that we cannot afford, think about it, almost one billion euros just on pupil scholarships, we have ended up, through non-compliant application, with entire classes that have merit scholarships, namely above a 9.50 grade, but who get grades of 5 or 7 in the Baccalaureate exam or, worse, do not pass the Baccalaureate. Of course, the question arises as to when the grading was correct - at the Baccalaureate or in a class where everyone or very many had merit scholarships. We no longer know what merit means. The same is true for other scholarships, resilience scholarships, and we will therefore be left with the two scholarships that should remain, merit scholarships, but awarded on merit in limited numbers. Think about the awards we used to receive, those of us who lived in different times. And social scholarships will indeed be allocated based on criteria related to supporting children from disadvantaged families," said the prime minister.
The prime minister held a press conference at Victoria Palace of Government to announce the measures in the fiscal package aimed at reducing the deficit.
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