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Secretary of State with the Ministry of Education Florin Lixandru on Wednesday confirmed to AGERPRES that he no longer has any job duties to carry out, after a ministerial order repealed those he had, told Agerpres.
"I am currently in office, but I do not have any job duties to carry out. I was in charge with pre-university education and the relationship with the Parliament, but the order by which those attributions were assigned to me was repealed, at least for the moment, pending a discussion that should take place in the governing coalition this evening," said the Secretary of State.
He said that his duties were repealed for a "crime of opinion," more specifically for saying that the Education laws are far too important projects and that they must be debated "thoroughly, and not in a hurry."
"For a crime of opinion, today my duties were repealed. PSD's (Social Democratic Party) believes that the Education laws are far too important projects that need to be debated thoroughly, and not in a hurry! PSD will discuss with the coalition the establishment of an extended calendar for public analysis and adoption. There is enough time, the PNRR [National Recovery and Resilience Plan - editor's note] deadline for the Education Laws was established in the 3rd quarter of this year; in addition, including the European Commission recommends that the projects that include systemic reforms, therefore also those regarding the Education Law, should not be rushed to meet the deadline, but either qualitatively prepared/completed by the date of submission of the payment request, respectively by March 2024," Lixandru wrote on his Facebook page.
According to him, the analysis that PSD has done so far on the draft laws "conceived by the Ministry of Education highlighted the need to correct some key issues, essential for the future of our children."
Lixandru states that, regarding high school admission, PSD will not accept a formula "that drastically restricts" children's access to quality education. In his opinion, it is "at least debatable" whether high schools can have the right to organize their own admissions, because "it would increase the risk of unfair practice" of private lessons and "corruption."
At the same time, while referring to the baccalaureate tests, Florin Lixandru said that the PSD "regards with great reserve" the multiplication of exam tests, as proposed in the project.
"Eliminating teacher specialization from pedagogical high schools and changing teacher training is not a solution, especially given the acute lack of dedicated teachers. Special education, in our opinion, should also take into account the reality of the school's material base. Last but not least, the Education Law must also include provisions regarding children in the diaspora. If we still want Romanians to return home, we must find the right solutions for the integration of children born and raised in the diaspora," Lixandru also points out.
He stated that there were many changes to the Education Law, "without the expected effect."
"Only in the past 11 years, the Education Law has undergone 112 changes. The PSD insists that this time there should be a thorough debate! Romania can allocate the year 2023 to analyze with the whole society (interested factors from education, trade unions, but also with parents and student associations) the package of education laws and then to debate and adopt them in Parliament until the time comes to send the payment request no. 5, i.e. until March 2024 at the latest," explains the state secretary.
