A lot of young people see on TikTok that it's nice to be an entrepreneur to earn a lot of money, but that is false, and the role of those who teach entrepreneurial education is to teach children about values such as be of service, covering society's needs, Dragos Anastasiu, entrepreneur and honourary adviser to Education Minister Daniel David, said on Friday.
"I want to tell you a few things about what I believe in terms of entrepreneurial education. Cristina [CONAF chair Cristina Chiriac] said that we should make children, young people discover their vocation. I am the initiator of a project, Romanian Business Leaders, which was and is still called I want to be an entrepreneur' and from there entrepreneurs went to many high schools and talked to the children, explaining what real entrepreneurship means, not what we see on TikTok sometimes. And I think that after so many years, I think it's been 10 years since that project existed, that I chose the wrong title at the time, that it's not about becoming an entrepreneur. Maybe it's about vocation, but I think that first and foremost it's about entrepreneurship. And the entrepreneurial spirit from my point of view includes two essential things. One is I care; I see needs around me. The word care in Romanian is more complicated, and the action, because I don't care in vain, in vain I see what the needs of society are, if I don't act, I sit in the armchair and encourage others through television to do something," Anastasiu told the release of the third edition of the "Marathon for Entrepreneurial Education."
He said that the main mission of entrepreneurs is to develop the entrepreneurial spirit.
"What education has to do from our point of view is to transmit skills. Skills also have three essential things, which if they are not transmitted at the same time, do not achieve their purpose. The first is knowledge, theory, what you know about something, what you know about entrepreneurship, what you know about making a business plan, what you know about figures, about financial education and so on. The second element is what you know how to do, practice. It is useless to know if you do not know how to do something. And the third element is one that we forget very often and I would like, if possible, through CONAF to reach all mentors with this idea. The third element, values. Why is what you know and what you do important? And there are a lot of young people who see on TikTok that it's nice to be an entrepreneur to earn a lot of money, to have a lot of free time, not to have a boss, to be able to do what you want, to be able to come when you want, to be able to leave when you want. That's false! These are the values that, unfortunately, a part of social media transmits to young people, to children," said Anastasiu.
He added that the role of those who teach entrepreneurial education is to teach children that other values are, namely to be of service, to put oneself at the service, to cover the needs of society, to pass on them.
He also believes that it is important how "we teach entrepreneurship" and that ideas such as recovering the investment in 2-3 years should not be transmitted.
"I believe that the problem of educational Romania is not the curriculum, it is the way of teaching. And I just want to draw your attention to the plans of the high school staff that have generated national debate, which I welcome, but I would like to go towards values and models, not to the number of classes. Someone told me: the obligation of entrepreneurial education in high school has disappeared. Nothing has disappeared. It has disappeared from the common curriculum; it has disappeared from obligation. But I believe that we are at a time when we need to cultivate autonomy, the autonomy of the school. And that's what the framework plans for high school do, they don't cut anything. History is cut, geography is cut, Latin is cut. Nothing is cut, but it is transferred to school and children, because we have to make sure that children want entrepreneurial education. Not to be forced to do entrepreneurial education. Teachers and parents should make children enthusiastic about a subject, be it entrepreneurial or Latin education or anything else that may have disappeared from the current obligation."
Anastasiu called for involvement in the public debate, mentioning that it is the first time that the Ministry of Education holds a "real" debate.
"That is, we are willing to change essential things if they come from parents, children and teachers. But are we scared that we receive more autonomy, 35% now is autonomy for school and students? And we say force us to make history, force us to do entrepreneurial education. I think we need to rethink a little bit about rethink, 'we have to rethink education in Romania', in the sense of autonomy and students' freedom to choose something like this," said Anastasiu.
The National Confederation of Women's Entrepreneurship (CONAF) released on Friday the third edition of the "Marathon for Entrepreneurial Education", an initiative that sets ideas in motion, connects people and creates perspectives, the largest national programme that puts high school students at the centre of transformation.
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