Education: Mr. Goe, the modern version, a scholarship for a 2

Education often manages to surprise more than those involved in the learning process would like. Absurd situations are not uncommon and demonstrate the significant problems within the system. It's no small matter that a student who has achieved a grade of 2 receives a reward for their "academic performance" in the form of money from the state. A modern-day "Mr. Goe" example comes from Botoşani. Dozens of ninth-grade students in the Botoşani county, either those who didn't achieve a grade of 5 in the National Evaluation exam or didn't take the exam at all, are receiving merit scholarships. This announcement was made to Agerpres by the general school inspector of the County School Inspectorate (IŞJ) Botoşani, Bogdan Suruciuc. According to him, such cases have emerged starting from the current school year, following the issuance of the Minister of Education's Order 6.238 dated September 8, 2023, regarding the awarding of merit scholarships, which stipulates that 30% of the students in each class are eligible for merit scholarships. According to Suruciuc: "The hierarchy is established in descending order of the grades obtained by students in the 2022-2023 school year, with the exception of the ninth grade, where the admission grade is taken into account, namely the grades obtained by students in the National Evaluation exam. In cases where, in a class, there are not enough students admitted based on the admission grade to cover the 30% quota, the list was supplemented with students who did not take the National Evaluation exam, in descending order of the grades obtained in the fifth to eighth grades. Consequently, the possibility of awarding a merit scholarship to a student with a grade lower than 5 can only be considered for ninth-grade students. In the Botoşani county, there are classes where the 30% quota of the total student population was achieved by including those who did not take the National Evaluation exam." He admitted that among the ninth-grade students receiving merit scholarships, there are those who achieved a grade of 2 or did not take the National Evaluation exam. It would be interesting to find out how these students managed to pass or how they ended up in the ninth grade! Additionally, the head of IŞJ acknowledges that the Order regarding the award of merit scholarships disadvantages students in high-performing colleges, where students with a grade of 9.40 did not receive merit scholarships. The amount of the merit scholarship for the 2023-2024 school year is 450 lei per month. Unfortunately, this is a new example of wasted money!