The Ministry of Education's Balance Sheet, Full of Achievements

The sources of pride for authorities do not always align with those of the population. This holds true in education as well. Minister of Education, Ligia Deca, released an activity report at the end of 2023, covering the period from October 2022 to December 2023, highlighting the measures taken in the field. According to the minister:

"This report aims to clarify what the team at the Ministry of Education, which I have had the honor to lead since October 2022, has been able to accomplish in just over a year. Each individual who contributed to the finalization, adoption, and implementation of education laws, the launch of calls from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, bringing the largest wave of funding in recent history to schools, managing the education personnel strike with solidarity resulting in substantial salary increases, and handling multiple critical processes in education, has my respect and gratitude."

Among these measures is the completion of education law projects - "Educated Romania" (March 9, 2023), going through the entire legislative process, including debate and adoption in Parliament, as well as presidential promulgation and publication in the Official Gazette on July 5, 2023 (Pre-university Education Law and Higher Education Law). Deca also speaks of increasing the budget allocated for education in 2024. It amounts to over 74 billion lei, equivalent to 4.3% of the GDP. The planned state budget shows a 56% increase compared to the 2023 execution, totaling over 57 billion lei. "It is the main source of funding for education, supplemented by amounts allocated from VAT through local budgets, own revenues of higher education institutions, and local budgets from own revenues," specifies the minister in the 97-page report.

Ligia Deca also mentions the launch of 13 calls for project submissions with funding from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and the creation of mechanisms for 4 others, involving the contracting and commitment of 3.3 billion euros in absorption, as well as the conclusion of over 4,000 contracts for this purpose. These calls include, among others, the furnishing of pre-university education institutions with furniture, teaching materials, and digital equipment (over 1 billion euros); the pilot program for the development of regional consortia for dual education (588 million euros, including 338 million euros for the investment value and 250 million euros for supplementation through a memorandum); PNRR II, Series I and PNRR II, Series II (worth 265 million euros); PNRR Small Schools (worth 50 million euros); the construction and development of a pilot network of green schools (225 million euros); electric minibuses for students (over 250 million euros); the modernization of university infrastructure for an equitable academic space (over 116 million euros). In addition, the construction of university infrastructure for future student campuses (over 143 million euros); the grant scheme for the construction of rural school campuses (over 29 million euros); the development of the evaluation platform and the creation of digital content (over 78 million euros); the improvement of the infrastructure of high schools with a predominantly agricultural profile - an investment implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (over 43 million euros).

Furthermore, according to Emergency Ordinance no. 58/2023, education personnel benefit from the following bonuses: teaching career (1,500 lei); professional career (500 lei) for non-teaching staff, according to the report. It is also mentioned the increase by 1,200 of the number of school counselors, which meant a 50% increase in their total number, the addition of 3,000 positions in pre-university education for the 2023-2024 school year, the increase in the number of educational units implementing the "Hot Meal" Pilot Program from 350 to 450, the establishment of the National Program "Healthy Meal" in 1,000 educational units, and the increase in the number of scholarships to over 1.2 million (over 4 billion lei).