The waste of talents, a problem that the Ministry of Education also found out about

The Minister of Education, Ligia Deca, claims that tools and mechanisms are needed to prevent the waste of young people's talent. According to the minister: "We want an educational system that identifies talents and supports them so they don't get wasted. Many artists started from poor social conditions, but had the chance to be discovered and supported, and then reached their highest heights We have, therefore, the duty to build tools and mechanisms to prevent the waste of our young people's talent". Deca specified that such a mechanism is the National Program for reducing university dropouts, part of this national mechanism being the "First student in the family" Program, thanks to which at least 10,000 students will be supported to go to college. The minister indicated that, at the national level, 36 higher education institutions will benefit from this program: "At the same time, we also support the prevention of university dropout by supporting career guidance and counseling centers and through measures that make higher education accessible to students as well with disabilities because every young person is important, and our country can no longer afford to waste time". She also spoke about the increase in scholarships and the launch of several scholarship contests and university internships and research: "A young person's path must depend on his talent and work and not on financial resources." Ligia Deca mentioned the investments from PNRR and from other national and European sources, specifying that modernized halls, student campuses, study and research spaces will be built in universities throughout the country, giving as an example the fact that the National University of Music in Bucharest will benefit from funds from which an integrated dormitory with canteen and recreational spaces for students will be built. Deca also emphasized that in recent years there has been an important evolution in terms of the internationalization of Romanian higher education. Romania has allocated almost 190 million euros, she showed, for the development of transnational cooperation between universities and for supporting projects dedicated to the establishment of European university networks and that it offers scholarships for non-EU citizens to increase the degree of internationalization, this year registering -almost 82,000 requests, over 60% more than last year. Deca mentioned that starting this academic year, 500 students from over a hundred countries will study in Romania.