Romania’s Ministry of EU Funds will launch a EUR 25 million program aimed at encouraging teachers to settle in rural areas, Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos announced on Monday, at the new school year opening.

The program, called Profesori motivati in scoli defavorizate (Motivated teachers in disadvantaged schools), aims to convince teachers to move to rural areas, so that the conditions offered by the educational institutions located in these regions would get closer to those found in “more privileged schools located in the major cities,” Ciolos said.

The Prime Minister also said that the school management needed to be professionalized. Thus, this fall, the Ministry of Education will start organizing contests to select directors for the local education units.

Some three million students in Romania started the new school year on Monday, September 12. However, more than 4,200 school buildings across the country operate without fire safety permits from the Inspectorate for Emergency Situations (ISU) and sanitary authorizations from public health departments.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com