New school year begins amid teachers’ protests in Romania

Update 2: According to the "Spiru Haret" Federation of Education Trade Unions, the number of protesters marching to the presidential Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest grew to more than 20,000, including students. A group of teachers' representatives was received by president Nicuşor Dan to discuss their demands.

Biziday.ro reported that education minister Daniel David gave a phone interview to news channel Digi24, in which he urged union leaders to be realistic: “Anyone who believes that the fiscal measures will be changed at this moment, in my view, is being unrealistic. It is unrealistic to expect the prime minister to resign, or for the government to resign.”

He further stressed that “it is not only education that is going through this period of crisis, but the whole country” and explained that in the next two months Romania’s economy will undergo evaluations by the Moody’s ratings agency and the European Commission.

Update: Several thousand teachers from across the country gathered in Victoriei Square in Bucharest and then marched to the presidential Cotroceni Palace to protest against the government’s measures in the education system. They carried placards with messages such as “Today you cut from education, tomorrow we beg as a nation” or “Decent salaries. Dignified education," calling for the government’s resignation, according to news agency Agerpres.

Initial story: The new school year begins in Romania on Monday, September 8, but some of the teachers have decided to join a boycott against the austerity measures imposed by the government under the first reform package: more mandatory hours of teaching, lower pay for overtime, a larger maximum number of pupils in a class, and the merger of some schools with few pupils.

Some 30,000 teachers are expected to protest on September 8, on the first day of school, in front of the government headquarters, according to Antena3.ro. They announced that after the demonstration in front of the government, they will march towards the Presidency headquarters.