September 9, 2019

3 million children back to school in Romania; George Enescu Intl Festival continues

Newsroom, 09.09.2019, 14:00

SCHOOL Nearly 3 million school and kindergarten children in Romania have today started the 2019-2020 school year. According to a news release issued by the National Education Ministry, over 215,000 educators will be teaching this year, during 35 weeks structured into 2 semesters. Attending the official opening in Bucharest, President Klaus Iohannis spoke about the failure of public education policies. In turn, PM Viorica Dăncilă, said in Hunedoara, in the south-west of the country, that education is vital to overcoming poverty.

GOVERNMENT The Government of Romania convenes today to discuss a number of draft resolutions. One of them concerns the minimum amount of performance, merit, education and social scholarships to be granted in public undergraduate schools during the new academic year. The agenda of the Cabinet also includes an assessment of the technical and economic performance indicators for the investment in the Cluj Napoca Regional Emergency Hospital, a project benefiting from EU funding, as well as a memorandum on the Government debt management strategy for the coming 3 years.

FESTIVAL The George Enescu International Festival continues today in Bucharest. The American soprano Laura Aikin will perform George Enescus Seven Songs on lyrics by Clément Marot, by George Enescu, together with Dresden Staatskapelle. The capital city will also host a concert entitled From Classical to Jazz, with first performances inspired by George Enescus Rhapsody no I and II. Singer Teodora Enache will be joined by Călin Grigoriu on guitar, Joca Perpignan (Israel) on percussion and Răzvan Suma on the cello. The central theme of this years edition is “The world in harmony, and the artistic director is Vladimir Jurowski. Until September 22, Bucharest and 10 other cities in Romania, Germany, France, Italy, Canada and the Rep. of Moldova, will host performances associated to the Festival. Radio Romania has been a co-producer of the event ever since its first edition, in 1958.

NAVY King Ferdinand Frigate, the military vessel with the biggest number of first performances in the post-communist history of the Romanian Naval Forces, celebrates today 15 years of service within the Romanian navy. During this time, the vessel sailed thousands of miles in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean and 8 seas, and took part in hundreds of missions and exercises. It is the Romanian ship that took part in the first NATO combat mission since WW2, off the Libyan coast in 2011, and in combat missions against piracy in the Indian Ocean in 2012. In October the frigate takes part in NATOs multinational exercise Sea Guardian.

FOOTBALL Romanias national team Sunday defeated Malta, 1-0, in Group F of the European Football Championship preliminaries. In the same group, Sweden and Norway drew 1-1, while Spain defeated the Faroe Islands, 4-0. Spain tops the group with 18 points, followed by Sweden with 11, Romania – 10, Norway – 9, Malta – 3 and Faroe Islands with no points. Romanias next matches are scheduled on October 12 against the Faroe Islands away from home, and on October 15 at home against Norway. The top 2 teams in the group will move forward to the final tournament. The draw for Euro 2020 will take place in Bucharest on November 30. Romania will also host 4 matches in the final tournament, 3 in the group stage and one in the eighth-finals.

(translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)