Chamber of Deputies to vote on new education legislation
The new bills on the education sector are these days reaching the Chamber of Deputies for endorsement
Leyla Cheamil, 08.05.2023, 14:00
After many amendments drafted over the past two weeks
in the relevant committee, the new bills on the education sector are these days
reaching the Chamber of Deputies for endorsement. Once passed in the Chamber, they will be forwarded to the
Senate, the decision-making regulator in this case.
The bill on undergraduate
education has seen a number of amendments aimed at preventing violence and
strengthening discipline in schools. The changes introduced by the ruling coalition, comprising the Social
Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Union of Ethnic
Hungarians in Romania, stipulate that a National Plan against violence in
schools will be implemented within 6
months of the law taking effect.
Under the new law, the
students and teachers who are the victims of violence benefit from free therapy
services. The amendments also allow for CCTV surveillance in schools, conditional
on the consent of teachers, students and parents. Specifically, cameras will
not be installed in the classrooms where most parents disagree with the measure.
The committee on
education in the Chamber of Deputies also decided that schools are to introduce
regulations concerning the access on school premises, and that reprimanding students
in the presence of their peers is forbidden, while expulsion of students is
restricted to very serious cases. Expelled students will be allowed to re-enrol
in the same school the following year.
An additional exam is
introduced for 50% of the places available every year for high school
admission, and religion will be an optional subject at the Baccalaureate exam, for
the humanities majors.
The draft law regulating
higher education was also subject to a number of amendments. One of them
removes the ceiling on the number of terms in office for senior university
officers, except for university rectors, who are only allowed to hold two
5-year terms in office.
Another amendment introduces
fines ranging from EUR 20,000 to 40,000 for the people who sell BA, MA, or
Ph.D. theses online, violating intellectual property laws. The relevant
parliamentary committee also decided that differences of opinions or data
interpretations, as well as material citation errors do not qualify as breaches
of ethical standards.
The new law also provides
for grants and free training programmes for the Romanians living abroad who
choose to study in Romania. (AMP)
