19,000 teachers to be slashed from the budget

Meanwhile, Romania’s economy is plunging worse than expected, and the government has only lowered expenses for infrastructure, while those allocated for public servants were increased by 13 percent as of May.

Following an internal memo sent by the Ministry of Education to school inspectorates, regarding cuts of positions in the education system, trade unions have calculated that some 20,000 teachers will have to leave the system as of the 2009-2010 school year.

Ministry representatives said that this is a cut made each year, based on the evolution of the number of students, but trade union officials interviewed by Business Standard say that this is a result of the government’s attempt to cut salary costs in the public system and of the ministry’s effort to make due with the allocated budget.

“They should have done this before now, and not stop at teachers. The structure is oversized in city halls and ministries. On the other hand, investments are already below their scheduled level,” the Secretary General of the Association of Romanian Businesspeople (AOAR), Cristian Pârvan, said.

Romania’s representative to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mihai Tănăsescu, said that a budget rectification that is to be decided based on talks with the Fund could lead to cuts for some ministries and extra money for others.

“The goal must be to make public services more efficient. A layoff decision can be optimal for a certain field, but only after an analysis is carried out,” Tănăsescu told Business Standard.

An IMF mission is due in Romania today to assess whether the country has complied with the terms of a stand-by agreement signed last April for a loan package totaling €20 billion from several international institutions.

Trade unionists say that the planned position cuts in education are a “desperate attempt” by the ministry to cut expenses, given that its budget was lowered to 4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), from a previous 6 percent.

“We asked the ministry to avoid, as much as possible, cutting regular teaching positions. Education is in a deadlock, and funds for salaries will be insufficient by the end of the year,” according to a representative of the Spiru Haret trade union federation, Marius Nistor. He added that problems with the salary payment will begin as early as August, in several areas of the country.

Education Minister Ecaterina Andronescu responded that position cuts will only involve unskilled substitute teachers.

“If in one school there are three classes of 15 students and we need substitute teachers, we would rather split the students into two classes of over 20 people, to be taught by qualified teachers,” she said, after a meeting with trade unions yesterday.