President Klaus Iohannis has stated that the national functional illiteracy percentage of 42% is also reflected „at the highest level of the Romanian politics”, while attending the launching event of World Development Report: „Learning to Realize Education’s Promise”, organized by SNSPA and World Bank in Bucharest on Wednesday.
The head of state also slammed the Government’s intention to grant preferential zero interest loans for pupils and students.
Iohannis pointed out the the world report on education „is emphasizing the causes and the impact of the education deficit on the society”.
„The report mentions an important distinction to be made between schooling the effective learning. The education system must have the ability to make a real difference between the children’s level of awareness, not just to check a number of years at school. It is a lesson that should be also applied to Romania, considering that a 2016 study has warned us that we are facing 42% functional illiteracy, which is also very visibly reflected at the highest level of the Romanian politics,” the president stated.
Iohannis added that „it is not enough to provide access to education, but we also must guarantee the access to a high quality education, one that can actually give added value”.
„We are facing a demographic crisis countrywide which is amplified by the dropout high rate and by a low higher education attendance. Against this background, maybe it is not the right moment to focus now on some systems to grant loans for faculty students, while still neglecting to conclude some already started projects which are meant to increase the equity of the school education,” the president underlined.
„We keep on moving away from the Europe 2020 target, or 20 20 how it is said more recently, on early dropout, by 18%,” Klaus Iohannis added, referring to the blunder made by PM Viorica Dancila in a Government sitting when she said 20 20 (twenty twenty) instead of 2020 (tho thousand and twenty, the correct way in the Romanian language).