The National Political Bureau of the PNL has decided on Monday to propose Ligia Deca as Minister of Education, instead of Sorin Cîmpeanu, according to some political sources.
According to these sources, the presidential adviser Ligia Deca will be the proposal for minister of education that the prime minister and PNL president Nicolae Ciucă will make in the meeting of the National Political Bureau (BPN) of the liberals, on Monday morning.
After the vote, the PNL proposal was also be communicated to the leaders of the PSD-UDMR coalition, then it was sent by the Prime Minister to President Klaus Iohannis.
The President signed the decree for her appointment. The new minister has sworn in at Cotroceni Palace.
Ligia Deca (40 years old) is a presidential adviser at the Department of Education and Research, according to the Presidential Administration. She holds a PhD in Political Science (University of Luxembourg, 2016) and a graduate of a postdoctoral program at New Europe College.
Between 2010-2012 he coordinated the Secretariat of the Bologna Process, managing the process of organizing the Conference of Ministers of Education from the member states of the European Higher Education Area.
Ligia Deca is also the coordinator of the Educated Romania project and the education laws. She was supported by President Klaus Iohannis to take over the post.
“Thank you to the PNL members. PNL assumed the “Educated Romania” project from the beginning. The received trust is a mission in this regard. I want to finish what my colleagues started. We will operate Educated Romania in letter and spirit. We need a deep vision“, declared Ligia Deca, after the nomination.
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă said that Ligia Deca “is in a position to be able to continue and respect the calendar of debate and approval” of the education laws. “Today, in the BPN meeting, I came up with the proposal that Ms. Ligia Decă be the PNL’s proposal for the position of Minister of Education. She, being a person who worked and participated in the process of drafting education laws, is in a position to be able to continue and respect the calendar of debate and approval, which will be sent to the Parliament for debate by the end of October,” stated Ciucă.
Students ask for a non-political minister
The National Council of Students called on President Klaus Iohannis and Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca to appoint a new Minister of Education who should be a person “of integrity”, whose professional skills cannot be questioned and who can stay away from any political interference and understand the need of implementing a “real” and “courageous” reform.
“The National Council of Students called on the Prime Minister and the President of Romania to treat with the utmost responsibility the situation in which we find ourselves and to appoint, in the shortest possible time, a new minister who meets the following criteria: to be a person of integrity, whose professional skills cannot be called into question not even for a second, a person with a well-defined vision of how the education system should look in the future, a person who can stay away from any political interference that affects education even now, a person who understands the need to implement a real and courageous reform in the system and, last but not least, to be a person who understands the need for a solid partnership with the most important stakeholders involved in the educational act: students, teachers and parents,” says a press release.
Sorin Cimpeanu resigned last Thursday from the position of Minister of Education after journalist Emilia Sercan had previously accused Cimpeanu of plagiarizing a university course and of “fraudulently appropriating the authorship” of several chapters previously signed by other authors.