Implementation schedule for 'Educated Romania' project should become available before September 10

Education Minister Sorin Cimpeanu, said on Thursday that an implementation schedule for the "Educated Romania" project will have to become available before September 10, adding that in order to achieve the intermediate objective of the project, the allocation 4.7% of the Gross Domestic Product for education spending, money from Romania's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), money from the European Social Fund and funds from the national budget are taken into account, agerpres reports.

"Today we had the first meeting of the inter-ministerial board for the implementation of the 'Educated Romania' project. It was in fact a meeting in preparation for the next meeting on Thursday, September 2, at 13:00hrs, a meeting where each of the ministries represented in the inter-ministerial board will receive information and will decide from the perspective of the ministry they represent on to the implementation schedule, which will have to become available by September 10, according to the deadline pledged in a governmental memorandum. We presented the current state of play and we presented the objectives that we must achieve under the 'Educated Romania' project. Things are not good at all, as we know," Cimpeanu said on Thursday, at the end of a meeting of the inter-ministerial board monitoring the implementation of the 'Educated Romania' project.

Early in the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Florin Citu, Cimpeanu said that underfunding is one of the challenges facing the Romanian education system.

"We are at almost 3.6% of GDP, but in a governmental memorandum we pledged to reach as an intermediate objective 4.7% of GDP in education spending, which is what the European average for public education spending is. Of course, money should be geared toward where they can generate reliable results. I have always understood and supported the principle that results in education can always be seen in the medium and long term, but we can have a consistent strategy, that is our role, more precisely, a schedule for the implementation of the 'Educated Romania' project under which to direct investment in education in an efficient way," said Cimpeanu.

He explained that Romania will reach a 4.7% of GDP in public education spending through budget building.