Press review – January 15, 2021

The Romanian Academy celebrates the National Culture Day, Friday, January 15, in partnership with the "George Enescu" Philharmonic. Ioan-Aurel Pop, president of the Romanian Academy, Eugen Simion, president of the Philology and Literature Section of the Romanian Academy, will talk about the importance of this cultural celebration and initiator of the National Culture Day, and Răzvan Theodorescu, vice-president of the Romanian Academy.

The speeches will be followed by a concert held by the "George Enescu" Philharmonic under the baton of conductor Horia Andreescu. In the program: Ludwig van Beethoven, Egmont Overture; George Enescu, Four original pieces for violin and string orchestra (soloist: Rafael Butaru); Doru Popovici, Codex Caioni; Constantin Silvestri, Three pieces for string orchestra; Béla Bartók, Romanian Dances; Dan Dediu, Codex Brasoviensis.

Given the current conditions imposed by the health crisis and the impossibility of inviting the public to the elegant Athenaeum hall, the event will be recorded and broadcast on January 15, 2021 on Romanian Television, on TVR 3, starting at 19.00:20.00 p.m., and on Trinitas TV , starting at 15:30 p.m. Radio Romania Muzical will broadcast the concert on the same date, at XNUMX:XNUMX p.m.

The Romanian Academy fulfills every year the honorable mission of celebrating the National Culture Day, a holiday with national status that the Romanian Academy initiated and proposed for legislation to the Romanian Parliament in 2010, legislatively confirmed by Law no. 238/2010. We owe the establishment of the National Culture Day on January 15, when it is the birthday of the poet Mihai Eminescu, to the academician Eugen Simion, who wanted to pay permanent tribute to the emblematic personality of the national poet. Thus, starting from 2010, Romania and Romanians everywhere celebrate the two events together on January 15. The Romanian Academy and the "George Enescu" Philharmonic are festively marking the National Culture Day for the third time together, a celebration that reached its 11th edition this year.

PNL MP Marilen Pirtea, rector of the Western University in Timișoara, appeals to a non-committal statement made on Wednesday by Prime Minister Florin Cîțu to plead for "prioritization for vaccination of university students in Romania". He says, in a statement sent to Edupedu.ro, that "we have no way of supporting the priority vaccination of those students who are enrolled at universities in other countries, without thinking about those who study in the country".

Marilen Pirtea refers to Wednesday's statement by Prime Minister Florin Cîțu who, answering a question, showed that Romanian students who have to go to universities abroad and need a vaccine must contact the Ministry of Health to be included in the second stage of vaccination. Prime Minister's Statement:

• "I repeat, the second stage, that list grows every day because there are more priorities that we see, this may also be a category that we will selectively include for the people who will enter the II stage- a, a decision has not yet been taken, I recommend those who are in this situation to talk to the Ministry of Health, they are the ones who make the Government Decision".

The declaration is transformed, in the press release of MP Pirtea, into "the government's prioritization proposal for anti-Covid-19 vaccination given to students who go to universities abroad". He states, in the context, that the declaration "directs attention, inevitably, to a necessary orientation towards the prioritization for vaccination of Romanian university students, many of whom are eager to return to the classic format of courses and seminars. We have no way of supporting the priority vaccination of those students who are enrolled in universities in other countries, without thinking about those who study in the country, many more, but equally interested in being able to resume their educational activities - in front of (…)".

The decision to bring students back to classes, physically, belongs to each individual university, President Klaus Iohannis said on Thursday.

"Considering that each university has its specifics, the decision will be taken at the level of each university, taking into account the university's autonomy, but, obviously, you are free to align yourself with the scenario according to which the pre-university also operates", said the head of state, at the Cotroceni Palace.

Mayor Dominic Fritz announced, on Thursday evening, that the anti-Covid vaccination from the second stage of the immunization campaign will start on Monday, until then, the City Hall of the Municipality of Timisoara, the Prefecture and the Directorate of Public Health Timis working together to open all the vaccination centers.

"The City Hall of Timisoara has made available, with the help of private companies, 17 spaces intended for vaccination, which represent 11 vaccination centers, as several spaces are in the same location. For now, the County Center for Coordination and Management of the Intervention has requested the allocation of two centers for vaccination. We continue the arrangement of the others and make them available in stages, as we are asked. Those first two centers will work in Iulius Town and the Hospital CFR. In Iulius Town, the vaccination will be carried out by mixed teams of medical personnel from the Municipal and Louis Turcanu Hospitals, subordinate to the City Hall, to whom I thank them. Vaccination will start on Monday. Registration is done on the national platform https://vaccinare-covid.gov.ro/ starting on Friday, January 15, at 15,00:XNUMX", says Dominic Fritz.

In the county, vaccination centers in the second stage of the campaign will be set up in Lugoj (two spaces) and one center each in the localities of Buzias, Ciacova, Deta, Dumbravita, Faget, Gataia, Ghiroda, Giroc, Jimbolia, Recas, Mosnita Noua, Sacalaz and Sannicolau Mare. Vaccination centers must have triage, reception and waiting areas, vaccination cabinets and the area where those who have been immunized will be supervised.

The mayors of these localities say that they are trying to manage according to the possibilities.

The mayor of Jimbolia, Darius Postelnicu, says that the center was set up in a boarding school that is not being used during this period. "The final touches are being made, the furniture is being checked, the computer is being installed and for the rest we are waiting for new orders. The costs were not very high, because we did it in a boarding school that is not decommissioned. We had to move some offices, the computer and dividing screens for the vaccination points", says Darius Postelnicu.

The mayor of Faget, Marcel Avram, claims that the center exists within the hospital and that "it was used in the first stage of the vaccination campaign, for the medical staff".

Students are returning to school from February 8, President Klaus Iohannis announced on Thursday, stating that most schools will open. The decision was taken after discussions with the Minister of Health, the Minister of Education, Dr. Raed Arafat and Dr. Adriana Pistol.

President Klaus Iohannis announced, at the end of the discussions with the Minister of Health and the Minister of Education, that a unanimous decision was reached.

"Starting the 2nd semester, that is, after the one-week vacation that follows at the beginning of February, so from February 8, when the 2nd semester begins, most schools will reopen, this, obviously, under the conditions in which the pandemic evolves approximately the same as it had the evolution in the last weeks", said the president Klaus Iohannis.

The return of students and preschoolers will take into account the infection rate in the locality.

"Most schools are reopening. The students are going back to school. Basically, we return to the decentralized system that takes into account the evolution of the pandemic in each locality. In this way, in the 2nd semester, in the localities that fall under the so-called green scenario - with relatively few cases - all schools physically reopen, children go to school. In the localities that fall into the yellow scenario - that is, there are slightly more cases of infection - things are changing, in the sense that kindergarten children, primary school children, students from grades I-IV and children continue to go to school and kindergarten from the terminal classes VIII and XIII. If the locality enters the red scenario, those from kindergarten and primary school continue to go to school for a while, but the others no longer go to school. When the infection rate reaches over 6, the town is quarantined and everyone goes online", explained president Klaus Iohannis.

"The Ministry of Education thanks the Romanian higher medical education for the availability of involvement in promoting correct information in connection with the anti-COVID-19 vaccination, as well as all the universities that offered their support for the organization of the vaccination centers. In view of the importance represented by the correct information regarding vaccination, in order to increase health safety in schools, universities of medicine and pharmacy and universities that have faculties of medicine and pharmacy in their structure declare their availability to organize and participate in webinars and information sessions intended for staff from the national education system", states the MEC statement.

The Ministry of Education appreciates the availability and responsibility of higher medical education, by providing information resources in support of the community of the entire education system regarding the clarification of questions related to the benefits of the anti-COVID-19 vaccination and the vaccination campaign.

"By demonstrating the availability and openness of the faculties of medicine and pharmacy in the country and the Romanian College of Physicians to organize webinars and question-and-answer sessions on the themes of the vaccination campaign, the education staff will benefit from an important addition in the process of professional information and credible. The Ministry of Education considers it a priority to support information on vaccination and has requested all schools, school inspectorates and universities to publish on their own web page the link to the National Information Platform on vaccination against COVID-19 – https://vaccinare-covid.gov.ro /. Also, thanks for the availability shown by the Romanian universities regarding the identification of suitable locations for the organization of vaccination centers", it is also mentioned in the quoted press release. AGERPRES

Almost 50% of students from Constanta say that the online school does not meet their educational needs, 6,3% declare that they do not have their own equipment for classes, and over 27% believe that the teachers are not prepared for this type of teaching, according to a survey initiated by Student Council.

"46,9% of the responding students are of the opinion that online classes hardly satisfy their educational needs, and 6,3% indicated that they do not have their own equipment necessary for conducting online classes. Regarding the digital skills of the teaching staff, over a quarter of Constanţa students (27,9%) think that the teachers who teach them in class are almost not at all prepared to transpose the curricular contents into the virtual space", according to a press release from the Constanța County Council of Students. Over 800 students from the county answered the questionnaire. "Considering that we made the transition to online education almost a year ago, the Constanța County Council of Students is launching the first report that x-rays the quality of virtual classes. Now, after months of trying to adapt to the pandemic context, it is absolutely necessary to turn to the students more than ever, to understand their needs and, most importantly, to formulate proposals so that school life in the online environment is improved", declared Silviu Morcan, the president of the County Council of Constanța Students.

Germany is seen as lagging behind in digitization. This is being seen now that schools are closed again. But other countries also have problems with digital teaching.

Eric Grabowski is one of the millions of students in Germany who, after the end of the Christmas holidays, cannot return to school. Aged 15 and a student in the XNUMXth grade, Eric tries to study the subject at home, away from his classmates and teachers. It will do so until the end of January at the earliest, when the current "lockdown" would expire.

"Now I should have French", Eric told us on the phone. "I'm sitting in front of the computer. But nothing else works on my school's learning platform," says Eric, who is part of the student council (Rhineland-Palatinate branch), who believes that closing the school is the right decision.

But at present it is not possible to go further, he says. "The problems with the servers must be solved, so that online teaching can work. We don't know if we can go back to school in February. I don't even know if I can take the final exams this year."