Press magazine – April 28 2023

The "Timișoara 2023, European Cultural Capital" program also has an ecumenical component. Thus, between May 1-7, the Ecumenical Youth Festival will take place in our city.

The Ecumenical Youth Initiative Group from Timișoara will organize, between May 1-7, the Ecumenical Youth Festival.

"The festival, born from the hearts of many young Christians, will have as its motto "Walking all together in the light of Christ" - "Walking all together, in the light of Christ". The logo of the event is the XP symbol, known as the "Monogram of Jesus Christ", an early Christian symbol, consisting of the first two Greek letters of the name Χριστός ("Christ" in Romanian), the organizers said.

At the headquarters of ITM Timis, together with the Politehnica University of Timișoara, the conference "The contribution of telework to the optimization of labor relations and safety and health at work from the perspective of globalization" was organized.

This is a current topic, in the context of digitization and the use of artificial intelligence.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) celebrates the International Day for Safety and Health at Work on April 28 to promote the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases worldwide. It is an awareness campaign designed to focus international attention on emerging trends in occupational safety and health and the global scale of work-related injuries, illnesses and deaths.

April 28 is also a day when the trade union movement around the world honors the memory of victims of work accidents and occupational diseases and simultaneously organizes campaigns around the world.

The current rectors who will be in office when the draft university education law enters into force will be able to remain in charge of the universities for two more terms of 5 years each, after almost all the deputies in the Education Commission approved a PSD amendment to the draft. This amendment modified the proposal of the Ministry of Education, which stipulated that the mandate in progress at the entry into force of the law, at the maximum number, is also taken into account.

Specifically, the amendment adopted to Article 137 provides that:

The amendment was built on the spot by the PSD, in the version of the text with amendments submitted to the committee, the PSD demanded the complete elimination of the mandate calculation.

Shortly after the approval, the chairperson found that there was no longer a quorum in the committee and suspended the meeting until next week.

Representatives of the management of the Technical University "Gheorghe Asachi" from Iași (TUIASI) participated in the period 24-25 April 2023 at an important working meeting of the Romanian Alliance of Universities of Science and Technology (ARUST), the new name of the Romanian Alliance of Technical Universities (BEAUTIFUL). At the meeting of the most important technical universities in Romania, the decision was made to expand the alliance by admitting new members and creating a Forum of Strategic Partners, which includes important economic partners of technical higher education institutions.

The meeting took place at the Technical University of Construction Bucharest, as part of ConstructFEST, an important national event held in the field of construction. Within it, the "Ion Mincu" University of Architecture and Urbanism became a de facto member of ARUST and steps were initiated for the Technical University of Moldova to join. Both universities were close partners of the technical higher education institutions that make up ARUST.

TUIASI was represented at the meeting by a delegation led by prof. Dr. Eng. Dan Cașcaval, rector of the university, prof. Dr. Eng. Aurelian Ciocoiu, President of the Senate, Prof. Univ. Dr. Eng. Carmen Loghin, vice-rector in charge of research, development and innovation activity, as well as university prof. Dr. Eng. Irina Lungu, vice-rector in charge of international relations.

Very likely, religion will be an optional subject at the baccalaureate, at least for students from the human profile. But, religion could become the optional subject chosen by the majority of young people. In every county, over 78% of students follow religion in schools.

Almost 80% of students from grades I - XII follow the optional subject "religion" in schools, as Newsweek Romania wrote recently, exclusively. The reasons why this percentage was reached are various. For most students (at least up to the twelfth grade), the parents chose. Some out of conviction, others "by the mouth of the world", but also because "we have no one to leave the children with if they don't go to religion class", as some parents explained.

A number of 2.142.989 students out of 2.751.233 enrolled in grades I - XII at the national level follow religion class. A percentage of 78% of the students chose to go to religion classes.

On March 15, 2022, BOR and other cults in Romania requested that students be able to choose as a subject for the Baccalaureate exam including Religion, a subject studied at the request of the parents/student and part of the common core of the school program is logical and justified by reality.

By the right guaranteed by the Constitution, schools and high schools are even obliged to propose, along with other optional subjects, Religion as a subject of study, it was shown in the request of the religious cults.

The crisis generated by the pandemic and the inflation we are currently facing have deeply affected the cultural industry, implicitly publishers and readers. During the pandemic, physical bookstores closed, fairs, festivals and other events dedicated to books were suspended, and publishing houses were in a position to cancel or postpone the release of many books. In addition, since July 2021, the price of paper has increased by 85%, and by the beginning of 2023, the selling prices of books increased by up to 10% for reprints, and for new ones, the variations were even greater .

The way publishers have handled the multiple waves of crisis has played an important role in keeping literature close to readers, and especially to young readers. With each generation, the conversation about how much children and young people read now, when technology takes up a large segment of everyone's time, is reopened. Marin Vidrașcu, co-CEO of the Litera Group, talks about how he managed the successive crises of recent years.

In the context of recent years, the Litera Group has been looking for new ways to stimulate reading among children. Various actions were organized such as reading clubs, reading programs in schools, contests for students, special discount packages, dedicated events, among which Children's Book Day is highly appreciated by students. Litera also has campaigns that it constantly organizes and which are appreciated by students, parents and teachers alike, such as Guess who's reading? (a reading project - game with the actress Monica Davidescu for young readers), The Little Bookstore (during which primary school students are invited to present books edited by Litera in bookstores), the reading club Among the letters (national project to stimulate reading for secondary school students) or Stand-up comedy with Andrei Ciobanu and Ionuț Rusu (stand-up with literary themes for high school students).

“From AI to Web3. How we earn our future through curiosity and creativity", an event organized within the Innovation & Digital section of RCW, will take place between May 22 and 25. On each of the four days, Vlad Mercori, Stakeborg CEO, and Andrei Constantin, Cryptonita CEO, will hold conferences for students from the "Grigore Moisil" Theoretical High School of Informatics, the "Emil Racoviță" National College, the "Costache Negruzzi" National College and Iasi National College.

"At Stakeborg, we constantly have discussions with student organizations on topics related to artificial intelligence and blockchain, but we realized that students already know, for the most part, which direction they want to go. The students, however, are in the phase in which they are just forming, and for them knowledge is all the more important. In studying these fields, I noticed that there is a big gap between how fast technology moves and what we as individuals are able to learn. What we aim to do is familiarize students with these topics and make them understand that their future depends on new technologies", explains Vlad Mercori.

More than 80 cases of aggression against students, by teachers, from 2021 until now, are in the records of the People's Advocate, according to a document obtained by Edupedu.ro. According to the document, at the headquarters of the People's Advocate, on January 20, 2023, a meeting was organized attended by representatives of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Health, with the theme of the psychological examination of teachers.

Also in the document it is stated that, in June 2022, the institution of the People's Advocate filed an ex officio complaint regarding the inconsistency of the provisions Government Decision no. 355/2007 regarding the supervision of workers' health, with subsequent amendments and additions, with those of Law no. 1/2011 of national education, regarding the psychological examination of teaching staff in educational institutions.

In March 2023, the People's Advocate submitted to the Ministry of Health the number of cases of assaults on students.