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Press review – December 31, 2020

Press review – December 31, 2020

Gabriela Alexandrescu 1 310x310
We need to go back to school: Why education is the #1 priority
spotmedia.ro

We want a society that is responsible, a community that acts for the common good, and institutions that generate trust and reform.

We deplore absenteeism, when the greatest virtue of democracy is precisely the vote, because it ensures our representation and gives us levers to control the political decision.

But all of these have a common solution: education and more education.

We have a declining birth rate, demographic decline, poor educational performance (48% of students are functionally illiterate), we are faced with increasing migration of young people for studies and work.

These trends must be stopped and reversed. But how?

By strengthening the education and health systems, by stimulating trust in the authorities and thus staying in the country, because once a parent, you want to know your child is safe - pedagogically, emotionally and socially - at school.

There are strategies, plans, agendas, hundreds of bodies working to make education as relevant as possible. All these discussions should not be restarted from scratch. We need, however, a skilled and agile working group that clearly and concretely determines what we have to do.

We need a national coordination that "puts to work" all those who want to contribute in a concrete way.

Taking into account the alarming data facing the education system in Romania, the Save the Children Organization proposed to the Romanian Government the immediate application of ten fundamental measures, which would restore the right of all children to equal and quality education.

Here they are:

1. Safe opening of schools and face-to-face education starting in January

2. Compliance with the rule of organizing study groups for 20 children in the class

3. Assessment of backlogs and implementation of remedial measures

4. Safe communities for safe schools and competent human resources

5. Predictability

6. Participation in the decision-making process of students, parents and teachers

7. Depoliticization of the education system

8. Increasing the standard cost per pupil

9. Compliance with the law in allocating at least 6% of GDP to education starting in 2021

10. Fairness

 

Scene9 1160x920px Vaccine
The (drawn) story of 2020, with good and bad
scena9.ro

It's the hottest January on record. At the beginning of the year Australia is on fire, since September 2019. The average of 1,13 degrees Celsius of land and ocean temperatures recorded in January 2020 exceeds that of the last 141 years.

Researchers demonstrate that an artificial intelligence system based on a Google DeepMind algorithm can detect breast cancer better than human experts.

The Netherlands announces that it wants to be officially called "The Netherlands".

An American attack in Baghdad kills Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, considered the second most powerful man in Iran.

Prince Harry and his wife Meghan are giving up the prerogatives of the British royal family.

On January 11, the genetic sequence of COVID-19 is published. The international community is on alert and the development of a vaccine is urgent.

At the end of the month, several countries in Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan) are affected by the most devastating invasion of locusts in the last 25 years.

In February, Billie Eilish becomes the youngest person and first woman to win the year's four major Grammy awards: Best New Artist, Song of the Year, Song of the Year and Album of the Year.

Parasitic it is the first film in history to win the Oscar for Best Picture, even though it is not spoken in English.

By early March, most of the bushfires that have consumed Australia and killed more than 500 million animals in what has been called the "Black Summer" are extinguished.

On March 13, the World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a pandemic. On the 16th, the first human clinical test of an anti-SARS-CoV2 vaccine takes place.

The final of the Eurovision contest is cancelled. The Tokyo Olympics are cancelled.

Spring garden, a Vincent van Gogh painting is stolen from a Dutch museum while it was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As more and more countries around the world take strict measures to combat the spread of COVID-19, President Donald Trump announces that the US is suspending support to the WHO, due to its poor handling of the pandemic.

Asteroid 1998 OR2, which was thought to be potentially dangerous, passes by Earth at the end of April at a distance of more than 6 million kilometers.

A framed work by Banksy, Game Changer, which pays tribute to nurses, is on display at Southampton General Hospital. It will later be auctioned off to support the UK healthcare system.

___________________________________________________

On December 2nd, the UK becomes the first country in the world to approve the use of a vaccine against COVID-19, produced by Pfizer.

Warner Bros. and HBO Max sign a historic agreement, according to which all Warner films released in 2021 can also be seen on the platform of streaming.

It is one year since the official reporting of the first cases of COVID-19.

2020 ends as it began - with the warmest December in 60 years.

It is estimated that the film industry has lost $65 billion in revenue globally due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Several states in Europe have proposed financial support schemes for the book industry - in April, bookstores in Germany, for example, reported losses of half a billion Euros. In the music field, the pandemic has affected around 12 million workers in the European Union, by postponing tours, concerts, participation in festivals and album releases.

University Dormitory Project 4 768x529
The government allocates money for three university dormitories in Timișoara
pressalert.ro

The universities in Timișoara will benefit from modern student dormitories, newly built by the National Investment Company, with government funds from the Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration.

The announcement was made on Wednesday by Cătălin Iapă from Timișoara, secretary of state within this ministry. Tenders for the construction (design and execution) of three student dormitories were launched in the second part of this year.

One dormitory for the Politehnica University of Timisoara, one for the West University of Timișoara and the third for the "King Mihai I" University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Banat.

The three dormitories will, in the end, involve investments of over 30 million euros (over 150 million lei, value with VAT included) and will contribute to increasing the quality of the conditions for students who come to study in the Timișoara university center, one of the university centers of Romania's elite.

The UPT dormitory was launched for procurement at the beginning of December, the deadline for submitting offers is February 8, 2021, and it will have 256 places.

The UVT dormitory was launched for purchase at the end of November, the deadline for submitting offers is February 5, 2021, it will have 902 places and will be the largest dormitory in Romania.

The USAMVB dormitory was released for purchase in June this year, the tender is nearing the end, with two companies competing for this contract and it will have approximately 200 seats.

The stage of these projects is advanced, and if the three tenders are completed successfully, the start of the construction site is the next step.

 

Online School I want to go to college
The Romanian application that helps students apply to online colleges receives funding from the EGV fund
startupcafe.ro

The EGV Fund announces the completion of an investment round in UniApply (vreaulafacultate.ro), a company that builds a platform that facilitates the management of the relationship between faculties and students, the process of selecting a faculty and the application itself.

The company has a global target, with special attention paid to students from China and India applying to Western European faculties. On the Romanian market, UniApply operates under the name vreaulafacultate.ro and has the ambition to become the reference platform for the admission of new students to the university education cycle.

In the round, together with EGV, Simple Capital and angel investors. The DLA Piper team (Cristina Bucur and Ciprian Frandeș) provided legal assistance for the transaction.

"We are witnessing a revolution in education, determined primarily by the COVID pandemic, but also by the natural evolution of things," said Dan Călugareanu, the Early Game partner who initiated the transaction. "We believe that this revolution will leave deep traces in Romanian education as well. In this sense, we see in UniApply and in the platforms launched by the company, vreaulafacultate.ro and uniapply.org, the necessary technological infrastructure to continue the digitization of education. We are moving towards a world where access to education knows no borders, and the UniApply team is making it easier. It's a generous mission that we believe in and want to support with our capital, connections and resources."

"We want to liberalize education and give every student a fair chance to find the right university. We reduce the dropout rate by helping students understand what their options are, but mostly by working closely with them and using modern technologies like ML and RPA to streamline all processes. The application itself is automated by our platform, what is important is to choose the university well, and this is where the magic of UniApply comes into play. 13.000 current students applied through us, people whose dreams we fulfilled. Two months ago, our international journey began, and we want to have over a million student applicants in 5 years. The future is given by education, and we bring education closer to people", said Andrei Nicolae, one of the founders of UniApply.

Early Game Ventures (EGV) is a venture capital investment fund (venture capital) financed with priority through the Competitiveness Operational Program 2014-2020 and co-financed through the European Regional Development Fund.

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the European Investment Bank Group and is the main risk financier for SMEs in Europe, through risk capital instruments, guarantees and micro-financing. In Romania, FEI implements financial instruments co-financed through structural and investment funds, such as JEREMIE 2007-2013, Initiative for SMEs, POR, POC, PNDR.

The Competitiveness Operational Program 2014-2020 (POC) supports investments aimed at responding to the needs and challenges related to the low level of economic competitiveness, in particular with regard to (a) insufficient support for research, development and innovation and (b) underdeveloped infrastructure on Technology Information and Communications. POC benefits from an allocation of 1,33 billion euros from the European Regional Development Fund.

Vaccination 2
Two sociologists explain why the "study" showing that most teachers do not want to get vaccinated is not relevant. How the question should have been phrased
school9.ro

The Federation of Education Unions "Spiru Haret" published on Monday results a consultation of over 13 thousand people employed in pre-university education, most of them teaching staff, regarding the positioning of the anti-COVID vaccination.

56,3% of the 13.356 respondents said they did not agree to get vaccinated against COVID-19. This figure was spread all over the press and on social networks, causing a wave of indignation and concern, especially among parents. The reason: it was taken as being representative of all the more than 200 thousand teaching staff in Romania.

Moreover, as a reaction to these results, the "Mothers for Mothers" Association also applied a questionnaire, also online, from which it appears that 56,5% of parents in Romania would not let their children return to school in the presence of a teacher who has not been vaccinated. This does not follow the norms of sociological research either.

In reality, the "study" of the trade unions does not provide a representative picture of the general perception of teachers, as even a representative of the "Spiru Haret" federation admitted.

 

"I have seen that names like study or survey have been used in the press. We didn't have this claim, that's why we called it a questionnaire", says Dragoș Neacșu, director of communication of the Federation of Trade Unions in Education "Spiru Haret".

Sociologist Mircea Kivu says that "over 13 thousand" respondents is a large sample for Romania's population. But big does not mean representative.

"In the 1936 US presidential election, Literary Digest magazine incorrectly predicted the outcome of the vote, even though they received responses from 2,4 million readers. Instead, the Gallup Institute, although it had a sample of 50 thousand people, correctly predicted who will be president", exemplifies Mircea Kivu.

The sociologist also explains that the fact that most of the respondents are members of a trade union is also a problem in itself. "They may have a different profile than other teachers who are not active members of a union. But we cannot say in which direction. For that, studies should be done", says Kivu.

"The simplest method, but still representative, would be to randomly draw 1000 teaching staff from a list of all those working in Romania." - Mircea Kivu

He also points out that by the way the question was formulated it is possible to have suggested the answer to the respondents.

"Given that, from January 2021, the vaccination campaign against COVID-19 will also start in Romania, do you agree to get vaccinated?" - the question from the questionnaire

"This question tends to force the answer by placing it in the beginning of the sentence. The respondent may have the feeling that he will have to give his consent tomorrow to be vaccinated", says Mircea Kivu.

Sociologist Cătălin Stoica also noticed some problems related to the questionnaire, about which he wrote in a Post on his Facebook profile. Below are some of the teacher's questions/criticisms:

1) The survey was conducted by one of the education trade union federations in Romania, which includes EMPLOYEES from this system. So, we cannot comment on the representativeness of the sample as long as Spiru Haret (that trade union federation) includes only some of the employees in this system.

2) Let's admit that 13.356 teaching staff MEMBERS of a union affiliated to Spiru Haret answered. How much do they represent among the teaching staff in Romania? What percentage of teachers, members of the Spiru Haret federation, answered the questionnaire?

3) How are respondents distributed on various variables, crucial to assessing the representativeness of such a sample? How many Spiru Haret affiliates teaching in rural areas responded? How many Spiru Haret affiliates teaching in urban areas responded?

4) What is their distribution by form of education (preschool, middle school, high school, etc.) compared to the distribution of the reference population (teachers who are members of the Spiru Haret trade union federation)?

Cătălin Stoica also draws attention to the fact that teachers' attitudes towards the vaccine against COVID-19 should be analyzed in a wider context.

Un study published two months ago by Ipsos, among more than 20.000 respondents in 28 countries shows that, globally, 3 out of 4 adults (74%) would get the COVID-XNUMX vaccine if the vaccine were available.

Romania is one of the most skeptical countries regarding the anti-COVID vaccination: only 57% would like to be vaccinated. Fewer citizens willing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 are only in Hungary (56%), Poland (56%) and Russia (54%).

Another national survey, published these days by Avangarde, shows that 29% of Romanians do not want to be vaccinated, and another 29% are still undecided.

King Mihai
73 years since December 30, 1947, the day the communists blackmailed King Mihai into abdicating
libertatea.ro

For half a century December 30 was celebrated in Romania as the birth of the People's Republic. And on December 31, Santa Guerrilla was coming, the "purely ideological" replacement of Santa Claus. The abdication of King Mihai on December 30, 1947 remains one of the most important moments in Romanian history. As early as 1945, the Soviet representative Andrei Vîsinski imposed on the king, through the threat of military force, the replacement of the government led by the anti-communist general Nicolae Radescu with a government dominated by communists and pro-Soviet, led by Petru Groza. In August 1945, due to the numerous abuses of the Groza Government, the king demanded his resignation.

In July 1947 the peasant leaders are arrested. In November, the National Peasant Party is dissolved, and the National Liberal Party, no longer able to function, dissolves itself. The only remaining obstacles to the abusive power of the communist regime were the Constitution and the Monarchy.

The end of the year finds His Majesty King Mihai and Queen Mother Elena in London. Where they were invited to the wedding of Princess Elizabeth of Great Britain, the current Queen, with Prince Philip.

Upon returning to the country, the king and queen-mother were greeted very coldly by the same ministers of the Petru Groza Government. At the official reception, Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu refused to shake hands with the king, pretending that he was paying attention in another direction.

"Returning to the country in December, King Mihai and Queen Mother Elena retired to Sinaia for the winter holidays. On December 29, 1947, King Mihai received a phone call from the Marshal of the Court, who informed him that Petru Groza, the president of the Council of Ministers, wanted the King to return to Bucharest as soon as possible, to discuss a "family problem" ", it is stated in the volume "His Majesty King Mihai of Romania - An Interrupted Reign". The meeting took place the next day, on December 30, 1947. Petru Groza, the president of the Council of Ministers, came to the palace, accompanied by Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, general secretary of the CC of the PCR. King Mihai was forced by blackmail and threat. In the volume "History of Romania in data", the historical detail, however vital, is noted, according to which the two of them each had a pistol on them and forced the king to abdicate.

King Mihai I described the moments of December 30, 1947 at the Elisabeta Palace, in the book "His Majesty King Mihai of Romania - An Interrupted Reign" - conversations with Philippe Viguie Desplaces.

"The tone of the discussion rose, it turned into a real verbal altercation. My main argument was that their approach was unconstitutional. To save time, I asked them to read the document they drafted on my behalf with a clear head. Leaving the room, I retired to a small parlor at the other end of the house. Immediately, I reached for the phone to call the Marshal of the Court. The line was cut... My guard was arrested, the phone was cut off, our house was surrounded, I couldn't do anything at all. Constrained and forced, I signed my abdication act", revealed the King.

 

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