Covering scholarships is truly not sustainable; it will be approach based on criteria of rationality (EduMin David)

The proposed Minister of Education, Daniel David, stated on Monday that at the moment there is a very complex system of scholarships, noting that the problem is that their coverage is not sustainable, but that they will not be "simply cut", but there will be an "approach" based on the criteria of "rationality and decency".

"At the moment we have a very complex and complicated system of social, merit, resilience and excellence scholarships, a lot of scholarships. Their problem is that their coverage is really not sustainable. No minister wants to come and say that other ministers gave and you take. But, of course, there is this crisis situation. At the same time, I said that we are not going to cut scholarships simply because we do not have money. We will have an approach defined by the two criteria: rational - how others are doing, how much they give in European countries; and decency - how much we can afford to support in this crisis situation", Daniel David told the hearings in the specialized committees.

He specified that at the moment there is 7 billion lei allocated for scholarships.

"We are turning the country upside down for 30 billion lei, 7 billion is a significant amount. If we had money, we would give, we would give even more if necessary for the children, but at a certain point, when you see that almost 50% of students have various types of scholarships, you wonder if you are not double financing the system, which is mostly public and free", he added.

David said that those who need social scholarships will be supported, adding that scholarships for excellence and merit will also be given where there is excellence and merit.

"We need two categories, I'm not talking about the names of the scholarships, we certainly need scholarships to support those who come from disadvantaged areas, from families with problems, to prevent school dropout. And the second category - to try to support the value in education, but the value in education defined as value", David pointed out.

The education committees of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies gave a favorable opinion, on Monday, with a majority of votes, to Daniel David, proposed for the position of Minister of Education and Research.