PNL's Turcan: Impossible for Gov't to ensure masks for all children and professors

Deputy Prime Minister Raluca Turcan announced, on Saturday, in a press conference, that it is impossible for the Government to ensure masks for all the children and professors in Romania, but that disinfectants and masks for children from poor families or children who forgot their masks will exist in every school in the country and that, furthermore, access to water and sewerage will be ensured.

"There are disfavored categories which are beneficiaries of free masks on the part of the state, through the acquisition done by the Health Ministry. From the perspective of the Government, we are making money available to local public authorities, to make a minimal stock of masks and disinfectant materials in each school, for emergency situations, to call them so, the child forgets his mask at home, he's from a poor family, he ran out of masks, but it is impossible for the Government to ensure masks for all the children in this country, for all professors. So, government support goes to disfavored categories, on an acquisition finalized at the Health Ministry," said Deputy Prime Minister Raluca Tucan.

According to her, the Government will earmark 50 million euro to public authorities, to acquire from these funds, masks and disinfectants for each school in the country.

"At the same time, we will reimburse 50 million euro to the local public authorities and county school inspectorates, for the acquisition of necessary masks and disinfectants in schools, once the school year starts. This decision to discount the acquisition of these products is in agreement with the decision regarding decentralization, which we took to include the choosing of scenario that schools apply once the school year starts and allows for a much faster acquisition and the presence of these products in schools. As you saw in the guide we have already presented publicly, we want the mask to be mandatory starting with primary school, both for pupils, as well as for teachers, which means that in each school there has to be a stock of masks so that if there are children from disfavored families, if they leave their mask at home, they can receive from the school also a sanitary protection product, such as the mask, but they should also disinfect, as this rulebook put into debate provides for," mentioned deputy PM Raluca Turcan.

Raluca Turcan also said that children will benefit from toilets in education institutions around the country, even in localities with no running water and sewerage, where sanitary containers are to be installed.

The Deputy PM also recalled that 750,000 children should receive, freely, from the state, a tablet or laptop, in order to be able to follow courses online. Turcan also said that the Government has provided to complete the number of 250,000 tablets already acquired by the Education Ministry by reimbursement of another 500,000 tablets and laptops, for the local authorities that acquire such devices for the start of the school year, in order to be prepared for the worst case scenario, that of online teaching.

Raluca Turcan was Saturday in Sibiu, together with Agriculture and Rural Development Minister, Adrian Oros.