PSD's Negrescu asks European Commission for urgent support in ensuring access to online education

Social Democrat MEP Victor Negrescu on Friday asked the European Commission for urgent support in ensuring equal access to digital education to all pupils and students.

"Social Democrat MEP Victor Negrescu draws attention on the serious risk generated by the lack of access to education during the crisis caused by the coronavirus and proposes a series of solutions for Romania and the EU, in a letter addressed to the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council, an initiative that gathered the support of 27 members of the European Parliament from 13 Member States and belonging to several political groups. The letter asks for equal access to digital education to be ensured for all pupils and students and asks the European Commission and the member states to immediately move to prevent an increase in inequalities and social exclusion during the coronavirus crisis," reads a release sent to AGERPRES by the PSD (Social Democratic Party).

In the letter addressed to the two European leaders, Negrescu signalled the fact that closing schools creates a disadvantage for a large number of pupils coming from disadvantaged environments and who do not have access to technology or other opportunities to learn, besides those offered by the educational system.

The PSD MEP asked the European Commission and the European Council to act "to prevent the deepening of the social imbalances that are obvious today in the educational field," by endorsing the recent call of UNESCO to facilitate access to remote education.

Negrescu proposed a series of measures to be applied at European level, among which the creation of a common European educational platform, to be financed and managed by the EU, with all schools and universities in Europe to have access to it, granting urgent support to children coming from disadvantaged environments, and also to teachers, especially in the rural areas, in view of ensuring access to Internet and the necessary technological resources for digital education, support for the European universities, as well as for the students and professors involved in the Erasmus scholarship programme.