The Alexandrion Foundation organized the third edition of the Sinaia Debates on March 29 and 30, 2019, at New Montana Hotel. For two days, experts sought answers and solutions to the education crisis in Romania. The Romanian Minister of Education also attended the event.

Why the theme of the third edition of the Sinaia Debates has been related to education was explained by the first vice-president of the Alexandrion Foundation, Mr. Stelios Savva.

“The backbone of society is education. If we educate our people, we will see the results in the coming years in society, in our countries, in economics, in technology, in science. ”

During the event, the problems of education in Romania were presented and analyzed and the experts tried to find possible solutions to the crisis that this area is going through:

“There is a need to change perspectives: from cost to investment. It’s an investment in human capital, in people. Often politicians see the investment in a very short time, when there are elections. You invest in education today and you get the benefits in a deadline, not necessarily at the next elections. ”Said Dominik Antonowicz, sociology professor, education expert from Poland.

“There is an international discussion on education. On one hand, it is clear that education must be adapted to this age of digitalization, neuroscience, genetics and so on. On the other hand, education lagged behind its duties. An education crisis, in fact, is long overdue. In our country things are worse. Why? Especially because of the migration of specialists. ” Said prof. Univ. Dr. Andrei Marga, vice-president of the Alexandrion Foundation and moderator of the 3rd edition of the Sinaia Debates.

Prof. Brian Male, an international curriculum expert in the UK, highlighted the need to modernize the education system.

“Every child should leave school with the confidence, ability and desire to make the world a better place. (…) We have to give up a system of education created for the 19th century and replace it with one suitable for the 21st century. ”

At the event, the Minister of Education, Mrs. Ecaterina Andronescu, presented her proposals for changes that would be brought to the Education Law in Romania.

“I have presented a vision that is the basis of the future Law of Education. He raised quite a lot of questions and comments. (…) I said: the preparatory class becomes the first class, but it does not mean that we change the syllabus or the approaches. We change how it is numbered. Regarding evaluations, we proposed to analyze a little the content, what we evaluate. So far, for the second, fourth and sixth classes, unfortunately, they have been thought of in a way that they are not useful. “Stated the Minister of Education, Ecaterina Andronescu.

In a Skype speech, Nawaf Salameh, the president and founder of the Alexandrion Foundation, located in New York, raised another issue related to the theme of the event, namely the discrepancy between the courses offered by our schools and the needs of the labor market:

“In Romania we must first know what lack of specialists we have, what jobs we are missing, how much time do we have until certain professions might disappear so that we can guide our children to go to a job that we know will be sought. The connection between the educational environment and the professional environment is vital ”.

Among the guests of the third edition of the Sinaia Debates were experts in education and personalities from related fields in Romania and in six other countries. Of these we recall:

Brian Male (London); Dakmara Georgescu (Beirut); Petre Roman (Bucharest); Adrian Severin (Bucharest); Madlen Șerban (Turin); Constantin Brătianu (Bucharest); Ladislau Gyemant (Cluj-Napoca); Pompei Cocean (Cluj-Napoca); Cristian Clipa (Timisoara); Josif Friedmann-Nicolescu (Bucharest); Dominik Antonowicz (Torun); Leonidio Ferreira (Lisbon); Ilie Șerbănescu (Bucharest); Carmen Crețu (Iași); Vasile Cristea (Cluj-Napoca); Radu Motica (Timisoara); Vasile Morar (Bucharest); Mircea Arman (Cluj-Napoca); Constantin Barbu (Craiova); Janos Fazekas (Cluj-Napoca- Sfântu Gheorghe); Dan Constantin (Bucharest); Vincent Fauque (Montreal); Poland Tratnik (Ljubliana); Corina Dumitrescu (Bucharest); Sergiu Iliescu (Bucharest); Horia Giurgiuman (Zurich); Adrian Graur (Suceava); Neculai Seghedin (Iași); Ramona Lile (Arad); Gheorghe Schwarz (Arad); Nicu Gavriluță (Iași); Ion Spânu (Bucharest)

 

At the end of each edition of the Sinaia Debates, the Alexandrion Foundation publishes a volume containing the topics discussed. The first two have already been printed. The third volume: “The education crisis. Status indicators and resolutions ”will be printed and launched on the occasion of the 4th edition of the event.