Raising the scholarships of university and technical vocational school students by 20% as of January 1, 2017 is one of the demands of the Education and Science Trade Unions Federation, which announced the intention to stage protests starting with January 17.

Dumitru Ivanov, chairman of the General Council of Education and Science Trade Unions Federation, has told IPN that the scholarships are now very low. “How can one live on the current scholarship of a student? If only living on rusks. The scholarships should be increased so that the school and university students could feed themselves. The current scholarship does not cover the costs. You know that the prices are galloping,” stated the trade union leader.

According to Dumitru Ivanov, the state must make effort for the scholarships to be raised. The students must get the scholarship they deserve. “We can ask more, but think what funds the scholarships can be raised from. We believe the 20% would be added more by universities from the own funds rather than by the state,” said the chairman of the Federation’s General Council.

The Federation’s vice president Nadejda Lavric stated for IPN that the representatives of the Government promised the trade unions that they will look for a solution to increase scholarships. “In the nearest future, they will tell us exactly how much the scholarships can be raised. We have no answer yet,” she stated.

The education trade unions announced they will mount protests during four days starting with January 17. They will demand to increase teachers’ salaries by 50% and the lump-sum payment for young education specialists by 20,000 lei, to annually recalculate pensions for working pensioners and to raise scholarships.