Representatives of the public association “Solidary Parents” express their regret at the way in which distance learning is organized and at the lack of access to education for some of the categories of students. By a petition addressed to Prime Minister Ion Chicu and Minister of Education, Culture and Research Igor Sharov, the signatories ask to ensure the access to digital platforms for all the students and to present concrete measures for the completion of the current school year so that particular categories of students are not discriminated, IPN reports.
The petition says that even if online education became mandatory in this period, nationwide there is a considerable number of children who do not have access to the Internet and do not have information technology needed to take part in such lessons. The petition authors make reference to a poll carried out at the end of March 2020, which involved 5,247 young people from all the country’s regions. According to this, 45% of those surveyed said they know students who do not have access to information technology or the Internet and cannot take part in lessons online.
Also, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, the computer possession rate in 2018 was of 62% in urban areas and of 42% in rural areas. The fact that a family with two or more students has one computer can also be considered a barrier. Some 48.7% of the households had access to broadband Internet and 61% of these were from urban areas, while 39% from rural areas. There is thus a considerable discrepancy between villages and towns as regards the Internet access rate.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, the Ministry of Education hasn’t publicly communicated the measures taken to ensure the constitutional right to education of students from disadvantaged groups, most probably because it set short-term goals. But the students who do not have access to digital resources and cannot connect themselves to distance learning continue to be neglected.
The petition authors ask to determine the number of children who haven’t had access to online education since March 11, 2020, to make the necessary purchases and provide all the students who do not have access to the Internet and do not have information technology needed to take part in lessons online with computers, and to ensure an efficient education process through distance learning platforms.
