Representatives of the National Unity Bloc “BUN” announced that they will mount protests in Bucharest and Chisinau to show their dissatisfaction with the fact that the Romanian authorities intend to give up providing additional scholarships to those stipulated in the protocol of cooperation between the Ministries of Education of Moldova and Romania.
BUN chairman Ion Leashchenko, in a news conference at IPN on May 19, said such a decision will affect the Moldovan young people who want to obtain high-quality education. “We are profoundly indignant at such things, especially when both of the sides, at governmental level, informed about integrationist processes, about a common education system. We do not know very clearly what explanation is invoked, but this unpleasant situation cannot be ignored and tolerated. We will address a letter and will demand to supplement the number of scholarships for Romanians from the Republic of Moldova. Otherwise, we reserve the right to stage protests,” he stated.
Romanian MP Constantin Codreanu noted the Romanian authorities, at least for the 2017-2018 academic year, do not intend to supplement the number of scholarships. “Unofficially, there is dissatisfaction in the Republic of Moldova that an increasing number of people go to study in Romania. Chisinau is satisfied with this limited number of scholarships - 2,250. In Bucharest they say that a part of the places that were provided additionally - 2,850 - hadn’t been filled during the last few years and thus they decided to give up increasing the number. This is a bizarre explanation,” said Constantin Codreanu.
According to the Romanian MP, the number of provided scholarships is not the only problem. The admission methodology that the Government of Romania intends to promote will hamper the young Moldovans’ access to studies over the Prut. The joint commissions that collected applications on Moldova’s territory are to be disbanded. They are now discussing several admission options: either to stage an education fair in Chisinau where the Romanian universities would collect files or the applicants from Moldova would submit files directly to universities in Romania, or the documents would be filed online.
The protocol of cooperation between the Ministries of Education of Moldova and Romania Moldova for 2016 – 2019, which was signed on December 22, 2016, envisions the allocation of 2,250 scholarships.
