The leader of Free Unions in Education, Aurel Cornea, said he is convinced the president understands that the education system cannot be reformed without appropriate human resources.
The executive president of the Spiru Haret Federation, Marius Nistor, said talks with the president target the education strategy drawn up by the presidential commission and the law raising teachers’ wages.
"The president will decide whether or not to promulgate the law, but considering the promises he made in 2005, I don’t think he’ll change his mind and I’m confident the law will pass,” Nistor said.
The country’s leftist opposition Social Democratic Party urged the president Thursday to promulgate the law, while finance minister Varujan Vosganian said in a press conference that no political party has taken the responsibility to hike teachers’ wages if it wins elections and threw everything onto the shoulders of the ruling Liberal Party.
The Chamber of Deputies unanimously approved end September an ordinance stipulating a 50% hike of teachers’ wages. The law was taken to the Constitutional Court by the Government , but the court ruled the law was legitimate.
The money needed to increase teachers’ wages hasn’t been included in the 2009 state budget draft, which the Government will approve next week.