National Press Review, 6 September

The education system is facing its worst crisis since 1989 regarding the baccalaureate
exam, the Evenimentul Zilei argues.

The lack of students will lead to institution destabilisation, teacher layoffs and wage cuts.
Not only private universities but also state institutions are on the brink. Many places will
remain unoccupied, especially those for which students have to pay a tuition fee, which
leads to large gaps in the budget. Nearly 18 thousand students were able to pass the
baccalaureate in the autumn session.

For them, the state schools still have a lot of places available. In order to attract
customers, the private universities come with all sorts of offerings: some have reduced
the tuition fees even with 700 lei, while others give all sorts of advantages for candidates
over 40 years, and one university, which generally has prices a little steep, has granted
the new students from the Faculty of Communication and Public Relations with an iPad.

The paper shows that the situation is disastrous for private universities: even in the most
renowned universities only 30 percent of the available places have been occupied.

"Rectors of private universities fear of bankruptcy", the Adevărul headlines.

One of them even pushed the limit by asking for another baccalaureate session to be held
in October, the newspaper shows.

The România Liberă looks optimistically at what lies ahead after the baccalaureate
disaster this year and argues that the Ministry of Education has solutions for better
results.

"The Ministry is preparing stricter surveillance measures in schools to prevent truancy
and cheating, they have found the main causes of the poor results at the baccalaureate.
However, experts, former ministers and MPs plead for periodic assessments, curriculum
change and differentiated baccalaureate, according to the study programme of the
students."
The Ziarul Financiar calls "state companies to report’" and writes that actually 35 state
companies run 10 billion euro business, but have lost over 500 million euro.

Taking into account that in the last 20 years the state management has been strictly
related to political influence and that there have been numerous cases of unqualified
people leading fields that have been strategic for Romania’s economy, the promotion
of private managers with clear objectives is therefore seen by many people as a second
Revolution. However, it is unclear whether this second revolution is just a statement prior

to the election year, the newspaper fears.

"Ceahlău, chronicle of an announced disaster. Strictly protected natural area in danger of
extinction", the Jurnalul Naţional fires a warning, explaining that a full protected area
of the Ceahlau National Park is to be turned into a ski track.

The area will be irreparably damaged. The members of the National Park Scientific
Council are against this project. The only man eager to built a ski track in the natural
park, given that there is another similar project in Durău, which is not a protected area,
is the head of the head of the mountain rescue team in Neamt. He is also the head of
PDL Ceahlău and, together with those of Romsilva, they have discovered that the trees
in the area have been damaged by insects anyway and they must be chopped, the paper
says.
Under the heading "Stade de Roumanie – 50 thousands of hearts under a huge flag", the
Adevărul notes that this evening, the National Arena will be inaugurated on the occasion
of the Romania-France official football match.

The Romanian audience will find tricolor flags and pads on all stadium seats.

Before the match, fans will be encouraged to raise the pads, so the stands will form a
huge flag of Romania! The match will be preceded by a show and the National Anthem
lyrics will be displayed on the monitors located on the suspended stadium screens, so that
everyone present can sing.

To avoid congestion and accidents, the Traffic Police Brigade has taken the decision to
put circulation restrictions around the stadium area, starting with 17.30.

Translated by: Iulia Florescu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University