The Ministry of Education asks school inspectorates to check the situation of students whose families “deliberately” dropped out of compulsory education courses, asks school inspectors to take measures to inform parents of their responsibilities to ensure the right to education and “notify investigative bodies”. on taking all measures to gain legality.” This after two parents from Bihor were taken to court and convicted for withdrawing their children from school because they did not agree with the use of the internet, with television media channels and with the online courses the children were taking under pandemic time.

In an appeal sent to school inspectorates by the Main Directorate of Pre-University Education and the General Directorate for Legal Affairs and Control of the Ministry of Education and presented by educatieprivata.ro, representatives of the ministry ask the inspectors of the municipality of Bucharest and from the counties to identify cases of refusal of students from compulsory education courses, reports News.ro.

In a document published by educatieprivata.ro, the ministry asks school inspectors to take a number of measures, including:

• “informing parents through the educational unit about their obligations to ensure children’s right to education”;
• “informing and cooperating with the Main Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection for counseling with the aim of re-enrolling primary beneficiaries in the national education system”,
• “cooperation with local state authorities to monitor compliance with the right to education,” as well as “mandatory notification of the Ministry of Education regarding these situations.”

• “notification of investigative bodies to take all measures regarding entry into legality”

A document dated January 3, 2024 was sent from the Ministry to the school inspectorates “taking into account the information according to which there are families in Romania who deliberately withdraw their children from compulsory education courses, thus depriving them of their fundamental right to education, which provided by the Constitution of Romania”.

The appeal also states that Law 198/2023 on pre-university education defines the forms of education and units registered in the Special Register of units of pre-university education, as well as “any other form of activity of entities that claim to offer equivalent educational services. to compulsory education, except for Law no. 198/2023”.

The law provides that a parent or a person who takes care of a minor who unreasonably withdraws or prevents him from attending compulsory education courses may be punished with imprisonment for a term of three months to one year or a fine, and the act remains unpunished if the situation is corrected until the completion of the criminal investigation.

Parents brought to court for expelling their children from school

The approach of the Ministry of Education comes in the context of two parents from Bihor district who decided to home-school all four of their school-aged children, were recently sent to court and given 4 months in jail each, but with suspended sentences.

According to Adevărul journalists, the case was opened last year as a result of a complaint filed by the director of the Bratca Theoretical High School in Alešda, who reported that in the fall of 2021, two parents took their children aged 8 and over. , 10, 11 and 13 years old, at the time of expulsion from school.

“In the eyes of the investigators, the two expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that in 2020 they received various messages in which their attention was drawn to the fact that the presence of children at school is conditioned by wearing a mask or that they were informed about vaccination. On the other hand, they were worried about the transition to online classes, because until then children were not allowed access to the Internet or television,” Adevărul writes.

The children were enrolled at Home Life Academy and West River Academy, private school units in the US that offer guidance to parents who choose to educate their children on their own for a fee that in 2021 was $250 per year per family.

According to the quoted source, the children were evaluated by authorized government agencies, which determined that they have significant gaps in education compared to their age, and that the parents have no training for their education, given that the mother completed eight grades and the father completed high school.