In the novel Dead souls the main character of the satirical-fantasy genius N. V. Gogol, Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov, merrily wandered around Russia looking for dead souls, in other words, for serfs, for whom boyars or lords occasionally paid taxes, even though they had long since died. Chichikov bought something unnecessary to lighten the burden of burdens on the shoulders of the Russian aristocracy. So he believed, to the bitter amusement of the educated public, that Russian society was being reformed from within. In our Romania of the 21st century, the dead are listed as alive in the voter lists. In both situations mutatis mutandis, the line between absurdity and common sense is tenuous, if not indecipherable. Some of this bureaucratic nonsense used by all kinds of criminals is found in our education system when we discuss floating visa.

But let’s start from the beginning. Anyone who reads the press in Romania cannot have a clear idea of ​​the activities of the Romanian police. Fatal road accidents, the perpetrators of which are known but removed on the spot, and minor medieval battles between rival clans of the underworld, which were otherwise closely monitored on paper, have for years undermined the image of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. affairs The floating visa is nothing on the tarnished face of those who offer a citizen under the law, only the biblical daily “security and trust”. Floating visa refers to the place of residence of an individual, where he declares that he has an additional place of residence, different from the place of residence. As we will try to show, if not prove, the uncontrolled effects of visa facilitation lead to undesirable consequences in the public education system.

What exactly do we mean? A floating visa is a legal way for parents, especially in big cities, who are unhappy with the quality of education at the constituency school to which they belong because of the address on their identity card, to transfer their children to another school that is considered to be of higher quality. This phenomenon has reached such a scale in Bucharest – we assume that the same is happening in Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Craiova, Constanta, maybe in smaller cities with a population of less than 100,000 inhabitants – that we have neighborhoods – it doesn’t matter what the names of the ports are – where within a 10-minute walk or just a few blocks away, we encounter schools where the number of students enrolled is completely disproportionate. In one educational institution, we count 5-600 students, while in another, relatively nearby, which may also include a high school, the number of students is well over 1,500 students. The law obliges school directorates to accept at the place of residence (read floating visa) students whose parents demand a transfer, to the extent that the study plan approved by the sector/district inspectorates allows them to do so – which, nothing surprising, as long as we work for the “benefit of the student”, As a result, we can undoubtedly talk about overcrowded schools (physically and temporarily, taking into account in some cases the schedule of three shifts) and others with a small number, located close to each other, who are not looking for a Father from the city, despite the fact that he lives not far from them. Against the background of emigration and low birth rates, secondary schools with a small number of students tend to continue to shrink, until reaching less than 300 students, the question of amalgamation arises, or even, as has always happened in rural environments in recent decades , their cancellation. In the city, the situation is not so dramatic, and in the capital of the country it was almost non-existent, however, taking into account the interest of the “good” school to expand quantitatively, and not just grow qualitatively, we will talk in a few years and the educational units in Bucharest that have disappeared in a natural way, since they could not withstand qualitative competition and an acute demographic crisis.

The very idea of ​​quality schools against weak schools in the public system should create problems of social justice, good use of public funds and serious differences in the achievement of the educational act, but political decision-makers are not interested in solving this problem, which is observed and analyzed in the reports of the European Union in the case of Romanian education . Private schools, which have gained momentum in the last decade in large urban agglomerations, are increasingly becoming a lifeline for parents. middle class from Romania. in upper middle class has been confidently turning to private education for some time. This mechanism of competition between public pre-university schools, with the exception of secondary schools that do not have primary and secondary cycles organized at the unit level, is created especially through a floating visa.

On the other hand, obtaining a floating visa hides rather disturbing life stories. Here we will use an example of a heard experience rather than a written one, because if it had been recorded in a national police report it would also have leaked into Media, at first sight this topic seems exciting enough to attract the attention, at least temporarily, of public opinion in Romania, quite aggressive and sharp, even when things are going normally or satisfactorily. Therefore, judging by what was heard from the left and the right of those who directly participate in the educational act, there are Romanian citizens, parents with rights and obligations, who literally buy their housing in writing from the owner of an apartment located in the area of ​​a quality school . , very desirable. This parallel practice involves relatively small amounts, on the order of hundreds of lei, but it is quite generalized in the context of the “good schools – bad schools” debate. That it is also about social segregation in the middle, where the education of those with modest or low incomes is separated from the access to public education of those with relatively high incomes, could not be more true. I’m fed up with situations where a floating visa isn’t bought with money, but rewarded in other forms, because sometimes – isn’t it? – we can call a cousin, aunt, brother-in-law, cousin, son to give us a floating visa for the sake of our relatives. What does the Romanian not do for the expected good of his child? This custom of the floating visa as a ticket to universally recognized high quality schools is, you agree, a small thing or a trifle compared to the great social and economic problems we face in Romania, but as you know, they all seem difficult to grasp, I start with the small things in the first stage Read the whole article and comment on Contributors.ro