Former education minister Daniel Funeriu says the role of school is not to tell students what concepts they will use in life, such as derivatives or integrals, but to provide them with knowledge of them so that each child can decide, will she use them to learn how to “make a successful career”.

When asked on Saturday’s Digi 24 show what he tells students who ask if they will use in life what they are taught in school, such as derivatives, integrals or some historical data, former Minister of Education Daniel Funeriu replied that it is not the school’s role to answer this question. He says that what students learn will define their professional careers and ultimately the lives they will have.

• “Let me give you two very simple answers. The first answer: if you don’t understand what it’s for, that’s okay, someone smarter than you will.
• Second answer: It is not the school’s job to tell you what you need derivatives and integrals for. It’s not the school’s role, it’s your role! The role of school is to teach you this. The role of the school is to say, my child, I teach you the Pythagorean theorem, I teach you derivatives, I teach you integrals.
• You, further, if you use them, you will be an architect, you will be an engineer, you will be a doctor. If you don’t use them, you’ll have another job with less social value, with a lower income, you’ll have a life that won’t be… you won’t be able to go on a yacht vacation in the Mediterranean. So let’s stop this logic, according to which from birth to death someone has to tell you, guide you in life,” said Daniel Funeriu, as quoted by News.ro.

“If you have this insight at 14, you will definitely go further in life”

He believes that discernment is the most important thing that young people should have in relation to school.

• “Life is hard. If you have that insight at 14, you will definitely go further in life. And if you don’t have it, millions of Chinese, millions of Indians, millions of Americans will have it.
• Life is hard. Someone should tell the children this too.
• And I will tell you one more thing that I regret about this education law. There (in the draft laws on education – no) it is about key competences. What is the most important skill a young person should acquire today? I tell you: insight. why Because there is so much information… today’s children receive so much information that the human brain is unable to analyze and integrate it. And then, the main competence that a 14-year-old, 12-year-old, 13-year-old must acquire is to have insight, to understand what is essential and what is peripheral, to understand what can lead him further. life and what not. (…) There is a moment when you have to take fate into your own hands,” the former minister added.

He admitted that his children also ask him why they have to learn certain things they are taught in school.