Education Minister Daniel David said on Tuesday that the target of 6% of GDP for public education spending is „aspirational,” and one of the education priorities is to streamline spending to benefit quality.

„Certainly, my expectation is that the budget will be bigger, slightly higher than last year’s budget implementation, but there are still negotiations, there are discussions. You know well that the economic and financial context does not look good, but this is my expectation and, in this logic, we are conducting this discussion – the 6% target, in fact 15% of the new law from the consolidated general budget, is a target that always remains for us an aspirational one and as the minister of education and research I can only talk about this all the time. But the fundamental idea for me is to make things more efficient within the ministry, so that the money we receive is surely spent efficiently, so that I can be sure that it does not go to areas where educational gains are not commensurate with financial investments,” David told a news briefing at the end of a government meeting.

He said that the appropriations are still being discussed with the Ministry of Finance, adding that at this moment the Ministry of Education and Research is undergoing reorganisation.

„After we do this reorganisation, my voice for 6% or 15% will be much stronger. It is still strong now, but I also want to have the argument that the money is spent efficiently,” said David.

Government spokesman Mihai Constantin announced on Tuesday that the government may approve a national budget bill by Friday, at the latest.

AGERPRES