The minister of education, Ligia Deca, on Monday stated that all high school students will learn the subject matter „History of Communism in Romania.”

„Communism nostalgia has complex causes, and one of the most important of these causes is ignorance of historical facts. The phenomenon is worrying, all the more so since it seems to affect different age categories, including young people who did not live even one day under the communist regime, some being born right after Romania joined NATO or the European Union. (…) Which is why all high school students in Romania will have this subject matter in their curriculum. And they will have this course right when they approach their first democratic vote, when they approach the age at which you become mature and begin to become an active citizen, including through the democratic gesture of voting,” said Deca at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Bucharest, at the event „Thirty-five Years Since the Romanian Revolution of 1989: Approval of the School Curriculum for the Subject Matter ‘History of Communism in Romania”.

According to the minister, students will have the opportunity to learn about the institutions, policies and social realities of the communist regime in a „balanced and documented” manner.

At the same time, topics will be addressed that target both repression and forms of resistance, as well as everyday life or protochronism.

Deca said that the curriculum integrates relevant case studies such as Radio Free Europe, Decree 770 of 1966 or the Warsaw Treaty, providing a clear picture especially of how political or historical decisions affected people’s lives.

The minister specified that this won’t be a simple course about the past and will not be an ideological exposition, but an objective presentation of the facts.

„Inadequate knowledge or even lack of knowledge of historical facts from the communist regime gives way to distortions that can influence social and, as we have seen, electoral behaviour. In addition, these lessons are also for the future,” the minister of education added.

In her opinion, the skills targeted by the study of the discipline primarily target critical thinking, civic reflection and historical empathy.

„Students, we hope, will understand that democratic values and human rights should never be taken for granted and that any slippage can have tragic consequences,” concluded Ligia Deca.

AGERPRES