Article published on hotnews.ro website
The government announced on Monday that it will support the Publishers’ Association’s proposal to promote books by Romanian authors and writings in Romanian, especially to schoolchildren, by allocating a dedicated budget for the purchase of these books by public libraries to make them available to readers. Prime Minister Ciucă proposed a programme called “One book a year for every pupil”, without giving concrete details.
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă had on Monday at the Victoria Palace, a meeting with publishers, librarians and cultural personalities. The discussions focused on the difficulties of Romanian books or books published in Romanian to reach the public, but also on proposals for solutions to encourage reading especially among children and young people.
- “The Government will support the Publishers’ Association’s proposal to promote books by Romanian authors and writings in Romanian, especially to schoolchildren, by allocating a dedicated budget for the purchase of these books by public libraries, in order to make them available to readers.
- Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă has also proposed the implementation of the “One book a year for every pupil” programme, and the Publishers’ Association has expressed its willingness to support it,” reads a Government press release, without specifying the estimated budget for this programme.
What is the “One book a year for every pupil” programme? Explanations from the Government spokesperson
Contacted by HotNews.ro to give details about the budget and the elements of this new programme proposed by the Prime Minister, Dan Cărbunaru, Government spokesman, said that a draft in this regard will be drafted in the coming period.
- “It’s a program where every student gets one book a year. The draft is to be drawn up with the Ministry of Education. The operationalisation will ultimately cover several aspects, including the budget required. The draft will be approved after another round of consultations.”
Dan Cărbunaru told HotNews.ro.
Who attended the meeting with Prime Minister Ciucă
The press release also states that the Chief Executive agreed with the publishers, librarians and book authors participating in the meeting on a public campaign to promote the reading of books by Romanian authors and in Romanian, the applied reading of classical and contemporary Romanian literature and literature in Romanian.
The meeting was attended by the Minister of Education, Sorin Cîmpeanu and the State Counsellor Iulian Chifu.
The guest list included Acad. Răzvan Theodorescu, Nicolae Manolescu, corresponding member of the Romanian Academy, Prof. univ. dr. Victor Neumann, Horațiu Mălăele, Prof. univ. dr. Dan Dungaciu, Prof. dr. Doina Banciu, lawyer Marian Nazat, Adina Rosetti, Conf. Răzvan Voncu.
On behalf of librarians, Agnes Terezia Erich and Dragoș Adrian Neagu – President of the National Association of Librarians and Public Libraries in Romania, and on behalf of book publishers – Ovidiu Enculescu, Director of RAO Publishers, Mihai Mitrică – Executive Director of AER (Romanian Publishers Association), Andrei Niculescu – Publisher, member of the AER Coordinating Council, Silvia Colfescu – Director of Vremea Publishing House, Dan Croitoru – Director of Polirom Publishing House, Dan Iacob – Director of ART Publishing House.