Romania’s school curriculum should include classes that teach girls how to walk nicely, be good hosts, and how to serve tea, like boarding schools used to have some 100 years ago, according to a state secretary in the Education Ministry. His statement determined a strong reaction from student and pupil organizations, which asked for his resignation.

Vasile Salaru, a state secretary in Romania’s Education Ministry, said on Wednesday that local schools should have a separate curriculum for girls.

“These counseling classes aim to provide a smoother integration into society, through attitude and posture. Our pupils don’t know how to walk on the street. I would like to see an 11th or 12th-grade student walking nicely on heels, dancing the waltz or tango, and being a good hostess. I think this is a side of Romanian education that has been totally neglected and that could remind us, I hope you don’t smile, of the former boarding school education,” Salaru said in a press conference, according to local newspaper Glasul Hunedoarei.

He took his remarks even further saying that girls don’t need to know traffic rules, but how to walk provocatively: “I apologize if I didn’t make myself understood, but I think that a boy, when he has a girl by his arm, <at least this is how things are where I come from, in the Moldova region>, is not interested if the girl knows the traffic rules, but if she knows how to walk nicely, like a lady. In one sentence: Chest forward, bottom back, and let the boys faint!”

Several student organizations have manifested their disapproval towards the education official’s statements, which they called sexist, and asked for his resignation. They asked the National Anti-Discrimination Council to sanction the state secretary for his statements, according to Hotnews.ro.

“We also ask the Government to release Vasile Salaru from his duties as state secretary, given that the educational policies developed by the Education Ministry should be modern, based on equity, equality, and non-discrimination, and he proved that he didn’t follow these principles in his activity,” the students’ representatives added.

Vasile Salaru resigned on Thursday, October 22.

Romania ranks last in the EU on equality between men and women

editor@romania-insider.com

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