Catalin Croitoru, a leader of the National Education Federation in Romania, warned in the very day the 2007-2008 school year opened: "In Romania there is no strategy for education. There is neither a national programme with clear objectives to make things progress naturally so that the education system will recover step by step. In the last 17 years, every education minister tried to put his 'seal' on education, which thus turned into a character with scars and deep wounds. There have been lots of inventions, ceaseless shocks and inappropriate impulses on the system and right now we have reached a crisis. The system is on the verge of collapsing. (...)" The official claims it is because of the lacking national strategy and he argues: "A national system involves millions of people. Almost a half of Romania's population is one way or the other involved in the education system: students, parents, teachers and businessmen." (M.S.)