In Romania, according to School Education Law 198/2023 (Article 188), in-service teacher training is both a right and an obligation. The professional development of teaching staff and of management, guidance and control staff and professional retraining are based on teachers’ professional profile and the professional standards associated with the teaching positions. The career progression of teaching staff in school education takes place through the examination for a definitive teacher status (definitivare în învăţământ) and the examinations for the teaching degrees 2 and 1. 

In line with specific adult education and lifelong learning regulations, teachers’ professional development takes place through mandatory traineeships.

The types of programmes for the professional development of teachers in school education are the following: 

• programmes for development of the teaching career in a specialty, called specialty programmes, which are forms of continuous professional development for teachers in school education in the field corresponding to their teaching position, in the psycho pedagogical and methodological area and in the area of educational management.
• complementary programmes for development in the teaching career, called complementary programmes, which are forms of continuous professional development for teachers in school education in areas that are complementary to the specialisation of their teaching position.
• programmes for development in the teaching career for functional empowerment, called functional empowerment programmes, which are forms of continuous professional development for teachers in school education that are specific to formal and non-formal education and contribute to the development of teachers’ abilities and skills in areas concerning pedagogical autonomy, self-management, development of appropriate social behaviours and other areas related to the field of education.

The professional development of teaching, management, guidance and control staff and professional retraining are based on the teacher’s professional profile and the professional standards for teaching positions and has the following goals:  

• to develop competences in the specialty of the teaching position and in the psycho pedagogical area.
• to develop appropriate competences for the stages in the teaching career through the system of teaching degrees.
• to acquire and develop management, guidance and control competences.
• to acquire new competences, including through retraining programmes for new specialisations and/or new teaching positions, other than those held based on teachers’ initial training.
• to acquire and develop digital teaching-learning-assessment skills.
• to acquire and develop skills for educational counselling and career guidance, for adult education, social skills and skills for other priority areas in the school education system.
• to acquire and develop communication competences in international languages.
• to develop transversal competences that are necessary in teaching in line with the professional standards for teaching positions.
• to acquire and develop skills to address school segregation, to promote curricular adaptation strategies and to work with children at risk, as well as skills to prevent and address bullying.

In the continuous professional development system for teachers in school education, one ECTS credit stands for the necessary workload for the acquisition of a set of competences, in accordance with the professional standards for the teaching profession, which are adequate to the roles and the professional profile of teachers in school education.  One ECTS credit is quantified in a number of 25 hours of training for acquiring a set of competences. A programme is accredited for a full number of ECTS credits, with 1 to 5 ECTS credits, in order to facilitate mutual recognition at European level.

The training condition requires teachers to accumulate, in every consecutive interval of 5 school years of work as a teacher, counting from the date of the examination for a definitive teaching status or, as appropriate, for the licence for a teaching career, a minimum number of 15 ECTS credits (the European credit transfer system), which attests the acquisition of competences from the completion of training programmes of the types above.

The provided legal interval is understood as a consecutive interval of 5 school years of work as a teacher, counting from the date of the examination for a definitive teaching status or, as appropriate, for the licence for a teaching career, without taking into account any periods of suspension, under the law, of the employment contract. 

The training requirement is considered fulfilled as of right if, in the provided legal interval, a teacher was in one of the following situations: 

• they obtained the teaching degree 2 or the teaching degree 1, as proven by the ministerial order validating the results of examinations for teaching degrees
• they obtained a new specialisation by graduating from a bachelor programme
• they completed a postgraduate programme
• they completed a re-training postgraduate programme
• they graduated from a master programme
• they graduated from a doctorate programme
• they graduated from a postdoctoral programme.

Teachers in school education have to participate at least once in 2 years in an accredited in service programme, in accordance with a plan made at school level, based on an analysis of training needs conducted by the Commission for Training and Development in the Teaching Career.

Some of the responsibilities of the Teacher Training and Development Commission are: 

• to map the in-service training needs of the teaching staff of the school and to refer them to the Teacher Centre.
• to identify and update the teaching staff on existing in-service training programmes and projects.
• to draft and propose to the Teacher Council for endorsement, on an annual basis, the planning of teacher training activities in accordance with the training needs identified in the school/locally, the priorities set in the national in-service teacher training plan and the professional profile of teachers.
• to plan, organise and deliver workshops, seminars, collaborative lessons, peer observation of lessons, case studies, exchanges, etc., at school level.
• to organise specific mentoring activities for beginner teachers, in connection with the national examination for a definitive teacher status/licence for the teaching career.
• to support teachers for the purpose of the recognition of their non-formal learning outcomes, including of those gained from participation in learning mobility in the framework of the EU programmes in the area of education.
• to manage the credit accumulation system at school level.
• to monitor the impact of teacher training on the quality of the teaching-learning-assessment process and on student progress at school level.
• to inform and support teachers in connection with their career progression.
• to advise teachers how to draft and handle their professional portfolio. 

Organisational aspects

The in-service training of teaching staff in school education takes place within a system of institutions, organisations and settings, connected by hierarchical and functional relations intended to ensure coherence, compatibility and compliance with quality standards for the design, delivery and the evaluation of in-service training programmes at national level.

There are several categories of providers of specialty programmes:

• accredited public and private higher education institutions, through their faculties, departments, institutes, training centres or legally established settings.
• teacher centres (casele corpului didactic)
• attested centres for in-service training in national minority languages
• school education establishments with an application school status, which provide initial teacher training
• institutions that are coordinated by or subordinated to the Ministry of Education and Research, such as: the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in School Education (ARACIP), the National Centre for Curriculum and Assessment (CNCE), the Institute of Education Sciences, the National Centre for the Development of Vocational and Technical Education (CNDIPT), the Romanian Language Institute (ILR), the National Children Palace in Bucharest, the County Centres for Educational Resources and Assistance / Bucharest Centre for Educational Resources and Assistance (CJRAE/CMBRAE), the County Centres of Excellence / Bucharest Centre of Excellence
• non-governmental organisations that are partners of the Ministry of Education and Research in the framework of systemic projects with external funding.

Retraining programmes are the responsibility of higher education institutions and are delivered based on specific methodological rules.

The obligatory structure of an accredited programme, associated to curricular criteria, includes the curriculum of the programme, the training strategy and the strategy for the final assessment of trainees.

The programme curriculum is organised in formal structures, such as modules or themes, corresponding to the key competences/specific competences associated with a teacher training profile, and in accordance with the training needs of the target group.

The training strategy is adapted depending on how the programme is organised and implemented, the specificity of the target group, the training activities/sessions and the expected outcomes.

The final assessment consists in a presentation by every trainee of their final assessment portfolio or of a relevant topic of that portfolio, developed individually by every trainee throughout the training activities. 

The final assessment takes place depending on how the programme is organised:

• for programmes organised as blended-learning (face-to-face and synchronous/asynchronous online), the final assessment is face-to-face.
• for programmes organised online (synchronous and asynchronous online, or synchronous online), the final assessment is synchronous online.
• for programmes organised face-to-face, the final assessment is face-to-face too. 

Irrespective of how a programme is organised, it has two obligatory components: a theoretical component and a practical component: 

• The theoretical component includes complex activities (for example, brainstorming, conceptual analysis, comparative analyses, case studies, collaborative projects, etc.), making use of information that is specific to this component.
• The practical component includes practical-applicative activities that are specific to the theme of the programme (such as practical-applicative activities in the area of teaching, educational management and leadership, digital applications, questionnaires, educational research, experimental activities, etc.). 

There are methodological-scientific and psycho-pedagogical activities at school level, which are organised and delivered through chairs and methodological commissions. The methodological-scientific activities conducted by chairs/methodological commissions address objectives and contents with direct impact on the educational process in the school and focus on the main pedagogical endeavours, namely: analysis, design, delivery, evaluation and process improvement/development. The main endeavours and activities which the chairs / methodological commissions contribute to teachers’ in-service training are:

• an analysis of general and specific, common and special educational needs, and setting priorities based on which the educational process is designed.
• an analysis of educational resources and determining how they will be distributed and used at school level and with the classes of students / groups of preschoolers.
• an analysis of the specific social and pedagogical context in which the educational process takes place.
• an analysis of classes of students / groups of preschoolers with regard to their previous learning outcomes and determining the initial (prior) conditions at every stage of the educational process (at the beginning of a cycle, school year, semester, new chapter of the curriculum).
• an operational definition of educational goals and/or competences targeted by the educational process.
• the organisation, logical structuring and psycho-pedagogical translation of teaching and learning contents depending on the particularities of students’ psychological and school age and the peculiarities of every class of students / group of preschoolers.
• a choice, analysis and evaluation of teaching strategies, methods, techniques and teaching-learning tools, and their application to the particularities of school subjects and those of classes of students / groups of preschoolers.
• a choice, construction and validation of formative and summative student assessment methods and tools, and of those for the evaluation of the outcomes of the educational process.
• determining and applying leverages and self-regulation and improvement means for the educational process depending on the results of the evaluation at each stage.
• extending and deepening specialty and psycho-pedagogical knowledge and integrating it into investigation, evaluation and critical analysis endeavours in connection with education theories, approaches and principles.

The main arrangements for chairs / methodological commissions to organise and carry out their activity are:

• group debates.
• drafting and presenting accounts on specialty topics or teaching or psycho-pedagogical topics.
• developing, implementing and using the outcomes of research projects done individually or in teams.
• book reviews and book presentations.
• scientific communication sessions,
• exchanges and lesson observation and auditing.
• practical activities with a demonstrative or applicative role.

In-service training activities are included in the programme of the chair / methodological commission, which is drafted annually and updated every semester. In case of chairs / methodological commissions established for a group of schools, the programme needs to include successive activities, in a balanced way, in every school which is part of the group.

The methodological-scientific and psycho-pedagogical activities at local, zonal or county level are organised and conducted through pedagogical circles.  These circles reunite ECEC teachers, primary school teachers, master-instructors, secondary teachers, teachers in charge with methodological commissions, school heads, teachers from the psycho pedagogical assistance centres, teacher centres, special education, children palaces and clubs, etc., from the same locality, area or county.

Pedagogical circles are forums for the synthesis and evaluation of the outcomes of the educational process and the factors determining its effectiveness, for communication and exploitation of teaching experiences and conclusions of pedagogical research done by teachers, for a critical and constructive evaluation of teaching-learning methods, contents and forms of organisation of the educational process, and for launching educational projects with zonal and county impact.

The process for the award of teaching degrees marks the career progression of teachers in line with the new National Qualifications Framework and the occupational standards associated with teaching specialisations, as well as in compliance with the new trends in the development of human resources and quality assurance in education.

The award of the definitive teacher status (definitivare în învăţământ) means a recognition of the minimum acceptable competences acquired by a person who chose a teaching career and therefore guarantees that the person has the necessary training for practicing the teaching profession and can embark on an ascending professional route. 

The award of the teaching degree 2 means the acquisition by a teacher of extra professionalisation, confirmed by the results at tests especially designed to emphasise the added value acquired since the award of the definitive teacher status. 

The award of the teaching degree 1 means the acquisition by a teacher of a high level of professional maturity and expertise, which recommends them as a generator of good practice in the school educational landscape.

The definitive teacher status and the teaching degrees 2 and 1 may be acquired by staff with a teaching role who meet the requirements related to their education in a specialty, psycho pedagogical training, length of service and professional performance. The examinations for a definitive teacher status and teaching degrees are distinct for every teaching position. The definitive teacher status and the teaching degrees 2 and 1 may be acquired, for each teaching position, in the specialty of the teacher or in one of the specialisations specified in their degrees.

The tests of the examinations for a definitive teacher status and the teaching degrees 2 and 1 are determined for every teaching position, as provided by law, and are unique at national level and obligatory for all institutions / training centres authorised to organise these examinations. The syllabuses on which the tests are based are approved by an order of the Education Minister and are valid nationally. Teachers who registered for taking the examinations for a definitive teacher status and the teaching degrees 2 and 1 may participate in preparatory programmes offered by training centres for the purpose of these examinations.

The definitive teacher status

The national examination for a definitive teacher status is organised by the Ministry of Education and Research according to a methodology approved by a ministerial order and includes:

• stage 1, eliminatory, is conducted by the school inspectorates during the practical training period for one school year and consists in an evaluation of the teacher’s professional activity in school, an evaluation of the personal professional portfolio and at least two classroom inspections.
• stage 2, final, takes place at the end of the traineeship for one school year and consists in a written examination based on topics and references approved by the Ministry of Education and Research for every single specialty. 

Teachers who pass the examination for a definitive teacher status are granted the title of teacher with a practice right in school education.

Teachers employed for a fixed term, who pass the examination for a definitive teacher status, may continue in their teaching post based on a decision of the board of the school that employed them, issued under the law.

Teachers who do not pass the examination for a definitive teacher status may be employed in the national school education system only for a fixed term with a beginner teacher status.

The teaching degree 2

To register for the examination for the teaching degree 2, candidates must meet the requirements on an actual length of service as a teacher of at least 4 years since they were granted the definitive teacher status. The tests of the examination for the teaching degree 2 consist in:

• a special inspection, preceded by at least two current school inspections, and
• written and oral tests in the specialty and the specialty didactics, pedagogy and the psychology of education.

If a teacher fails, the examination for the teaching degree 2 may be repeated after at least 2 school years.
 

The teaching degree 1

To register for the examination for the teaching degree 1, candidates must meet the requirements on an actual length of service as a teacher of at least 4 years since they were granted the teaching degree 2. The tests of the examination for the teaching degree 1 consist in:

• an admission interview, based on topics and references approved by the Ministry of Education and Research for every single specialty.
• a special school inspection, preceded by at least two current school inspections, spread throughout the 4 years, all appreciated with the maximum descriptor.
• a methodological-scientific paper, written with guidance from a scientific referee appointed by au authorised institution.
• the presentation of the scientific-methodological paper, before an established commission, in accordance with the methodology of the Ministry of Education and Research.

If a teacher fails, the examination for the teaching degree 1 may be repeated after at least 2 school years.

Incentives, supporting measures and funding for participation in continuing professional development (CPD) activities

There are no incentives.