2025

The Ministry of Education has continued to implement educational policies intended to ensure equal access to education, reduce school dropout rates and enhance the quality of the educational process through:

Curricular policies. The new framework curricula for high schools 

Standard version

The Order of the Ministry of Education and Research No 4350/2025 approved the new framework curricula for full-time high-school education (37 framework curricula). The framework curricula for high-school education (upper secondary education) keep some of the structural elements of the framework curricula for primary and lower secondary education and add up several elements that are specific to this level of education. School subjects/modules are still grouped in curricular areas: Language and Communication; Mathematics and Natural Sciences; People and Society; Arts; Physical Education, Sport and Health; Technologies; and Counselling and Guidance.

The framework curricula for high-school education include the following segments: a core curriculum, a specialty curriculum and a curriculum at the student’s choice from the school provision. In accordance with School Education Law 198/2023, school subjects may also be modular, meaning that a subject can be studied during a period shorter than a school year.

Framework curricula set out the number of hours (lessons) allocated to a subject/module in a week. The framework curricula for the technological path of high-school education also indicate the total number of hours dedicated to practical training. For each framework curriculum there are specific notes which include clarifications and details that are necessary for its application. 

The framework curricula for full-time high-school education apply progressively beginning with the 9th grade in the 2026/2027 school year.

Pilot version

The national programme for a systemic piloting of framework curricula for public, private and confessional full-time high-school education, which applies as from the 2026/2027 school year, has been approved by the Order of the Ministry of Education and Research No 4444/2025. The pilot version is designed for those schools that wish for an even more autonomous curriculum. 

With this version, schools receive an annual budget of hours, and they have the freedom to decide on the distribution of these hours and the structure of school subjects, provided that they publicly sustain their proposal and obtain ministerial endorsement. 

More flexibility and curricular autonomy: with an allocation of a considerable segment to the curriculum at the student’s choice from the school provision (up to 2 000 hours per curricular area throughout a cycle of study), the alternative framework curriculum allows for a real autonomy for schools and students in defining, in a genuine partnership, an educational course. Schools may create their own relevant provision, based on a need analysis and on local resources and opportunities.

A personalised and differentiated educational course: this model advances an approach which is focused on the student and their development journey, allowing for a configuration of some flexible learning routes, which are adapted to each path, profile of studies, qualification and vocational or professional field.

A connection between schools and their external partners: with the development of the segment dedicated to the curriculum made up of students’ choices from the school provision, the alternative framework curriculum enables the school to be open to the community, to institutions, businesses, NGOs and local authorities, so as to integrate volunteering activities, internships, community projects, practical workshops or applied activities in the educational endeavor. 

Social programs 

As regards the consolidation of the social package for education, which targets students from disadvantaged groups, the Ministry of Education and Research has continued to implement annual national social programmes:

Encouraging the purchase of computers with financial aid which is granted based on social criteria under Law 269/2004, for the purpose of development of ICT skills (EURO 200).

At the beginning of every school year, packages with school supplies that are specific to each school grade are distributed within the programme School Supplies to students enrolled in public full-time primary and lower secondary education who come from families with a monthly net income per family member, earned every year in the month of July, of at most 50 % of the national minimum basic gross wages. 

The national programme A Healthy Meal aims to promote healthy eating habits among children and young people in Romanian schools, and to support in this way their participation in education. The programme targets preschoolers and students who attend educational activities conducted in the period of classes in line with the structure of the school year, and it consists in some daily food support given for free (a hot meal/ a food package), limited to a daily amount of RON 15/beneficiary, VAT included.

Romania’s Programme for Schools. The programme provides for free fresh fruit and vegetables, milk and milk products, and bakery products for preschoolers and students in public and private primary and lower secondary education, limited to a daily amount per preschooler/student, as well as the funding of some educational measures related to the distribution of products. These measures are:  the organisation of visits at orchards/vegetable farms or dairy farms, or to businesses dealing with the conditioning, packaging, storing and processing of fruit and vegetables and/or dairies; the organisation of thematic competitions/days dedicated to eating fruit and vegetables and milk and milk products or hands-on educational activities; the organisation of other extracurricular activities; specific topics covered by the national curriculum, including in the school-based curriculum, at the optional subject Health Education, etc.

Grants 

• Merit grants. The amount of the grants may be supplemented by the boards of schools depending on the funds allocated to them by the local authorities or other revenues earned under the law.
• Need-based grants – for primary, lower secondary and high-school (upper secondary) education, and also for the programme A Second Chance (for minor students) including part-time students – support the participation in education for the students from disadvantaged families.
• Technological grants (which replace the vocational grant) support the participation in education and school achievement for students enrolled on vocational specialisations.
• Grants for minor mothers support the participation in education and school achievement for minor mothers in full-time education who have their own child/children to provide for.
• Resilience grants.
• Grants for Olympic excellence.

Student transportation. There are several transport arrangements for students: 

• Students in accredited/authorised school education, including students enrolled in schools listed in the special register of school education establishments with a foreign curriculum, benefit from free local public transport services, including metropolitan and county transport, road transport, waterborne and subway transport, as well as railway transport for all categories of trains, the economy class, throughout the school year.
• Students in accredited/authorised school education who live and/or study in the Ilfov County benefit from free subway transportation.
• Students who study in other locality than that of their residence and cannot benefit from regular public transport for people will not have free transportation but they will continue to receive a lump sum for transport.
• Free transportation for students is ensured by a reimbursement of the transport costs given to transport operators from the budget of the Ministry of Education. 

Hospital schools

For the first time, an education law (Law 198/2023) explicitly provides for the organization of education for students admitted to hospital. 

The hospital school is an adapted form of education for students in hospitals, which aims to ensure educational and psychological continuity. Such schools allow students to study in special conditions, having access to educational and psychological resources even during hospitalisation periods.

The methodology has been approved by Order No 4.026/1.632/2025, which regulates the establishment and functioning of hospital schools. 

Hospitalised students benefit from admission on special high-school places without having to take the national student assessment, as provided by law. 

The project also includes measures to ensure an educational programme that is adapted to students’ needs, involving the cooperation of teachers, doctors and parents. 

This approach is intended to provide educational, psychological and social support, therefore ensuring equal opportunities in learning. 

Professional standards 

In the document A profile and professional standards for teachers in school education, with career stages and education levels, the professional profile and standards reflect teachers’ competences at different stages in their career, namely the knowledge, skills and attitudes that are necessary to provide quality education and support each child or youth to reach their development potential.

Teachers’ professional profile and standards are organised across: 

• education levels: (i) early childhood education and care; (ii) primary education; (iii) lower secondary and upper secondary (high school) education; (iv) technological education and dual technological education.
• seven competence areas: (1) Knowledge about students and how they learn; (2) Curriculum and the teaching-learning process; (3) Learning environment and wellbeing; (4) Student counselling, cooperation with families/guardians and with the community; (5) Ethics, reflection and lifelong learning; (6) Institutional development; (7) Digital technology in education, and
• stages of the teaching career: (i) graduate, with a bachelor's degree; (ii) teaching degree 2; (iii) teaching degree 1.

2024

Competence-focused curriculum and assessment

A focus on competences and standardised, objective and relevant assessments. Related projects and programmes:

• A new national curriculum is being designed for high-school education.
• Initiation of the development of an assessment framework for functional literacy (standards, sets of items and tests), the development of teachers’ competences and the implementation of a pilot intervention mechanism concerning students’ functional literacy.
• Digitised assessment of written tests at the baccalaureate examination, the national test and the examination for teaching positions extended to all Romanian counties.
• Adoption of a memorandum on Romania’s participation in the second cycle of OECD’s Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) 2024 – 2029. PIAAC aims to assess the existing competencies in the labour market among the population aged between 16 and 65. 

Inclusive quality education for all 

Ensuring the functionality of a fair educational system, which allows access to quality inclusive education for all people who, being in the territory of Romania, have a right to education. Related projects and programmes: 

• A grant scheme under the National Programme for Reducing School Dropout, with outcomes concerning a lower risk of school dropout, the participation in and improvement of students’ achievement in national tests, an increase in the share of students completing lower secondary education, an increase in the rate of transition from middle school (lower secondary) to high school (upper secondary).
• National social programmes for students in groups with particular risks carried out on an annual basis: A Second Chance, A Healthy Meal, Material Support for Children with Special Educational Needs (SEN), Euro 200, Scholarships, Romania’s Programme for Schools, School Supplies, Transport for Students.
• Ensuring conditions for equal opportunities for students with vision impairment, hearing impairment and neurodevelopmental disorders who take the national examinations, the national test for 8 graders and the national baccalaureate examination.
• Implementation of the project “Competence and efficiency in teaching Romanian to children and students of national minorities of Romania”, which aims to prevent and reduce early school leaving among national minority students in compulsory school education.

The teaching career and professional route 

 An attractive professional option, which enjoys respect in society, generally, and within local communities in particular. Related projects and programmes:

• Development of a profile and professional standards for teachers in school education, per career stages and levels of education.
• Developing/reviewing the regulatory framework for the professionalisation of the teaching career so as to allow the organisation and functioning of a teaching career mentoring (within the project Professionalisation of the teaching career - PROF).
• Projects implemented under the NRRP call for proposals Digital pedagogy for teachers in school education, which aims to develop digital and digital pedagogy skills.
• Projects implemented under the call for proposals A training programme for teachers in high-schools with an agricultural profile, which aim to develop and deliver in-service training programmes for teachers in high-schools with an agricultural/forestry profile.

 Funding and the infrastructure of the school education system 

A flexible school funding mechanism, which ensures a correlation between the objectives of the investment policy and the existing needs for modernizing the school infrastructure.

Programmes funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP):

• Projects concerned with providing equipment for schools: equipment for computer science laboratories, furniture for classrooms, equipment for school offices, psychological-pedagogical assistance offices, science laboratories, etc.
• Projects concerned with the implementation of some investments supporting the green transition, energy efficiency, renovation of buildings and circular economy, involving the rehabilitation/construction of new school buildings for the purpose of gaining a ‘green school’ status, as well as the purchase of electrical minibuses.
• Grants for constructing some rural school campuses and providing them with an infrastructure.
• Projects concerned with improving the infrastructure of high schools with an agricultural profile.

Projects funded from reimbursable funds (BIRD):

• The project on ECEC reform (PRET), which aims to improve the quality of the infrastructure of the preschool education system.
• The project Safer, Inclusive and Sustainable Schools, which aims to modernise school infrastructure through the rehabilitation, reinforcement/construction of school buildings in areas in Romania with a high seismic risk.

2023

Curricular policies

Professionalisation of the teaching career – PROF

With a systemic intervention through the project Professionalisation of the teaching career – PROF, which is implemented in the period March 2021 – December 2023, the Ministry of Education is reconsidering the training system for the teaching career, intervening in both initial training (through traineeships) and in-service training (by creating learning communities and flexible routes for access to career and career development). 

Completed actions: 

• The necessary framework for the operationalisation of the institutional mechanism dedicated to teaching career mentoring in school education was created at the National Centre for Teaching Career Mentoring.
• Strategic landmarks of the teaching career in Romania compared to the European Area have been developed.
• The following bodies were established:
  • National Body of Mentor Teachers in School Education,
  • National Body of Trainers in Teaching Career Mentoring.
• The following registries were created:
  • National registry of mentor teachers,
  • National registry of trainers in school education.
• The last two in-service training programmes in the area have been accredited:
  • PROF III – Educational management in a mentoring context,
  • PROF IV – Coaching in the teaching-learning-assessment process in a blended learning context.
• The components of the national network of applicative schools were approved.
• The subject curricula under the school-based curriculum were approved at high-school level.
• Three variants of educational provision for subject curricula under the school-based curriculum have been developed:
  • digital education and media skills,
  • metacognitive strategies,
  • inclusive education and the development of critical thinking.

Relevant curriculum, open education for all – CRED

The project Relevant curriculum, open education for all – CRED has continued the curricular empowerment of teachers so as to ensure a methodological approach that focuses on key competences.

By April 2023:

• a number of 55 093 teachers had been trained.
• about 8 700 open educational resources (OER) had been validated and published (1 408 resources for primary education and 4 533 resources for lower secondary education).
• a glossary has been developed, “Educational concepts related to the National Curriculum”.
• the production and validation of OER has continued, while ensuring the technical functionalities of online educational platforms.
• Teachers benefited from three training programmes as follows:
  • 49 883 teachers in the curricular empowerment programme Relevant curriculum, open education for all – CRED,
  • 4 780 teachers in the programme the management of an efficient implementation of the national curriculum, MANAGER-CRED, dedicated to head teachers and deputy head teachers of mainstream schools,
  • 3 896 teachers in the programme Digital educational resources: creation, use, evaluation – RED-CRED. A new training programme started in April 2023: Design and implementation of outdoor activities in the national curriculum for primary and lower secondary education – CREDactout. This programme is dedicated to non-formal education, and it will provide training for 480 teachers.

Accession to OECD

In the context of its accession to OECD, Romania joins, as from 2023, the INES programme dedicated to indicators of education systems. Pursuant to its participation in INES, Romania will be included for the first time in the publication Education at a Glance 2023, besides the Member countries of OECD and other candidate countries. The information for EAG is collected at national level throughout the year, relying on administrative data or surveys already completed and also including up to 20 separate questionnaires. The publication also includes data from international surveys like PISA, PIAAC and TALIS.

The ROSE Project regarding the Secondary Education

In 2015-2024, the Ministry of Education implements the project on secondary education (ROSE). The goal of the project is to reduce school dropout in upper secondary education and the first year of tertiary education and to raise the rate of success at the baccalaureate examination. In the framework of ROSE, 874 grants are in course of implementation through activities which include: remedial activities, counselling, advice and occupational guidance, coaching, personal development and development of socio-emotional skills, extracurricular and information activities (such as visits/trips for documentation purposes, traineeships, participation in competitions and the establishment of school networks). 

In the high schools benefiting from grants: 

• the average school dropout rate in final years dropped from the reference rate of 6.5 % to 1.96 %.
• the average high-school graduation rate rose from 86.9 % to 95.65 %.
• the success rate at the baccalaureate examination rose from 49.6 % to 67.76 %.

The systemic intervention component of the ROSE project provides funding for the participation of Romanian students in international educational assessment programmes, such as TIMSS 2019 and PISA 2022, which allows a diagnosis of the educational system using data that is valid and comparable at international level as a basis for recommendations and solutions to increase the performance of the educational system and improve outcome-based national policies.

In 2023, actions are taken to provide financial support for the participation of Romanian students in TIMSS 2023, as well as in studies focusing on other key competences, like citizenship competences in ICCS (International Civic and Citizenship Education Study) and digital competences in ICILS (International Computer and Information Literacy Study). 

Development of a network of green schools

Green Week

On 24 February 2023, the Ministry for Education and the Ministry for the Environment, Waters and Forests launched Saptamanaverde.edu.ro, an online platform with available resources for students and teachers to help them organise activities under the Green Week programme. The online platform provides support to schools and includes a range of information materials and ideas/suggestions for activities which may be organised in schools. Teachers don’t have to limit themselves at the proposed resources and they are encouraged to identify, locally, other types of complementary activities, too. 

During a school year, every school may choose one week in the period from February to June to conduct the Green Week programme. Schools may carry out, for five consecutive days, educational activities that contribute to preventing climate change and to environmental protection.

Identification of green competences

With regard to the identification of green competences, the analysis of the demand and offer of green competences conducted by the Sectoral Committee for Environmental Training recommends that all occupational standards include general green competences, selected depending on the requirements of the occupation concerned. In the period 2020 - March 2023, the National Qualifications Authority approved 217 occupational standards, and for 104 of these standards, green (environmental protection) competences have also been defined/developed.

Modernising the material foundation

The implementation of the project Safer, inclusive and sustainable schools in Romania has continued. The first lot of 23 schools at risk have been selected for funding; in February 2023, design contracts have been signed for eight schools, while for the remaining 14 schools, the procurement procedure for design services was re-launched in March 2023.

Reduce early school leaving.

Ensuring equal access to education and reducing early school leaving have remained on the agenda for priority interventions. The planning of these interventions is also provided as a measure for the favourable condition applicable to education and training for access to EU funds in the 2021-2027 programming period.

National strategy for parental education 2023-2030

In order to support children entering a new education cycle, the Ministry of Education proceeded with the development of the project National strategy for parental education 2023-2030. The vision of parental education in Romania – subsequent to the goals of the “Educated Romania” project – proposes a significant contribution of parental education, through specific parental education and support measures with a view to the country targets on the horizon of 2030, to building a modern society where there are fulfilled parents, happy children and solidary communities. The general objective of the strategy is to inform, prepare and valorise parents so as to provide the best support for their children’s care, protection, nutrition, health and education. The due date for the approval of the draft strategy is the third trimester of 2023.

School for all

The call for proposals School for all promotes integrated measures for preventing and reducing school dropout among young and adult learners, for supporting the education staff, including through “a second chance” and “school after school” programmes. By 31 March 2023, 29 208 children, 147 697 students and 18 149 youth/adults had received support for participating in education programmes.

Motivated teachers in disadvantaged schools

The call for proposals Motivated teachers in disadvantaged schools is dedicated to the most disadvantaged schools, which have many children at risk of school dropout and are not successful in attracting or keeping qualified teachers. By 31 March 2023, 89 428 teachers and support teachers had benefited from training/good practice exchange programmes, and 73 777 of them improved their level of competences/were certified. 

Social programs

The Ministry of Education has continued and extended the implementation of social programmes so as to ensure access to education for students from disadvantaged groups.

Money for Highschool

Money for Highschool is a national social protection programme. In the 2022/2023 school year, the number of beneficiaries was 20 509.

Euro 200

Euro 200 is a programme that supports school and university students with few financial resources to purchase computers. In 2021, the number of beneficiaries was 2 150 school and university students.

Hot Meal

Hot Meal, a pilot programme providing food support for preschoolers and school students, was extended to 450 public schools. In the 2022/2023 school year, preschoolers and school students in public education received a free hot meal or food package limited at the amount of RON 15 a day per beneficiary. The main purpose of the programme is to reduce the school dropout rate and ensure fair and non-discriminating access to education for all preschoolers and school students in Romania.

The vocational scholarship programme

The vocational scholarship programme is addressed to all school students in vocational education and training and consists in financial support amounting to RON 200 a month. The support is also available to children of foreign citizens benefiting from a form of protection in Romania or children of foreign citizens with a right of stay/residence in the territory of Romania who are enrolled in vocational education and training. In the 2021/2022 school year, 99 342 students benefited from vocational scholarships.

Need-based grants.

In 2021, the Government of Romania set the following monthly amounts for grants (scholarships) given to school students: RON 500 for high achievement grants, RON 200 for merit grants and need-based grants, and RON 150 for study grants.

Romania’s Programme for Schools

Romania’s Programme for Schools provides, free of charge, for preschoolers in authorised/accredited public kindergartens and accredited private kindergartens with a normal 4-hour programme, and also for students in public and private primary and lower secondary education, fresh fruit and vegetables, milk and dairy products and bakery products. In the 2021/2022 school year, the total number of preschoolers and primary and lower secondary students benefiting from the programme was 1 903 851.

Transportation for students

Students who cannot attend school in the locality where they reside are reimbursed for the cost of transportation between their locality and the locality where they attend school throughout the duration of classes. Government Emergency Order No 159/2022 introduced a lump sum for student commuters.

School supplies

School supplies is a programme for students in public full-time primary and lower secondary education who receive packages with school supplies specific to each grade. In the 2021/2022 school year, the number of beneficiaries was 258 356 students. Order of the education minister 3.783/03.03.2023 approved the maximal prices for school supply packages offered to students, which is RON 65 per package for students in primary education and RON 75 per package for students in lower secondary education. Educational support in the form of social tickets on an electronic medium, where the beneficiaries have the possibility to choose the school supplies for children who attend school. The programme is implemented over two school years and the total number of beneficiaries for whom cards were issued in the amount of RON 500 each is 405 000 children/students from 13 376 educational establishments.