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.

2022

The Ministry of Education continues the reforms in the field of education and training, in view of ensuring an education adapted to the market requirements and focused on personal and social development, with positive impact on the prevention and combating the early school leave. 

The quality of the educational act

In February 2022, the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in School Education (ARACIP) was reorganised so as the structure of the collective management body, the ARACIP Council, includes representatives of the Ministry of Education, Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of National Defence, a representative of the Association of Private Schools, a representative of ARACIS (Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education), and observatories from students’ associations, unions and parents’ associations.

Social programs

As concerns the reinforcement of the social package for education, targeting students in groups with particular risks, the Ministry of Education continued its annual national social programmes: 

A hot meal programme. The pilot programme offers some real financial support for parents, stimulates students’ participation in the educational process and ensures a fair and non-discriminatory access to quality education for all children and students. Government Extraordinary Decree No 105/2022 approved the continuance of the pilot programme providing food support for preschoolers and students from 450 public schools, for the 2022/2023 school year. 

Transportation for students is addressed by actions designed to ensure students’ mobility and the reimbursement of their transport costs. Students who cannot go to school in their locality of residence are reimbursed the costs of transport between their locality and the locality of their school, throughout the duration of classes, from the budget of the Ministry of Education, through their schools, within the limit of 50 km. Moreover, students who live in a boarding school or with a host are reimbursed an amount equal to the value of eight round trips per semester, from the budget of the Ministry of Education, through their schools.

Material support for children with special educational needs (SEN). With Order of the Education Minister No 5150/30.08.2021 on the organisation of admission to high-school for the 2022/2023 school year, distinct places are allocated, in excess to the number of places assigned to the schools concerned, in mainstream schools for the individual integration of students with SEN coming from mainstream education or special education, for their admission to public high-school education.

The national social protection programme money for high-school provides financial support to high-school students to continue/complete their studies. After the adoption of Government Decision No 712/2018, as from the 2018/2019 school year, every beneficiary student receives the monthly amount of RON 250 throughout the duration of classes, provided that the legal conditions are met. Besides the indexation of this amount (from RON 180 per month), the maximum threshold for qualifying for the grant was also raised from RON 150 to RON 500 per family member. 

Euro 200 is a national programme intended to support school students and higher education students without means to purchase computers. In 2021, the number of beneficiary school students and higher education students was 2 150.

The programme vocational scholarship is a national social programme addressed to all school students in VET and consists in some monthly financial support benefitting also the children of foreign citizens who are beneficiaries of a form of protection in Romania or the children of foreign citizens with a stay/residence right in the territory of Romania, who are enrolled in VET. 

Need-based grants used to be funded, until 2020 inclusively, only from the local budgets of the administrative-territorial units. In 2021, the Government of Romania set, in Government Decision No 1094/2021, a new amount for grants in the 2021/2022 school year, differentially for the first time depending on the type of grants/scholarships, as follows: RON 500 for high-achievement grants, RON 200 for merit-based grants and need-based grants, and RON 150 for study grants.

Romania’s programme for schools provides, for preschoolers in kindergartens with a normal 4-hour programme – public authorised/accredited kindergartens and private accredited kindergartens – and also for students in public and private primary and lower secondary education, for free fresh fruit and vegetables, milk and dairy and bakery products, within the limit of a daily amount per preschooler/student. The programme also provides for funding some educational measures accompanying the distribution of fruit, vegetables, milk and dairy products. 

School supplies are offered to students to encourage them to attend school. At the beginning of each school year, packages with specific school supplies are distributed to every class of students under the programme school supplies. 

The educational support granted based on social tickets in an electronic medium is provided by Government Extraordinary Decree No 133/2020, whereby preschoolers and primary and lower secondary students from low-income families benefit from social tickets for educational support, each ticket in the amount of RON 500. 

Curricular policies

Professionalisation of the teaching career – PROF

In the framework of educational intervention related to the curriculum, with the systemic project Professionalisation of the teaching career – PROF, based on Order of the education minister No 4800/2022, subject curricula in the category of school-based curriculum were approved for high-school education. The project pilots the subject curriculum “Digital education and media skills” (school-based curriculum – high-school, grades 9-12) in all schools from pedagogical training bases, and the subject curricula “Inclusive education and the development of critical thinking” (school-based curriculum – high-school, grades 9-10) and “Metacognitive strategies” (school-based curriculum – high-school, grade 10) - in pedagogical schools from pedagogical training base consortia. For the 2022/2023 school year, the National Centre for Policies and Assessment in Education (CNPEE), through its Curriculum Development Service and with support from the Unit for Research in Education, in partnership with the National Centre for the Development of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (CNDIPT), coordinated the compilation of the collection Methodological landmarks for the implementation of the grade 10 curriculum in the 2022/2023 school year. The Ministry of Education published a collection of educational resources composed of 86 distinct resources, as PDF files.

Relevant curriculum, open education for all – CRED

With the project Relevant curriculum, open education for all – CRED, methodological support was provided for the implementation of subject curricula in primary and lower secondary education, and the project continued the development of 18 methodological guides for the implementation of school curricula for primary and lower-secondary education, the methodological guide Creation of formal and non-formal contexts for learning at school and out of school, the guide on Curriculum management and the Good practice guide with examples of learning activities conducted with students at risk of school dropout from disadvantaged communities. Furthermore, piloting activities in connection with curricular adjustment strategies have continued in 25 pilot schools located in disadvantaged communities, which involved about 170 teachers and 2 500 students at risk of absenteeism and school dropout.

The ROSE Project regarding the Secondary Education

ME implements, in the period 2015-2022, the project on secondary education - ROSE, (Romania Secondary Education Project) financed by the Loan Agreement concluded between Romania and IBRD in 2015, ratified by Law. 

The activities dedicated to school education include funds given to low performing high-schools, based on a grant scheme, to reduce the school dropout rate, increase the high-school graduation rate and improve performance at the Baccalaureate Examination.

The main actions which may receive grants are:

• remedial, counselling, guidance and vocational guidance activities and personal development activities (at least 50% of the direct costs)
• extracurricular and information activities, such as research visits/trips, traineeships, participation in competitions and creation of school networks (up to 30% of the direct costs)
• minor civil engineering works for renovation, interior design of school buildings (for example: laboratories), with no negative impact on the environment, and the procurement of goods (up to 20% of the direct costs).

The project ROSE provides funding for bridge summer programmes, competitive grants for public faculties to help them deliver courses or other relevant activities for high-school students, primarily for the disadvantaged ones, offering them an academic experience intended to make them familiar with the academic worlds and initiate the early development of relevant skills for being successful in university education.

Development of a network of green schools

The Ministry of Education has launched the call for proposals, funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP): Development of a network of green schools and the purchase of green minibuses (I 10-R6. Update of the legislative framework to ensure ecologic standards for design, construction and furnishing in the school education system). The objective of this investment is to ensure the sustainability of school education establishments through their transition to green schools and green mobility (electric minibuses). In order to ensure the transition to a sustainable educational system, the Ministry of Education will initiate the development of a network of sustainable, environment-friendly schools. 300 000 m2 of school areas will benefit from structural changes to ensure their durability (thermal insulation, solar panels, planning green areas, selective collection) and 46 400 m2 of new green schools will be built. 

Modernising the material foundation

The objective of the project Safer, inclusive and sustainable schools, taking place in the period December 2021 – June 2027, is to modernise the school infrastructure, by rehabilitating, reinforcing and/or building schools, which were selected, in a first phase, from the areas with the highest seismic risk in Romania, so as to ensure safer and improved learning environments for students and teachers and increase institutional capacity to invest in sustainable educational infrastructure. So far, in this project, technical expertise has been completed for the 23 schools in the first allotment and procurement procedures have been launched for design services for 20 schools from the first allotment.

Reduce early school leaving.

Early warning mechanism in education (MATE)

The schools with a high school dropout risk were supported using the methodology and the tool an early warning mechanism in education (MATE) for the allocation of financial resources in the 2021/2022 school year to implement investment I4 from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). The Ministry of Education undertook actions to prepare the allocation of grants to 750 schools scheduled for round 1, inviting eligible schools to show their interest in participating in the programme, publishing for consultation the Applicant’s Guide for non-competitive projects, organising webinars to inform institutions that are interested and providing answers to frequent questions about the call, published on the website of the Ministry of Education. 

Motivated teachers in disadvantaged schools

The programme Motivated teachers in disadvantaged schools – intends to support financially the best mechanisms responding to the need to systemically include new educational measures/ programmes that ensure an improvement in the quality of education and fair access to education. This call supported interventions concerned with the needs of educational staff in public schools enrolling children with a high educational risk, so as to ensure quality in education and school inclusion. The number of members of the teaching staff/support staff who improved their level of competences in the framework of this call is 6 641. 

School for all

The interventions supported with the Human Capital Operational Programme call for proposals POCU/74/6/18 – School for all – funded under the Priority axis 6 Education and competences, aimed to reduce and prevent early school dropout and promote equal access to quality preschool, primary and secondary education, including to formal, non-formal and informal learning routes, for reintegration into education and training. Out of 129 contracted projects, 19 are in course of implementation. 

Measures promoted to support students displaced from Ukraine 

One of the main priorities of the Ministry of Education concerning the students displaced from Ukraine was to take legislative and administrative measures as quickly as possible to ensure their access to kindergartens and schools under the same conditions as for Romanian children.

To enable their integration into the Romanian education system, displaced Ukrainian children have access to programmes for learning Romanian and to extracurricular activities taking place in schools and in the settings established in children’s palaces and clubs. Their participation in extracurricular activities is not conditional on school attendance as audients.

Displaced Ukrainian children are eligible for all social support programmes and they are also offered scholarships, free accommodation at school, transportation, emergency medical assistance or goods for personal use. Displaced Ukrainian children benefit from psychological support and counselling. Moreover, the obligation to sit for the national examination for progressing from lower secondary to upper secondary education was dropped in order to facilitate even more their right to education. To reinforce its response to the Ukrainian crisis, Romania adopted a national plan of measures on the protection and inclusion of people displaced from Ukraine benefiting from temporary protection in Romania which focuses, besides emergency response measures, on protection measures in the medium and long term. For this purpose, the measures stipulated for the field of education aim to facilitate the integration of Ukrainian children for continuing their education, provide the necessary human resources, as well as the resources necessary for the teaching-learning and assessment process.

In cooperation with UNICEF, the Romanian Ministry of Education has recently developed a platform which will facilitate the collection of data about the Ukrainian children enrolled in Romanian schools. The platform will also provide information about the requirements of the Romanian schools enrolling Ukrainian children. With support from local authorities, educational hubs have been established in several schools in the country, which make it possible for displaced Ukrainian children to benefit from educational activities in Ukrainian using the platforms made available by the Ukrainian Ministry of Education.