New rules for the baccalaureate exam

More than 170,000 high school children are taking their baccalaureate language and computer skills tests

Bogdan Matei, 12.02.2018, 13:47

For the first time in post-communist Romania, this years baccalaureate exams have begun as early as February with the oral language and computer tests. Until the 22nd of February, around 177,000 young people in their final year at high school or who have already finished high school will be taking an oral language test in the Romanian language or the language of ethnic minorities, a foreign language test and a computer test. These are pass/fail tests, with no marks being awarded.

The second part of the baccalaureate examination will be held between the 25th and 28th of June and will consist in written tests for which marks will be awarded. This timetable was established, together with parents and students representatives, by the former Social Democrat education minister Liviu Pop, who has in the meantime left the Cabinet. Pop argued that the period before the written tests is a very busy time for pupils and that splitting the examination in two parts would give children a respite until summer.

Trade unions in the education system warn, however, that changing the exam timetable may lead to strange situations that the law does not cover. For example, some of the students who pass the February exams may be unable to take their summer exams because of poor grades in class. We will have a better picture of the new system after the exams in summer, by comparing things with last years baccalaureate, when the best results in the last 8 years were reported. Almost 73% of the pupils who took the tests passed, which accounts for a 5% increase compared with 2016. Of the 135,000 pupils, only 97 obtained the maximum score. The best results were obtained in Sibiu, in the centre, Bacau and Iasi, in the east, and Cluj, in the west, while the worst came from Ilfov and Giurgiu, in the south.

Minister Pop said at the time that the good scores were not the result of easier exams than in previous years, but of the fact that pupils worked harder. There were also high schools, especially technical ones, where no pupil passed the baccalaureate exam. The National Liberal Party in opposition said the authorities needed to take urgent measures to support the education system. Having themselves held the education ministry in the past, the Liberals said the baccalaureate exam had in recent years become a mere bureaucratic formality sending young people into unemployment, with no qualifications, no practical skills and no chance of integrating into the labour market.

(translated by: Cristina Mateescu)