\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
For 5 years now, the current education minister, Ligia Deca, was the
\nofficial coordinator of the Educated Romania project initiated by president Klaus
\nIohannis and reviewed throughout his 2 terms in office. Implemented these days
\nin the form of the new Education Laws, the project is aimed at providing
\nsolutions to the serious problems in Romania’s education system. Suffice it to say
\nthat ever since the 1989 anti-communist Revolution, legislation in the sector
\nhas been habitually amended by the successive education ministers from various
\npolitical parties, but nothing managed to address the issues that teachers,
\nstudents and parents warned would severely affect the educational process. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
After an initial consultation stage in 2016-2017, the Educated Romania
\nproject was posted for public review in 2018. As a presidential adviser on
\neducation, Ligia Deca directly coordinated the project, took part in debates
\nand in drafting the final report, issued in the summer of 2021. More than 60
\nstructures in education and close to 13,000 people worked to put it together. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Last autumn, president Klaus Iohannis appointed Ligia Deca as education
\nminister, arguing that Educated Romania is a badly needed national project,
\nwhich must translate as soon as possible into legislation. The undergraduate
\neducation bill aims at reducing school dropout rates, among other things, while
\nthe higher education bill is designed to support European cooperation for
\nRomanian universities. Teaching staff professionalism, improved access to early
\neducation, curbing functional illiteracy, adjusting curricula to the labour
\nmarket, updating test and assessment methods, as well as increasing assistance
\nfor underprivileged children, are also important goals being pursued. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
But for most children and parents, the question is what happens with the
\nhigh school admission and graduation exams, the National Evaluation and the
\nBaccalaureate, respectively. The Baccalaureate will include an additional exam,
\ntesting students’ basic skills, and another change is a Baccalaureate exam for
\ntechnological colleges. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Ligia Deca herself recently spoke about the high school admission exam
\non Radio Romania: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Ligia Deca: Essentially, it is
\nthe National Evaluation as we know it, with Romanian language and literature
\nand Maths exam, plus a mother tongue exam where applicable, followed by a
\npossible high school admission exam only for those profiles where there is competition,
\nand only for 60% of the seats available. The other 40% of the places will be
\nearmarked by a computer system taking into account the National Evaluation
\nresults. Students and parents should know that these changes will not be
\nimplemented as soon as the law takes effect, in one or two years’ time. We want
\npredictability, so the kids going into 5th grade in the first year
\nafter the law takes effect will sit for the National Evaluation and high school
\nadmission in the new format. Specifically, high school admission exams will be
\nimplemented as of 2027 at the soonest, and the Baccalaureate either in 2028, or
\nin 2029, depending on how soon we finalise the curriculum reform.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The new education bills are designed to shift the focus of the education
\nsystem on students and to nurture the potential of each kid. How will this be
\nachieved? Minister Ligia Deca explains: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Ligia Deca: We are talking about
\na paradigm shift. It’s not about the curriculum being chosen by a particular
\nschool, but about the curriculum being chosen by each particular student from
\nwhat the school has to offer. We want this optional component to be enhanced
\nand better adjusted to children’s potential. At the same time, each student
\nwill have a portfolio which will reflect their educational progress, allowing
\nus to step in much sooner than we do now, in case of problems. For each
\neducation level there are provisions in the law that improve the connections
\nbetween school counsellors, form masters, parents, the other teaching staff, so
\nas to have a customised plan for each student. Also, the national programme on
\nreducing functional illiteracy will include standardised annual tests, which
\nwill enable us to see where we should focus, where we can move up to more
\ncomplex subjects for high-performance kids and so on. So these laws will be
\nbetter focused on students’ needs.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
As for the teaching staff, what will change in terms of their salaries
\nand professional assessment? Minister Ligia Deca: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Ligia Deca: The Education Ministry
\nand the main trade union federations have been working, these past months, on
\nwhat the salary system should look like in the new salary law. We have
\nsubmitted these documents to the labour ministry as early as in February, to
\nhelp them draft the section on the public education system in the salary law. There
\nhave been talks with the trade unions and between the unions and the parties in
\nthe ruling coalition. As for assessing the work of teaching staff, we have agreed
\nto explore together ways to adjust the instruments we already have, such as the
\nperformance bonus, as well as ways to implement new instruments, such as
\nallowing 2% of the salary funds at the discretion of headmasters, to be given
\nas incentives for the teachers who get more involved in school projects.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
For the time being, figures indicate that school dropout is one of the
\nmajor problems in Romanian schools, with Eurostat saying Romania sees the
\nhighest dropout rates in Europe. And the rates are even higher in rural
\ncommunities. Another problem is functional illiteracy, measured in the 15-year-olds’
\nresults at PISA tests, where Romania is significantly below the European
\naverage. The shortage of teaching staff is another problem that has been
\nlingering unsolved for years. And not least, violence in schools and the use of
\ncontrolled substances in schools are increasingly common problems of late. (AMP)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The new legislation reflects the Educated Romania programme initiated by president Iohannis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":94878,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42997],"tags":[28904,35577,32738,34947],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-144435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-today","tag-education","tag-exams","tag-public","tag-system"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n