Romania’s Education in Crisis

A new school year kicked off in Romania with large-scale protests mounted by teachers

Daniela Budu, 09.09.2025, 14:00

The first day of a new school year was marked in Bucharest through a major protest by teachers from all over Romania, who are disgruntled with the latest financial-budgetary measures endorsed by the government, which cut on their incomes and, which are going to have, as they say, a negative impact upon education in that country.

Several thousand teachers from all over the country took to the streets of Bucharest on Monday and participated in what was called the Education March, which included stops in front of the government headquarters and the Presidential Palace. The protest ended with an unclear result, although the country’s President, Nicusor Dan, had called for a new round of talks with trade union representatives.

The protesters called for the resignation of Education Minister, Daniel David, and the cancellation of an ordinance providing for increasing the teachers’ working hours, the number of students in a classroom, pay cuts and school mergers.

Teachers say the aforementioned measures will diminish the interest in educational activities for teachers and students alike. The teachers march was also joined by groups of pupils and students who came to support them. The president had no say on the protesters’ request to have the incumbent Education Minister sacked, but called for a two-month deadline until their next meeting in order to reassess the fiscal-budgetary measures proposed by the government headed by Ilie Bolojan.

After the meeting, the head of the Free Trade Unions in Education, Simion Hăncescu, said that teachers would carry on various forms of protests, which might include boycotting hours, taking to the streets and even an all-out strike.

Here is Simion Hăncescu

Simion Stancescu:  “In the following days we are going to work on a new protest schedule. So, protests will go on, even if we have got the promise to have talks resumed in two months. The President may intervene to sack the Education Minister though, and that might be a small step forward in the attempt to defuse the situation in the pre-University Education. Until then, protests will continue, both in front of the ministry and the government.”

The Education Minister told Radio Romania the measures had been taken to ensure the salaries and scholarships until the end of the year.

Daniel David: “Teachers work a lot and they also must be protected and this what I am trying to communicate: namely to be happy that this minister, whose resignation they ask for, has filtered the fiscal-budgetary measures through the sieve of educational rules, and I can prove that any measure in this package can also be found in other European countries. Through these measures we have saved salaries and scholarships until the end of the year. There were no layoffs among tenured teachers, no pay-cuts and I have also contributed to the country’s stability.”

At the same time, the Minister has given assurances, the aforementioned measures aren’t going to deepen the issues Romania’s education system is currently facing, but Daniel David believes they are actually a foundation from where the country’s education can develop after the country has got out of the fiscal-budgetary crisis.

(bill)