Parents demand withdrawal of separate high school entrance exam, citing threat to National Evaluation

The National Parents' Federation – EDUPART has called on the Romanian Ministry of Education to withdraw and reassess a proposed regulation for high school admissions. The organization opposes the creation of a separate entrance exam for high schools, arguing that the current proposal jeopardizes students' fundamental rights, fosters discriminatory practices, and poses serious systemic risks to the integrity, predictability, and equity of the national evaluation system.

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the document, in its current form, vulnerabilizes the fundamental rights of students, creates the premises for discriminatory treatment, and introduces serious systemic risks to the integrity, predictability, and equity of the national evaluation.

EDUPART asserts that the proposed regulations flagrantly contradict the principle of the superior interest of primary education beneficiaries. They warn that without rigorous control mechanisms, the project exposes middle school graduates to a selection process tainted by major ethical risks, potentially deepening socioeconomic inequalities and creating double standards within the pre-university system.

The federation recalled that the Ministry of Education's 1999 decision to abolish the dual, supplementary high school entrance exam was based on solid psychopedagogical reasoning. They viewed the parallel test as a redundant repetition of the capacity exam, lacking structural relevance and imposing disproportionate emotional pressure on students. Reintroducing this mechanism, EDUPART contends, represents a regression in educational transition architecture.

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the proposed regulations flagrantly contradict the principle of the superior interest of the primary beneficiaries of education, and through decentralization unassisted by rigorous control mechanisms, the project exposes the graduates of the gymnasium cycle to a selection vitiated by major ethical risks, favoring the deepening of socioeconomic inequalities and double standards in the pre-university system.

Further criticism targets the excessive concentration of decision-making power within organizing educational institutions, lacking external control filters and psychometric audits. EDUPART fears that independent competitions could operate with opaque decision-making autonomy. They point to the absence of prohibitions against relatives serving on commissions, the lack of mandatory audio-video monitoring, and the absence of strict, secure anonymization of written works before evaluation. The evaluation and handling of appeals are assigned to the same internal structures, undermining the principle of independent external verification precisely at points of highest competitive stakes.

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the reintroduction of this mechanism represents a regression in the architecture of educational transition.