Romania's school year begins in chaos, with exams unclear and teachers lacking guides

Romania's 2026-2027 school year is due to start on Sept. 7, but teachers, parents and students still do not know which rules will govern some of the most important parts of school life. Several provisions remain unpublished, while others are still being changed.

Students entering eighth grade are uncertain whether they will sit a separate admissions examination organized by high schools in summer 2027. New scholarship provisions have also not yet been published in the Official Gazette. At the same time, ninth graders, who will form the first cohort to follow the new high-school curriculum, will begin classes without printed textbooks based on the new programs.

Primary and middle-school teachers must apply national assessment standards this year, although they have not received practical implementation guides. School principals face another unresolved issue: the Education and Research Ministry must align its order on teaching-load reductions with legislation later adopted by Parliament. Registration for competitions to fill principal and deputy principal positions is already beginning in September.

The Senate Education Committee is scheduled to vote on Sept. 2 on whether to retain, remove or postpone the proposed double-admission system for high school. The committee suspended its Aug. 26 meeting without reaching a decision, while the bill is due to go to a final plenary vote the same day. Until the law changes, the ministry remains obliged to apply the legislation currently in force.

Georgeta Mirică, a retired mathematics teacher, said the uncertainty over a separate admissions exam affects students' preparation and family budgets. She said teachers may have to create their own materials without a coherent national guide, while unclear assessment instructions could produce different interpretations and conflicts among teachers, parents and school directors. She also pointed to public criticism and working conditions as factors discouraging teachers, comparing the system to a graph whose points exist but whose connecting line has been broken.

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Looking at the whole picture from the sidelines, it reminds me of a discontinuous function, if you will allow me the joke: we have points, we have a graph, but the connection between them is broken.