Thousands of Romanian children could lose free classes at children’s clubs

More than 10,000 people have signed a petition to save free extracurricular classes at Romania’s children’s clubs and palaces. The campaign began after reports that funding for positions paid by the hour could be reduced.

The petition’s organizers say more than 2,500 children in Bucharest could lose some activities from Sept. 1, 2026. The affected programs include choirs, instrumental music, piano, modern and traditional dance, theater, film education, French and German, logic games, applied mathematics, experimental chemistry, painting, computing, journalism and sports.

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For children with limited resources, the disappearance of the palaces would amount to abandoning their own talents.

Children’s palaces and clubs form part of Romania’s public extracurricular education system. Preschool children and students can attend activities free of charge, with programs ranging from music and theater to robotics, science and sport. Each county has a Children’s Palace, while each of Bucharest’s six sectors has a children’s club. The National Children’s Palace in Bucharest operates separately under the Education Ministry.

The dispute also reaches beyond the capital. At the Children’s Palace in Iași, 17 clubs are blocked for the 2026-27 school year amid budget cuts and a freeze on some positions, affecting about 1,000 children. A specialist quoted in the petition said these programs offer flexible learning shaped around each child’s pace and interests. Because participation does not depend on grades, the specialist said, children face less performance anxiety and have more room to develop their own motivation and creativity.

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In the formal school environment, curricular constraints, rigid textbooks and the pressure of standardized assessments often limit the expression of pure creativity.