The Government has approved in first reading, on the meeting held in Iasi, draft the national education law, which will be submitted to public debate as of tomorrow. "There was not a more appropriate place in Romania to discuss national education law than this academic temple of Romania: Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iasi. It is a friendly place for a debate on an extremely important draft law, aimed at the future of Romanian education, " Prime Minister Emil Boc has stated at the end of the Government meeting.
Prime Minister has stated that the draft national education law has as starting point the National Education Pact, signed by all parliamentary political parties and 22 representative NGOs, strategy for the knowledge society, signed by unions representing the teaching staff and a coherent process of rigorous scientific analysis.
The Head of the Executive has presented some of the most important innovations that this legislative act will bring. Thus, pre-university education will include the preparatory group, which becomes mandatory and which will be called the preparatory class, 10 classes will be compulsory and high school will be entered at the end of the ninth grade.
Minister of National Education, Mr. Daniel Funeriu, explained that the passing to compulsory preparatory class system will be done simultaneously with passing the ninth grade at secondary school over a 2-3 years period. Minister Funeriu stated that passing the ninth grade at secondary school aims at fighting early school leaving.
Regarding the assessment of pupils at the end of compulsory education, Prime Minister showed that the national trans-curricular evaluation will be adopted.
“Trans-curricular evaluation means that there will no longer be an examination on separate disciplines. There will be trans-curricular assessment ie from several disciplines, and the purpose of this examination is to assess student skills, his ability to manage in life. So, it is a fundamental shift of how education and assessment are addressed, " PM has stated.
Prime Minister has noted that another change from the law is that the new curriculum will be centered on the eight key competences recognized at EU level.
Another important element of the new law of education is to reduce and adapt the school curriculum, Prime Minister stated. Thus, the current curriculum will be cut, number of hours in the curriculum will be reduced and teaching staff will have 25% of the time for teaching a discipline to adapt teaching to the child characteristics.
In primary education, the maximum number of hours will decrease from an average of 25 hours per week, to 20 hours, and in secondary education from an average of 30 to 25 hours. These measures will be implemented in parallel with another government program "School after school”.
Also, 30% of secondary school curriculum will be determined by the Board of the school – school management forum, which will be comprised in equal number by teachers, parents and representatives of local communities.
"According to local features, people know best what their child should learn to find a job easier and to enter the labor market," Prime Minister explained.
The new law will bring changes in terms of financing schools, introducing the three forms of financing - basic, complementary and supplementary - depending on school performance.
Minister Daniel Funeriu stated that the new law will focus on reforming human resources policies in the system, via a sustained training of teaching staff. Thus, teachers will get a degree and further to it, they will need to pass a didactic master - during which students will receive scholarships in the amount of net salary of a beginner teacher. Another novelty introduced by the law will be that the major decisions related to employment and promotion will fall to the school management’s responsibility.
Regarding higher education, Education Minister stated that he will resort to a ranking of universities based on performance, namely: universities with bachelor’s degree programs, those with bachelor’s and master’s degree programs and, respectively, universities with bachelor’s and master’s degree programs, and doctoral or post-doctoral degree studies. Also, the appointment of a university rector will be made by a team comprising both members of that university – up to 50%, and persons outside the university concerned.
Minister of Education has also stated that the draft National Education Law will be posted tomorrow on the website of the Ministry and will enter into public debate, to be adopted by the new government in about two weeks