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Eurydice

EACEA National Policies Platform:Eurydice
Secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education

Romania

6.Secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education

Last update: 9 June 2022

The secondary education is organised in:

  • Lower secondary education/gimnaziu covers grades 5 – 8
  • Upper secondary education may be:
    • high-school education, which covers the high-school grades 9 - 12/13, with the following routes:
      • theoretical
      • aptitude-based
      • technological
    • vocational education, including dual vocational education, with the duration of at least 3 years.

The tertiary non-university education includes the post secondary education.

General compulsory education includes primary education, lower secondary education and the first 2 years of upper secondary education.

High-school education is organised in two successive cycles:

  • the lower cycle of high-school, which covers grades 9 and 10
  • the upper cycle of high-school, which covers grades 11 - 12/13.

High-school education – the aptitude-based and the technological routes – and vocational education are organised for specialisations and qualifications. These are established by the Ministry of National Education, according to the National Register of Qualifications.

The professional and technical education is composed of:

  • professional education 
  • technical education
  • post secondary education.

Upper secondary education offers to all students who completed compulsory education (students who completed lower secondary and the lower cycle of high-school, and students who vocational education respectively) the possibility to specialise in various fields - theoretical, vocational and aptitude-based – in order to prepare them for the labour market and/or to continue their education at the next educational levels.

The students who complete vocational/dual vocational education acquire knowledge, skills and competences mainly in connection with jobs, for vocational qualifications at levels 3, 4 and 5, according to the National Qualification Framework. At the same time, the students who complete vocational education, including dual vocational education, may continue their studies in high-school education.

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  • School-based assessment, summative and formative, is conducted at classroom and school level, according to The National Education Law no.1 / 2011, with the legal updates and changes; 
  • A new Ministerial Order 5447/2020 promotes the Regulation for Organisation and Functioning of Pre-university Education Institutions updating the range of assessment instruments to be used at school level. These can include: a) oral questioning; b) written papers /tests; c) scientific experiments and practical activities; d) reports; e)projects; f) practical tests as well as other instruments elaborated by the school’s chairs/departments and approved by the head of school or elaborated by the Ministry of Education and Research and the County School Inspectorates;
  • There are no national standardized tests administered in pre-university education, at system level;
  • The ”high stake” ”National Baccalaureate Examination” was conducted in June-July, August 2020, with supplementary sanitary measures imposed by the COVID-19 pandemy. The only changes implemented targeted the corresponding examination syllabi, by the removal of some chapters / content areas which were not studied due to school closure in March-May 2020. During school closure The Ministry of Education and Research published on the official websites www.edu.ro and on https://rocnee.eu/testeantrenament/ weekly ”training tests” for the candidates at both ”high stakes” exams to practice in preparation. These resources have been largely promoted by various media and used at system level;

Update referring to changes during the COVID-19 pandemy (March – December 2020) In the school year 2019-2020, due to COVID-19 pandemic constraints, Ministry of Education and Research introduced some changes through ministerial order, operating at pre-university education system level:

  • The Students’ National Assessments at the end of Grades 2, 4 and 6 have been suspended through M.O no. 4019/2020. The same ministerial order suspended also the “mock” National Assessment at grade 8 and the “mock” written tests of the National Baccalaureate;
  • Regarding the national, high stake examinations, the National Baccalaureate (with both the June sitting, and the August sitting) with their written tests, took place successfully under strict sanitary rules;
  • The adjustments regarding the digital and linguistic competences examinations of the National Baccalaureate have been promoted through Ministerial Order no. 4.341/2020 regarding the Approval of The Methodology for the validation / recognition of the competency levels of the digital and linguistic examinations within the National Baccalaureate 2020. As a consequence, a mechanism of recognition of the level of competency achieved by each student during the school year has been set in place in order to diminish the risks related to COVID-19 pandemy;

Regarding the school year 2020-2021, the main changes introduced at system level by The Ministry of Education and Research are as follows:

  • At the beginning of school year 2020-2021 Ministry of Education and Research issued Order no. 5545/2020 for the approval of The Framework Methodology regarding the didactic activities using technology and www, and personal data management. The methodology regulates the online / offline learning in schools, using open educational resources establishing the rights and responsibilities of the main educational stakeholders for all the components of the teaching-learning-assessment process at school-level;

Regarding both curriculum implementation and school-based assessment at pre-university level the main changes are as follows:

  • In order to regulate both the National Curriculum reform and implementation, and the assessment within curriculum at pre-university level, Ministry of Education and Research issued MO no. 5765/2020 regarding The Guidelines for the Development, Updating and Evaluation of The National Curriculum. This MO promotes a new Reference Framework for The National Curriculum in pre-university education. Having in view that the former reference framework has been issued in 1998, this policy of education document is very important from the point of the curriculum reform prospective;
  • In the same line of change, Ministry of Education and Research issued MO no. 5915/2020 promoting a new methodology regarding the development of the school based curriculum, focused on the development of the eight key competences;
  • Operating at system level, a strategic project of Ministry of Education and Research introduced Open Education Resources (OER) for both primary education and gymnasium.  CRED-Curriculum relevant, educație deschisă pentru toți” – cod SMIS 2014+:118327 Proiect cofinanțat din Fondul Social European prin Programul Operațional Capital Uman 2014-2020. (https://www.creatorideeducatie.ro/) has a teacher training component, and an OER’s development component targeting both curriculum, and school-based assessment The 7200 OER’s developed are free of charge, supported by 18 methodological guides for all the school subjects. During the project more than 55.000 teachers will be trained to develop and use OER’s.
  • Other  initiatives are coming from both public, and private sector: new school textbooks, both in  traditional form, paper-based, and in digital version, for grades 1 to 8 (www.manuale.edu.ro); assessment platforms (e.g. www.brio.ro), new educational resources for all grades, to be used in formal, nonformal, and informal education (https://www.rocnee.eu/manualeauxiliare/).