It has become almost impossible to evaluate the successive reforms in the Romanian education system. Some of the reform projects promised to improve the system but were not completed because the reform promoters were the victims of political change. Not to mention the recent pandemic that has turned everything upside down. Now, the education ministry has announced changes in the structure of the school year.
As of autumn, the current semesters will be replaced by five learning modules, which will be separated by the same number of holidays. Courses are scheduled to begin earlier on September 5 and end on June 16. The announcement was made by education minister Sorin Cîmpeanu, who gave assurances that the decision was made after consultations with experts and following dialogue with the representatives of teachers, parents and students.
Sorin Cîmpeanu: “The agreed proposal was for school to begin on September 5, with a first learning module. After a period of a several weeks, on October 24, students will go on holiday, between October 24-30, this being their first holiday, a holiday for all students. This holiday is followed by the second learning module, which will run until around the winter holidays, so the second holiday will start on December 23rd and end on January 8th. Then follows module three, which will start on January 9th. And, for the first time, this module will run until February, when we will have the 3rd holiday; so, it’s a mobile one-week holiday in February, either on the second, third, or fourth week. After the February holiday follows the fourth module, which will run until around the Easter holidays. The holiday is scheduled for the period April 8-23. The last learning module is the 5th, which runs until June 16.
It all started from the need to alternate learning modules of 6-7-8 weeks with rest modules, as required by modern pedagogy, says the minister. And the changes go on. Minister Sorin Cimpeanu added that the regulations on the organization and functioning of pre-university education would be revised in the sense of eliminating the compulsory written semester test papers. In another development, the minister announced that approximately 1,400 schools would be financed with 190 million Euros through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
They finalized the selection process of the schools that would benefit, in a first stage, from funding through the National Program for Reducing School Dropout, an important component of the ‘Educated Romania’ project, minister Sorin Cimpeanu explained. Most of the funded schools will be in the rural areas. Digitization will play a key role in the teaching-learning process; the classic style, of writing with chalk on the board will be replaced by smart, interactive boards, which is a radical change in Romanian schools, the education minister concluded. (LS)
