Pre-academic Education in 2013

After a 3-week break students and children are back to schools and kindergartens for the 2nd semester of this school year.

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Leyla Cheamil, 14.01.2013, 13:10

The winter holidays are over. Students and children in Romania have returned to schools and kindergartens for the second semester of the 2012-2013 school year. According to the new education minister, Remus Pricopie, for the time being no substantial changes will be brought to the Romanian education system. Changes will be made where necessary, because the education system needs stability.

Remus Pricopie: “I believe the education system has to be stable and changes should be strictly specific, as the impact of these changes has been clearly assessed.”

Therefore the preparatory year introduced in the system last autumn will remain part of the school system, although Prime Minister Victor Ponta had expressed his wish to move the preparatory year back to the kindergarten system. The introduction of the preparatory year in schools last year triggered lots of criticism as the authorities faced many difficulties in finding classrooms for holding classes for prep year pupils. As regards the Baccalaureate exam, minister Remus Pricopie recommended students not to worry, as the current form of examination would be maintained.

He made this clarification as the vocational baccalaureate, which was suggested last year as an option, does not exist from a legal point of view. The vocational baccalaureate might become a new form of high school graduation exam for those who do not want to apply for higher education but choose to start working. On the other hand, the education minister intends to change the curriculum, which is a pillar of the education system.

Remus Pricopie: “We have managed to gather expertise and observations that should help us revisit the curriculum starting from the preparatory year to the last high-school year, and in a relatively short time we’ll be able to write new schoolbooks. Actually the first schoolbooks for a new curriculum could be published in almost one year and a half, because the process is complex. You cannot integrally change schoolbooks in one year for all grades, this should be done gradually”.

Minister Remus Pricopie also said the vocational school, which has to remain an option, has not seen a clear development over the past years, which is why the education authorities decided to strengthen this segment. Last but not least the education minister referred to the issue of violence in schools, which can be fought against through a permanent dialogue between parents, teachers, police and the mass media. He also said that cameras should be installed in all classrooms.