Ligia Deca, 9 months after their own Education Laws were promulgated: The relevance of national exams, National Assessment and Baccalaureate, should be reduced

Ligia Deca, the Minister of Education, said, last week, in Mureș county, that “our objective” aims for the relevance of the national exams, National Assessment and Baccalaureate, “to be reduced”. She said evaluations along the way would also be taken into account. We can’t do that unless we also objectify classroom assessment.”

The Deca League’s declaration of intent comes 1 and a half years since he took over the position of Minister of Education and 9 months after President Klaus Iohannis promulgated the new education laws. The two Deca-Iohannis education laws were created based on the presidential project “Educated Romania”, according to the official description on the Ministry’s website, they were initiated by the Ministry of Education led by Ligia Deca, they were approved and are being implemented by the same minister. Prior to assuming the position of minister, Ligia Deca was for 8 years an advisor to President Klaus Iohannis, coordinator of the Educated Romania project

Deca claims that “the relevance of these end-of-cycle exams, National Assessment and Baccalaureate, should be reduced”, in the context in which the own pre-university education law doubles the exam at the end of the 8th grade, introducing in addition to National Assessment and an entrance exam to highly competitive high schools and colleges.

We remind you that the Constanţa Student Association (AEC) criticized the way in which students are evaluated at the end of pre-university education and requested the abolition of the Baccalaureate exam. Similar pressure to cancel the Baccalaureate exams emerged at the end of the first school year affected by the pandemic, but the then minister, Monica Anisie, rejected the pressure and the exams were maintained.

Cristian Vulc, director of the “Gheorghe Marinescu” Theoretical High School in Târgu Mureș: Would the Ministry of Education aim at a real professionalization of what the status of the evaluator teacher means in national exams, a so-called national body of evaluator teachers (…)?

Ligia Deca: “(…) In the law, we aim for standardized assessment: annual standardized assessment, connected to the student’s portfolio. And at the same time, the idea of professionalizing the evaluation in the general way is introduced, that is, in addition to a body of evaluators for national exams, which after all is not a bad thing. Somehow, we also induced this, when we said that those who participated in the simulation will have priority for the national exams, precisely because they got used to the platform and a certain way of assessment.

But, essentially, our objective, or at least the Romanian school’s, in my view, should be that the relevance of these end-of-cycle exams, National Assessment and Baccalaureate, be reduced, being able to take into account the assessments along the way. We can’t do that unless we also objectify the classroom assessment. I think we need more assessment in initial training, first of all. I understand that it is not very much. I don’t know about pedagogical lyceums, but certainly, in the area of higher education, I understand that the chapter is not extremely extensive. (…).”

Context information

According to the Ministry of Education, “National assessment for 8th grade students (EN VIII) represents the summative external assessment method of the skills acquired during secondary school education.”

Here is what the Framework Regulation for the Organization and Operation of Educational Units (ROFUIP) provides:

Article 101 -“The aim of the evaluation is to identify the level at which learning is at a certain moment, its orientation and optimization.

Article 102 – (1) According to the law, evaluations in the pre-university education system are carried out at the level of discipline, field of study or mode of training.

(2) In the pre-university education system, assessment focuses on skills, provides real feedback to students, parents and teachers and is the basis of individual learning plans.

(3) The result of the evaluation, expressed by a qualification, grade, score, etc., cannot be used as a means of coercion, as it strictly reflects the learning results, according to the legal provisions.

Article 103 -(1) The evaluation of learning results is carried out permanently, during the school year.

(2) At the end of the preparatory class, the evaluation of the physical, socio-emotional, cognitive, language and communication development, as well as the development of the child’s capacities and attitudes towards learning, carried out throughout the entire school year, is completed by completing a report, of to the responsible teaching staff, based on a methodology approved by order of the Minister of Education.

Article 104 – (1) The evaluation tools are established according to the age and psycho-pedagogical characteristics of the primary beneficiaries of education and the specifics of each discipline. These are:

a) oral assessments;

b) tests, written papers;

c) experiments and practical activities;

d) reports;

e) projects;

f) practical tests;

d) other tools established by the curriculum committee and approved by the director or developed by the Ministry of Education/school inspectorates.

(2) In primary education, in grades I-IV, in secondary and post-secondary education, students will have at least two assessments by written paper/test per school year in each subject/module, except for the predominantly practical ones.”

Calendar for the National Assessment at the end of the 8th grade 2024:

11 – 14 June 2024: Enrollment in the National Assessment
June 14, 2024: End of courses for 8th grade students

June 25, 2024 – Written test in Romanian
June 27, 2024 – Written exam in Mathematics
June 28, 2024 – The written test in the mother tongue

July 3, 2024 – Display of results before appeals (until 14:00)
July 3 (16:00 – 19:00) and July 4, 2024 (08:00 – 12:00) – Submission of appeals
4 – 9 July 2024 – Resolution of appeals
July 9, 2024 – Displaying the final results after resolving appeals

3 – 7 June 2024: Registration of candidates for the first exam session

June 7, 2024: Completion of courses for the 12th/13th grade

17 – 19 June 2024: Evaluation of the linguistic skills of oral communication in Romanian – test A
19 – 20 June 2024: Evaluation of the language skills of oral communication in the mother tongue – sample B
19 – 21 June 2024: Evaluation of digital skills – test D
25 – 27 June 2024: Assessment of language skills in an internationally spoken language – test C

July 1, 2024: Romanian language and literature – test Ea) – written test
July 2, 2024: Mandatory profile test – Ec test) – written test
July 4, 2024: The test to choose the profile and specialization – the Ed test) – the written test
July 5, 2024: Mother tongue and literature – test Eb) – written test

July 8, 2024: Displaying the results of the written tests until 12.00) and submitting appeals between 12.00 and 18.00

9 – 11 July 2024: Resolution of appeals

July 12, 2024: Display the final results

Autumn 2024 Baccalaureate Calendar

15 – 22 July 2024: Registration of candidates for the second exam session, including candidates who have passed the qualifying exams

8 – 9 August 2024: Evaluation of the linguistic skills of oral communication in Romanian – test A
August 9, 2024: Evaluation of the language skills of oral communication in the mother tongue – sample B
August 12, 2024: Evaluation of digital skills – test D
13 – 14 August 2024: Assessment of language skills in an internationally spoken language – test C

August 19, 2024: Romanian language and literature – test Ea) – written test
August 20, 2024: Mandatory profile test – Ec test) – written test
August 21, 2024: The test to choose the profile and specialization – the Ed test) – the written test
August 22, 2024: Mother tongue and literature – test Eb) – written test

August 26, 2024: Displaying the results of the written tests (until 12:00) and submitting appeals (12:00 – 18:00)

27 – 29 August 2024: Resolution of appeals

August 30, 2024: Display the final results