The education authorities do not take into account the abolition of the Baccalaureate

The authorities responded quickly to a "bold" proposal by the students, related to the usefulness of the Baccalaureate exam. The Minister of Education, Ligia Deca, declared that the reforms that will be brought to the Baccalaureate exam will make it "more relevant" and appreciated that a certification of the skills acquired by the students is necessary. The clarifications come after the Constanţa Student Association requested the abolition of the Baccalaureate exam and criticized the way in which students are evaluated after 12 years in education. According to the minister: "I think that every educational cycle - especially when we talk about the completion of compulsory education - must be completed with the certification of certain skills. The Baccalaureate exam has a history in Romania, a tradition, a certain type of approach. Of course, in the law In education, there is a change in perspective: we insist more on competency tests, on the area of foreign languages, we also have a greater focus on the profile that the student has. I believe that the reforms that will be brought to the Baccalaureate exam will make it more relevant both for students and for society as a whole. Sure, I hear what's behind the students' statement, namely that they want to better understand the usefulness of the exam and perhaps be more appropriate for what they want to do. I still do, and these concerns are some legitimate ones. But I don't think the discussion should be centered on whether or not there is a Baccalaureate exam. It's clear that we need a certification of skills, because otherwise we can't show including the labor market, which are the skills that a graduate has". Deca drew attention to the fact that in recent years the tests from the national exams "have moved towards a more applied area, more focused on competences" and showed that this direction must be continued: "Certainly we need a theoretical approach that it also means a connection with real life. We want this in school curricula and in pedagogy. It matters a lot how a teacher approaches the curriculum. Including the national exam tests, I think that in recent years, if we notice, they have moved towards a more applied area , more focused on competences. Maybe it's not enough. We see that there are still differences between PISA-type tests and the tests we have in the national environment. Depending on the profile of the graduate I think we need to find those kinds of standardized assessments - no in the sense of the grid - but in the sense of being able to compare the results and to be able to draw relevant conclusions regarding the performance of the system, of the schools, of the teaching staff".

With regard to the results obtained in the simulations from the National Evaluation, Deca specified that it sent the school inspectorates a series of measures, including intervention plans at the school level. Ligia Deca also stated that the remedial activities must be carried out primarily at the school level, so that families do not pay extra for the preparation: "As soon as we have a similar report for the simulation of the Baccalaureate exam, we will discuss the measures and make including the necessary adjustments, as a result of these simulation exercises. We want to have an objective proofreading, subjects that really aim to reach the profile of the graduate and we want there to be no incident of any kind in the exams. (...) The purpose of the simulations was to see where we need to intervene in the process of consolidation, recapitulation, recovery even, in some cases. (...) I was more interested in what are those evaluation items where the performance is low and if there are certain factors associated with this. The purpose ours is to increase performance at the National Assessment and at the Baccalaureate".

Ligia Deca specified that the experts are working on the development of the framework plans and that upon their completion they will be subject to public debate. She mentioned that they will be composed in such a way that the high school follows "the student's interest" and there is a greater degree of optionality.