Save the Children calls for the abandonment of competitive admissions organized by high schools

The organization Save the Children Romania calls for the abandonment, in the framework methodology for high school admissions, of the possibility for educational institutions to organize their own competitions, arguing that the measure may accentuate inequities in education and the advantages of students whose families can afford to pay for tutoring. The Ministry of Education, however, claims that the possibility of organizing the competition is provided for in the Pre-university Education Law of 2023 and does not represent a recent initiative of the ministry.

• 43% of students consulted take tutoring

According to Save the Children Romania, a recent consultation among students aged between 10 and 17 shows that 43% of respondents take tutoring. The incidence is higher among middle school students, where it reaches 57%, compared to 35% in the case of high school students. Of the children who said they take tutoring, 55% receive additional training in at least two subjects. "With the addition of additional forms and subjects of examination, we can expect the incidence and cost of tutoring to increase, and the equity of admission to high school to suffer even more,” the organization claims. Save the Children recalls that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has recommended that the orientation of students to upper secondary education should take into account more evidence of their aptitudes and interests, including grades in grades 7 and 8.

• The organization calls for an impact assessment

Save the Children believes that the draft methodology is not accompanied by a preliminary impact assessment, so that the introduction of selection at the high school level would represent a public policy decision whose costs for families and effects on students have not been previously quantified. "The draft methodology is not accompanied by a preliminary impact assessment, so the decision to allow selection at the level of the educational unit remains a public policy option assumed without a prior quantification of the costs it transfers to families and without an estimate of the effects on students who will not be able to participate in the competition," the organization states. Save the Children also refers to the forms of selection that already exist in the system, such as aptitude tests organized by vocational high schools and tests to verify modern or mother tongue knowledge for bilingual and intensive classes. The organization claims that these forms of selection have been operating for several years, including in the 2025 and 2026 admission sessions, and believes that the Ministry of Education already has administrative data on candidates, admissions and their level of training. "The Ministry of Education therefore has at least two consecutive cohorts of administrative data on who registers for these tests, who is admitted and with what prior training, but has not published any analysis of them,” the organization states.

• Education costs reach almost 10,000 lei annually

Save the Children also draws attention to the costs borne by families for children's education. According to a survey conducted based on data collected at the end of 2024, parents spend, on average, 9,818 lei annually on tutoring, after-school and teaching materials. Compared to 2021, the average annual cost increased by approximately 3,100 lei. The most significant increases were recorded for tutoring, by approximately 3,700 lei, and for after-school services, by approximately 2,500 lei. The average total annual cost increases with the child's age, from 6,803 lei for primary school, to 10,781 lei for middle school and 12,119 lei for high school, according to Save the Children. The organization argues that differences in access to financial resources can influence students' results in national exams and warns that the introduction of new forms of selection could accentuate this difference.

• Save the Children calls for the maintenance of computerized allocation

In this context, Save the Children recommends abandoning the possibility of organizing its own admission competitions and maintaining computerized allocation as the sole mechanism for admission to state high school education, with the exception of aptitude tests for the vocational track. If this possibility is maintained, the organization requests that the implementation be postponed until a preliminary impact assessment is carried out and published and until a structured consultation with students, including those in grades 7 and 8, is organized. Recommendations also include prioritizing resources towards dropout prevention and remediation programs, as well as publishing an annual report on the profile of candidates and students admitted through competitions organized by high schools.

The interim Minister of Education, Mihai Dimian, stated in a Facebook post that the possibility for high schools to organize an admission competition for up to half of the places was provided for in the Pre-university Education Law adopted by Parliament in 2023.