The Ministry of Education launches the new high school programs for public consultation: "paradigmatic" change in the curriculum

The Ministry of Education and Research (MEC) has published, in institutional transparency, the new school programs for high school education, marking an essential step in the curriculum reform. The documents aim to adapt the Romanian school to the eight European key competences and represent, according to the ministry, the first major update of the curriculum in the last almost 20 years, according to the MEC.

The ministry announces that, in the coming days, all the programs related to the subjects that start in the 9th grade and that aim to develop the eight key competences will be published: language and communication competences; multilingual competences; STEM competences; digital competences; personal and social competences; civic, legal and environmental competences; entrepreneurial competences; competences of expression and cultural sensitivity. The ministry emphasizes that this reform constitutes a "paradigmatic transformation” of the current high school programs.

According to the Minister of Education, Daniel David, the first step of the reform, the adoption of the framework plans, was finalized after an extensive public consultation process. The standard variant aims to balance scientific and humanistic disciplines, between religion and science, as well as between national culture and the skills necessary to adapt to contemporary society. In response to criticism regarding the standard structure, the ministry also introduced an alternative variant, focused on decentralization and personalization of the educational path at the level of each school. Approximately 1,500 specialists were involved in the development of the programs: pre-university teachers, academic staff, researchers and, in some cases, experts from the socioeconomic environment. The process was based on several principles:

1. Mixed team and coherence between high school and university; The programs were designed in relation to the requirements of higher education and the labor market.

2. Analysis of European models; The working groups consulted reference programs from high-performing educational systems to reduce curricular overload and increase the relevance of the content.

3. Gradual formation of skills; The model aims for students to understand not only "what" they are learning, but also "how knowledge is constructed", in order to strengthen the role of science in the face of pseudoscience.

4. Transdisciplinary coordination; To avoid dysfunctions - for example, situations in which mathematics requires raw knowledge of physics - the working groups collaborated permanently.

The new curriculum stipulates that 25% of the time allocated to each subject be dedicated to: remedial activities; strengthening skills; applying knowledge in real contexts; preparing for performance.

The MEC states that this structure will reduce the gaps between students and support the increase in the level of functional literacy, considered in recent years "a national security risk".

After approving the programs, the ministry will start: developing textbooks adapted to the new requirements; training teachers to use modern teaching methods; finalizing national assessment standards for each subject. Minister Daniel David states that the first generation trained on the new curriculum, students who will start ninth grade in the 2026-2027 school year, will achieve "the educational standards necessary for today's Romania.” In his vision, the reform will contribute to reducing functional illiteracy, manifested by: students' difficulty in applying high school-level skills in real situations; vulnerability to pseudoscience and manipulation; poor integration into the labor market; insufficient literacy and numeracy skills.