The Minister of Education, Ligia Deka, explained the reasons behind the decision to allow highly targeted national colleges to organize their own contests for entering the ninth grade, writes News.ro. “What we are trying to do with this admission to high school is to better match the student to the profile he chooses, because we see a lot of changes in consciousness,” the minister said, stressing that the number of places offered for the competition has decreased by the threshold of places in high school compared to the original offer.

Answering a question in an interview with TVR Info, why the provision on the possibility of organizing exams by national colleges remained in the draft Law on pre-university education, although it was strongly opposed, Ligia Deka explained: “The motivation for introducing exams for high school comes from our observations over the last decades that speak about it: once – attention during preparation, in general, in gymnasium is focused on exam subjects and (…) children, as a rule, did not take into account other subjects. There was that consideration of high school averages that was removed from high school admissions precisely because grades varied so much.”

“What we’re trying to do with this high school entry is to better match the student to the profile they choose, because we see a lot of change of mind, transfers, because they don’t fit the profile that the computerized assignment assigned them to.” In addition, once a child wants to go into science, for example, he must be ready to handle the 10-12 hours of math and science he has a week and know that his potential is in that direction. So I presented the idea. At the beginning, he focuses on a larger percentage – 90% of the places where there was a competition in the past, and if the high school wants to organize an entrance exam. I have taken into account the feedback I have received from students and lowered this percentage precisely to give those who are not having a good day and do not get a good grade on the high school entrance exam a chance that they have with honors grade in the national assessment and can choose the same profile for that 40% difference,” Deka explained.

The minister emphasized that this exam will be organized no earlier than 2027 for students entering the fifth grade after the adoption of the new law “On Education”.