The government has approved an emergency ordinance that will allow the organization of competitions to fill positions for teachers. This is in the context in which, at the end of August, the employment contracts for teaching staff employed for a fixed period of at most one school year or on an hourly payment regime are terminated. In the absence of a measure, the next school year would have started with an acute shortage of staff. By the same emergency ordinance, university assistant positions and promotion contests in universities are also unlocked.
What the emergency ordinance solves
At the beginning of 2025, the Parliament adopted the law on fiscal-budgetary measures to reduce the deficit – the so-called austerity measures – which, among other things, suspended the filling of vacant positions in the entire public sector, including in Education, by competition or examination.
Thus, competitions for teaching positions were blocked, universities could no longer organize competitions for university assistant positions, and from the second semester of this academic year, even the promotion exams for the position could no longer be held.
That is precisely why an emergency ordinance was needed to amend the normative act. In the supporting note, the Ministry of Education drew attention to the fact that:
“In the absence of a clear regulation, the 2026-2027 school year will begin with an acute shortage of teaching staff and teaching assistants, which will result in the impossibility of ensuring the right to education”.
Why an emergency ordinance was needed
In the national system of pre-university education, there are many ways to hire teaching staff: with an individual employment contract for an indefinite period, for the duration of the job’s viability, for a fixed period of at most one school year or on an hourly basis.
In the case of teachers employed for a fixed period of no more than one school year or on an hourly payment regime, the individual employment contracts terminate by August 31, 2026.
In higher education, the situation was equally pressing. According to the Ministry of Education, the blocking of university competitions and promotion exams had a negative impact on the functioning of universities, as their organization is essential for “to allow higher education institutions to meet the quality standards in the field of human resources, imposed by the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education, in the process of external evaluation and application of specific standards and indicators for each process of external evaluation of higher education institutions, respectively of university study programs”.
Practically, without competitions, the universities risked not being able to respect the quality indicators necessary for the accreditation of study programs.
What the emergency ordinance provides and what it means in practice
The technical solution found by the government was to introduce an exception to the rule, through an emergency ordinance. This is because the parliamentary procedure could have taken months. It is thus established that the restrictions on the occupation of positions in the public sector do not apply,vacant or temporarily vacant teaching positions in state pre-university education units, university assistant positions and promotions in higher education institutions.”
Thus, pre-university teachers who participate this year in the national Titularization competition will be able to be employed for an indefinite period, depending on the grade obtained.
Also, in higher education, PhD students and researchers will be able to fill assistant professor positions through competition in state universities. And university teaching staff will once again be able to participate in post promotion exams, essential procedures for advancing in the academic career.
The ordinance also involves something new
In addition to unblocking the competitions, the ordinance also contains a second measure: the establishment of the Romanian Education Abroad Corps (CRES) — a new body through which the Romanian state will be able to send teachers to teach the Romanian language or other subjects in schools in other countries where there are Romanian communities. Membership of CRES will be obtained through a selection contest organized by the ministry, and the criteria will be established later by ministerial order.
