Students interested in a teaching career since middle school or those who want to test to what extent the field suits them take the aptitude tests during this period for admission to the pedagogical high school. The rules regarding their route to the department after high school have changed.
The reasons that lead future secondary school graduates to pedagogical lyceums are diverse. Some choose pedagogy because it suits their desires and aptitudes. Others listen to the advice of adults, thinking that “it’s a nice job and you can eat a loaf of bread right after high school.” It is certain that these days the high schools that organize admissions for pedagogic specializations have a lot of work to do, because more and more students are moving towards this profile.
Between May 18-22, according to the 2026 high school admissions calendar, aptitude tests are held.
The “teacher-educator” specialization disappears, but the double specialization in early education appears
From this school year, students who go to pedagogical high schools have a choice between several specializations (not all high schools with a pedagogical profile offer all five specializations):
a) early education;
b) primary education pedagogy;
c) general pedagogy;
d) pedagogy of non-formal education;
e) school mediation.
The novelty is that the “Teacher-educator” specialization has disappeared, which allowed graduates to teach both in the primary cycle and in kindergarten (double specialization).
Another double specialization appeared instead, “early education”, which trains them to be able to teach both in nurseries (children aged 0-3 years) and in kindergarten (children 3-6 years).
What has also changed is that the pedagogic graduates can take the titular exam immediately after high school, they can occupy a position (if the obtained average allows them) according to the specialization, but they will be employed in the first years for a fixed period, being obliged to continue their studies at a specialized faculty, only after obtaining the license they can apply for employment for an indefinite period.
“There are children with very high backgrounds who want to come to this profile”
The “Nicolae Titulescu” Theoretical High School in Slatina is the only one in Olt county that offers students the possibility of admission to the pedagogical profile (being also the only one at the county level that also has the Plastic Arts option). For the 2026-2027 school year, the tuition offer includes three pedagogic classes, as follows: two classes (48 places) for primary education pedagogy (teachers) and one class (24 places) for early childhood education (educators/childcare workers).
183 candidates registered for the 72 places, the number being more than last year.
“Paptitude tests are marked only with pass/fail and they are selected according to the average from the National Assessment. Lately, the pedagogical average has increased. We have good and very good children, there are children with very high backgrounds who want to come to this profile”, said Prof. Adina Gruia, the director of the high school, for “Adevărul”.
Many of the students who choose to be admitted to pedagogy are students of teaching staff, said Prof. Gruia.
Not everyone chooses a teaching career after high school, but more than half of them do.
“We have children from the pedagogical profile who went to Medicine. Not all of them follow a teaching career. But they are better prepared for life, from my point of view. They live among teaching staff. Unlike the others, where the teaching staff only attend classes, students from the pedagogical profile do practice, enter the classroom, observe the teachers, help, teach, come into contact with the teachers in a different way than from the position of a student whom the teacher only teaches. On the other hand, they have and a lot of activities, because you can’t prepare them for the teaching profession if you don’t involve them in activities”added the high school principal.
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Students from the pedagogical profile conduct weekly practice hours. They have three such hours a week in the 9th and 10th grades and four practice hours in the 12th and 12th grades.
Four elimination tests
Admission to any of the two specializations requires students to successfully pass no less than four tests, graded pass/fail. If they fail a single test, they will not be able to be admitted to the profile, regardless of the grade from the National Assessment.
They first have to pass an interview, during which they have to read a literary text at first sight and hold a conversation with the committee members, starting from the given text. Thus, communication (including diction) and argumentation skills are checked and evaluated.
Another test is the musical skills test, in which the interpretive skills (specific hearing, rhythmic sense, musical memory, vocal qualities) and musical hearing are checked.
Another test that I support is the physical skills test, which is conditional on the submission of a favorable medical opinion for participation in this test, prior to its performance.
At the physical test, they have to reproduce, according to the model: 2 – 3 exercises for specific influence of the locomotor apparatus; 3 – 4 elements of acrobatic gymnastics from the program of classes V – VI, performed in isolation. They must also run a distance of 600m, moderate effort, without being bound to a time limit. Skills such as: motor memory and coordination, the functional state of the spine, the specific function of the cardiorespiratory system are thus investigated.
A fourth test is that of artistic skills, in which they have to create a still life with two or three objects, the plastic theme being proposed by the committee members. In this way, skills such as: the reception of colors and proportions between objects and the balanced framing of plastic forms in a space are checked.
Candidates declared “rejected” in any of these tests lose the chance to advance to the stage of allocating vacant places in the order of the average from the National Assessment.
“They don’t have to stay in the field. Instead, they have the opportunity to test it.”
Professor Nicolae Sulger, who led the Slatina Pedagogical High School for a very long time (the “Nicolae Titulescu” high school was also named as such in the past), emphasizes the definite advantage that the graduates of the pedagogical profile have immediately after graduating from the high school. They can be employed even while attending college, the opportunities being numerous, especially in big cities, where the shortage of teaching staff for nurseries, kindergartens and primary schools, both state and private, is very large.
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The need for training also emerges from the number of new requests for accreditation for the pedagogical profile submitted by schools in Bucharest, Prof. Nicolae Sulger gives an example, who is also an ARACIP (Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Pre-University Education) evaluator.
Although there are schools that are offering such classes for the first time, the interest was high for admission, as it was necessary to separate the candidates according to the averages obtained at the National Assessment (the number of candidates far exceeded the number of vacant places).
Students from the pedagogical profile study Psychology in much more detail, they have many hours of Pedagogy in their curriculum, they have hours of Class Management, etc.
“It is not mandatory to stay in the field. Instead, they have the opportunity to test this field. They have pedagogical practice, work with children. In the 11th and 12th grades, I actually do lessons, at the nursery school, at the kindergarten. (…) The strongest point is the pedagogical practice for the teaching career, because at the faculty the practice carried out is not at the same level, we have to admit it”, Prof. Nicolae Sulger also pointed out.
