There are less than three months left until the end of the school year, but in several counties, including Bucharest, it is not yet known how many 9th grades will disappear from the fall.
The leadership of the IL Caragiale National College in the Capital requested ten 9th grade classes for next year, but has not yet received any response from the School Inspectorate of the Municipality of Bucharest.
“We did not receive from the School Inspectorate of the Municipality of Bucharest, no one in Bucharest received the schooling plan approved by the inspectorate. Each school had a discussion in the teachers’ council, with approval in the board of administration, proposals. Caragiale kept the same ten classes that it has had for years”. stated Andreia Bodea, director of the IL Caragiale National College, for TVR.
The situation also creates difficulties for parents who want to know which profiles will still work. The headmistress of the college admits that she cannot give clear answers to those who call for information. “Parents with 8th-grade children call and ask, they ask for the information that each class has a different profile. They want to know if these classes still exist, these classes no longer exist. I can’t answer them,” he also said.
The main reason is demographic: in Bucharest there are about 1,800 8th grade students less than last year, which is equivalent to about 60 9th graders that will no longer be formed in the fall. Nationally, several hundred classes will disappear.
Added to this is the increase in the number of students per class, introduced this school year. The reduction criteria remain unclear, as a representative of the Ministry of Education also admitted.
In Buzău County, the initial proposal was for each high school to drop a class. Bogdan Petriceicu Hașdeu National College still managed to keep it, after the management opposed it. “I was not one step, half a step away from losing a class,” said Anca Florea, deputy director, Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu National College, Buzau.
There are also counties where the impact will be less. The general school inspector from Giurgiu specified that the high school principals proposed the same number of classes as last year, and any reductions could be limited to the technological and professional profile.
The real effect: huge pressure on students and gridlock in high schools
How does this lack of clarity regarding the schooling plan affect both 8th grade students and the internal organization of high schools?
“The lack of predictability has a domino effect. For eighth-graders, it translates into huge psychological pressure, especially those who want to get to very good high schools. When they don’t know exactly how many places are available at the targeted high schools, filling out the options becomes a lottery, and the artificial competition increases the anxiety of both them and their parents.” explains for “Adevărul”, Ioana Alexandra Șomîtcă, education specialist, founder of Empowered Romania.
Specialist studies on transition anxiety confirm this: teenagers need a predictable environment to maintain school motivation. Lack of clarity induces prolonged stress that impairs rational decision making and educational progress.
“Beyond the students, the situation is equally difficult for the principals and teachers directly involved in the educational act. Due to the lack of clarity, no one knows how many classes will be approved. Therefore, no teacher knows exactly if he will complete the full course at that school or if he will need to get classes elsewhere. We are, however, talking about teachers – that is, the staff who create people for all professions – and about students, who represent the generations that will lead Romania to the heights high”, adds the specialist.
In his opinion, a fair distribution does not mean equal cuts from everywhere, but a triage based on the real needs of the community. “Otherwise, we risk leaving society without people capable of providing the theoretical training of tomorrow or without people who apply the theory, those who make the economy work. Reducing classes “from the pen” is like a hospital deciding to close the Surgery department or the Cardiology department just because it needs to save money, without checking how many patients are waiting at the door. We are saving for the moment, but in fact we are creating other problems in the long term”, draws attention to Ioana Alexandra Șomîtcă.
Abroad, she also says, technological high school is not labeled as an option for “weak students”. It is adequately funded, as technical training requires expensive equipment and smaller classes (maximum 15 students, for safety and hands-on learning).
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In Switzerland, for example, in the dual education system, the distribution of vocational training places is not a bureaucratic decision, but one based on market data. Their criteria are clear: absorption rate, partnership contracts and equity through quality. The number of places in vocational schools is determined directly by private companies. “If companies don’t offer apprenticeships, classes don’t form. Companies do so because they need skilled labor, making education an investment, not a cost. More than 90% of graduates of the Swiss dual system go directly into the workforce or go on to higher professional education. If a job becomes technologically obsolete, the system self-regulates.” completes the specialist.
She also gives the example of Singapore, which she says is probably the most effective system in the world in matching education to jobs. “They don’t wait to see what the market wants, they anticipate what the market will want 5-10 years from now. The Economic Development Board attracts foreign investment (ex: microchip factories) and at the same time instructs universities and polytechnics to create exactly the number of seats needed for those future factories.” say this
At the same time, he claims that in Japan, the focus is on loyalty and a smooth transition from school to office. “They use the KOSEN (elite technical colleges) system, where students enter at 15 and leave at 20 directly as engineers. Companies ‘hunt’ these students from the third year, and the employment rate is almost 100%. The Japanese do not require the graduate to know everything from day one; they look for potential and discipline, taking responsibility for learning the specifics of the job. So we have enough international examples of good practice to draw inspiration from,” opines the founder of Empowered Romania.
International scientific studies show that student performance correlates directly with the time teachers have for professional collaboration and individual feedback, he said. Therefore, the increase in the number of students in the class will cause a drastic decrease in the individual time spent by the teacher with the student.
An analysis by John Hattie, one of the most influential educational researchers, demonstrates that timely feedback is the factor with the greatest impact on student progress.
“In a class of 30 students, during a 50-minute lesson, the teacher has mathematically less than 2 minutes for each child. Increasing the class to more than 22 students negates the pedagogical benefits, especially for vulnerable students, increasing the rate of functional illiteracy and school dropout. We can make a simple parallel: the teacher’s attention is like an Internet connection in a house. If there are 15 people connected to the same router, the speed is excellent. If there are 30, the system goes into overload. The teacher does not teach, but does crisis management. The result is that the students who need help (such as children with SEN or those who have difficulty assimilating the subject) are completely disconnected from the educational network.” says Ioana Alexandra Șomîtcă.
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Added to all this is the silent overwork of teachers outside the program: correcting a larger number of tests and voluminous preparation of teaching materials, which consumes immense personal resources, according to his statements.
“Rather than cramming more students into one classroom and closing rural schools—forcing students and teachers to commute and increasing the risk of dropping out—we would do better to create school consortia. Here, resources (labs, elite teachers) are shared, and transportation is fast and guaranteed. Studies show that access to quality resources improves the achievement of low-achieving students without diminishing student achievement. This is the model of technology hubs, where we preserve the identity of local communities, but provide access to cutting-edge technology.” she points out.
A clear international counterexample, caused by mergers made without transparency, as the specialist says, is the case of public schools in Chicago (2013). The administration closed dozens of schools for purely financial reasons. The long-term effect was disastrous: test scores plummeted, absenteeism skyrocketed, and confidence in the public system collapsed, spawning an exodus of good teachers.
The specialist believes that long-term solutions are not about cutting places, but about making time and resources more efficient. “The economics of education teach us that a mentor teacher, who has time to provide feedback, is ten times more effective than an exhausted teacher teaching 30 students. Romania’s solution must be to move from crisis management (cuts) to potential management (targeted investment)“, she concludes.
