For a decade, between 2015 and 2025, the Romanian Language and Literature test at the Baccalaureate has kept an apparently unchanged structure: three hours of work, three major subjects, 10 official points and a total of 100 points.
Behind this formal continuity, however, teachers observe a profound transformation of what it actually means to be assessed at high school graduation.
Claudiu Zamfirescu, a teacher of the Romanian language at a high school in Timișoara, offers a critical perspective on this evolution, which he considers to be one of lowering standards and emptying the substance.
Teacher: “When I look back at the subjects in 2015, it really mattered what you learned”
The years 2015 and 2016 followed the formula established by the ministerial order of 2010.
In the real stream, candidates faced a first topic with literary text and comprehension questions, worth 50 marks, followed by a short argumentative essay of 20 marks and an extended essay of 400-600 words, worth 30 marks, plus an ancillary task of 10 marks.
In the humanities stream, the structure was similar, but the short essay was worth only 10 points, and the long essay 30 points.
The differences between the profiles remained constant, and the examination time and scales were applied without significant changes until 2019.
Looking back at the subjects of 2015, the professor recalls another level of demand:
“I tell you honestly, when I look back at the subjects of 2015, it really mattered what you learned. In real, my students had to write an essay of 400-600 words, but every argument, every commented sequence counted. And in human, poor them, they expected real critical essays, with perspective, with personal style. Now, if they were given something like that, a lot of them would fall on their heads. Not because they are weaker, but because no one prepares them in these directions anymore”, explains the teacher for “Truth”.
Baccalaureate, profoundly changed by the pandemic
The year 2020 brought, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, an interruption of the usual calendar: the June-July session was canceled and reorganized in the fall, and for the first time the works were digitally scanned and corrected, as part of a pilot project.
In 2021, however, in addition to the continuation of the pandemic measures, content changes also appeared. A ministerial order from February 2021 approved new baccalaureate programs, including for the Romanian language, with an expansion of the list of canonical authors and an emphasis on language skills.
For professor Claudiu Zamfirescu, however, this change did not mean an increase in quality, but a masked simplification: “The pandemic messed us up. In 2021, they came up with new programs, like “expanding the list of canonical authors”. It sounds good, but the reality is that they put in easier authors, shorter texts, and simplified the subjects. The scale was designed to pass the world, not to select.”
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The last years of exams, marked by digitization
Between 2022 and 2023, the digitization of proofreading has become widespread. If in 2022 the pilot was extended to all papers, and in 2023 a dedicated computer application was compulsorily used for the digital proofreading of papers written at the Baccalaureate, the structure of the subjects remained the same.
The teachers corrected on tablets or computers, and the scales did not officially change. However, the effects of this transition are, in Zamfirescu’s opinion, profoundly negative:
“Digitalized correction sounds modern. But look what has happened: teachers look at the tablet, click, score mechanically. Where is that discussion between the correctors? “Well, here this student noticed a nuance, maybe he deserves a plus”? It is no longer. And then, in order to avoid a scandal, the scales became as wide as the fence. Any answer is half accepted. In 2015, if you didn’t write me correctly “marks of subjectivity”, you lost two points. Now anything is valid.”
Teacher: “I’m looking at Topic I from 2025 – some dime, eighth grade level questions”
The years 2024 and 2025 did not bring major legislative changes to the Romanian Language curriculum, which remained the one approved since 2013, although the “Educated Romania” Law (no. 198/2023) had already been promulgated, and was to apply the new framework plans starting with the Baccalaureate in 2026.
Thus, in 2025, the subjects kept the same configuration: a literary text in the first subject, accompanied by lexical and content analysis questions (50 points), a short argumentative essay of 150-180 words in the second subject (20 points), and in the third subject a fragment analysis task (10 points) and an extensive essay on a studied work (30 points).
Comparing subject I from 2025 with what was required a decade ago, Claudiu Zamfirescu notices a drastic drop in the level: “I’m looking at subject I from 2025 – some cheap questions, at the eighth grade level. In my time, in subject I you had to analyze text from a stylistic point of view, to find syntax figures. Now the level has decreased. And in subject III, in the 30-point essay, the scale says “the attempt to build a coherent speech is also scored”. I mean, we applaud you for trying.”
He concluded by drawing a clear line between what the Romanian Language Baccalaureate once was and what it has become.
“Look what I want to say: in 2015, the Baccalaureate in Romanian was a serious exam. It tested your culture, logic, writing talent. In 2025, it’s a formality. It’s clear that the Ministry wants high passability, not people who really know the book.
We teachers feel this in class, because students no longer have the motivation to learn thoroughly. They know they take 7-8 anyway. And that’s not their fault. It’s the fault of a system that turned the Baccalaureate into a kind of driver’s license: you get it almost anyway, but it doesn’t mean you know how to drive”said Claudiu Zamfirescu.
