After the wave of criticism regarding the new Romanian Language and Literature program for high school, the Minister of Education, Daniel David, claims that the document was not developed by the ministry, but by specialists, and announces a substantive debate before the final form.
The Minister of Education, Daniel David, reacted on Wednesday evening, during a show on Digi24, to the wave of criticism that appeared in the public space after the publication of the new Romanian Language and Literature program for high school. The document, which is in public consultation, has been strongly contested by many university professors, who consider it outdated, not adapted to today’s students and “retrograde”.
In response, the minister emphasized that the curriculum was not proposed by the ministry or by people without expertise in the field, but by a committee of specialists made up of recognized experts.
“Not the Ministry, I or someone who is not a specialist proposed that program”, stated Daniel David, emphasizing that there is a period of debate in the specialized commissions, after which the final form of the document will be established.
The minister explained the composition and mission of the commission that worked on the current version.
“We created a committee of very good specialists, people from the Romanian Academy, from Academy institutes, from large universities and people who work in pre-university at national colleges, and simply what I told them is to look at various models that also exist in other countries, to which we refer very often through educational performance, and come up with such a proposal that would be even more airy”, he explained.
During the show, Daniel David admitted that he personally did not analyze the disputed version in detail until the public reactions appeared.
“I tell you, I didn’t even read the syllabus carefully, because we have dozens of subjects, but in the last few days, seeing debates, I also started to look over the syllabus, not as a specialist and with the eye of general culture”, the official confessed, insisting that discussions are normal in a public consultation stage and that the reactions received, even negative ones, are welcome: “I’m glad that there are such reactions, people express themselves, some for, others against. At the end of this period I will draw a line and see what decision I will make.”
He also rejected the idea that there are divergent opinions within the ministry, arguing that the debates are between experts: “They are not different positions from the Ministry, they are positions between specialists. It was not the Ministry and me or someone who is not a specialist in Language and Literature that proposed the respective program.”
Regarding the adoption process, Daniel David reiterated that the final decision will be taken after discussions with specialists.
“There will be a debate and following this debate I will discuss with the committee what is the way forward, because you should never imagine that a responsible minister (…) will not enter the specialized content if it is not his job, he is not good at it. That is why you created a committee of specialists to work and assume”concluded the Minister of Education.
Criticism of specialists
The reactions from the academic environment regarding the new program for the Romanian Language, which is under public debate, were extremely harsh.
Claudiu Turcuș, dean of the Faculty of Theater and Film at “Babeș-Bolyai” University, called it “downright retrograde”, saying that it cuts students off from the current world: “It seems that nothing has happened in the last 50 years (…) It’s an opaque program to the contemporary world, protochronist-nationalist (…) that proposes to students who watch “Stranger Things” and “Euphoria” to read Moldovan chroniclers, to process genres and literary myths without any critical perspective.”
His opinions are also shared by Bogdan Crețu, a professor at the Faculty of Letters of the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași, who considers the mandatory reading of chroniclers inappropriate in the 9th grade.
“Old Romanian literature is a doubly misleading construct: firstly because it is not actually literature; secondly because, although it belongs to a pre-national stage, being a province of a Byzantine culture, from which it takes forms, themes, ideas, often whole passages, it has been persistently hijacked by nationalists”. wrote professor Crețu.
And Ștefan Baghiu, university lecturer at “Lucian Blaga” University in Sibiu, rejected the curriculum, categorizing it as confusing and outdated.
“The plain truth is that the ministry has no idea what it’s doing, and the people who make the programs have no idea what literature is today.” he said.
The new Romanian Language and Literature program would be applied from the 2026-2027 school year, but the final form depends on the conclusions of the announced debates.
