From the beginning of the next school year, grading would be standardized. That is, all students, regardless of school or teachers, should be evaluated according to the same clear criteria. A long-awaited measure by students. ,,Currently, the differences between how teachers grade can be very large, and this creates a sense of inequity between students“, says Bogdan Gogan, vice-president of the National Council of Students. The standardized grading is also considered necessary by teacher Doru Căstăian, but also by education specialist Daniela Vișoianu.
PHOTO Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea
What does grading system standardization mean?
The announcement regarding the standardization of the grading system was made by the Minister of Education.
“We have this problem, after so many years we still don’t have clear evaluation and grading standards. It’s a problem, I started looking for solutions to it. For primary and secondary education, we will conclude the process involving the development of assessment and grading standards, teacher training, probably next year, in June. Also then I propose that we also finish these standards for high school education, so that from the next school year 2026-2027, we start not only with new programs, for example at the high school level, but also with evaluation and grading standards”the minister said on the Facebook page of the Ministry of Education.
But what exactly does standardization of the grading process mean and what are the benefits?
Professor Doru Căstăian emphasizes: ,,I think standardization is needed. Because it sets some standards that teachers have in mind when marking and evaluating. The standards specify a minimum threshold for obtaining a certain grade or qualification. And yes, such a thing is needed. Because standardization eliminates a good part of the subjectivity and the good taste with which it is evaluated today”.
For her part, Daniela Vișoianu, specialist in Education, says:
“Standardization means, in short, that a grade of 7 in geography should have the same representation in skills possessed by both a student from Bucharest, who studies in sector 1, and a student from an isolated mountain town. (…) Such standardization means monitoring the system, providing consistent data to assess the effectiveness of school programs and teaching methods at the macro level“.
The National Council of Students: “It’s an important step towards equity
For students, the measure comes with a sense of justice and brings clarity to an often gray area.
“Standardization of grades is an important step towards fairness and trust in the evaluation system. Currently, the differences between how teachers grade can be very large, and this creates a sense of inequity between students. Through standardization, students will clearly know what is expected of them, the criteria being public and explicit, the grades will better reflect real skills, not just the teacher’s preferences, and the results from all over the country will become comparable, which helps in better school and professional orientation. At the same time, teachers will be able to benefit from a common guide, which makes their work easier and reduces the pressure of subjective decisions”emphasizes Bogdan Gogan, vice-president of the National Council of Students.
Bogdan Gogan, vice-president of the National Student Council
Current rating problems: “We still have a lot of likes and broad and ambiguous ratings”
,How are children evaluated now? “In my view, not very well. To avoid a harsher attribute. We still have practices that have nothing to do with assessment, we still have teachers who grade certain subjects for undesirable behavior or to sanction certain problems. We still have a lot of liking and a lot of broad and ambiguous assessments. For all these reasons it is necessary to have standards. And not just standards, but also descriptors. There is a discussion here. The standard sets a general threshold, the descriptor tells you how recognize whether you’ve reached that threshold or not,” says professor Doru Căstăian.
“High grade inflation” and why grades don’t always reflect reality
Students also talk about wide discrepancies in the grading system, both from school to school and from teacher to teacher.
“Although, in theory, there should be an objective assessment, based on skills and clear criteria, in practice the way of grading tends to be quite subjective in many cases. Some teachers give grades more easily, others are much more demanding, and this leads to significant differences between students who, in fact, have similar levels of preparation. In some cases, the grade reflects the teacher’s teaching style, the level of difficulty of the school, or even extracurricular factors, rather than necessarily the student’s actual skills.”says Bogdan Gogan, vice-president of the National Council of Students.
He also talks about another reason grades tend to no longer reflect reality: “A general pressure has been created in the educational environment, either to maintain the image of the school or not to demotivate the students, one of the long-term effects being an inflation of high grades”.
However, the inflation of high grades no longer helps the National Assessment, because now the V-VIII average is no longer taken into account, only the exam grades. Daniela Vișoianu says:
“Currently, things happen a lot “by ear”, and the biggest “cold shower” is the one at the end of the 8th grade. Then, students with high averages in gymnasium get low grades in the National Assessment or students with high averages reach high school and quickly become students of grades 5-6. These discrepancies highlight learning gaps in middle school, especially in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) area.”
What about bad behavior marks?
The grades for the undesirable behaviors mentioned by Doru Căstăian are still a reality, the students say, but the reasons are complex.
“Many times, teachers end up punishing students’ behavior with low grades, not because they want to, but because they don’t have other effective ways to combat inappropriate behavior in the classroom. At the same time, the performance grade is a rather serious measure, with long-term effects on the student, and most teachers avoid lowering it precisely because they are aware of its consequences on the student’s educational and professional career. Thus, the grade for the taught subject becomes, indirectly, a means of discipline, even if this should not happen. The real problem is that the grade is no longer used as a tool for evaluating knowledge, but as a means of controlling behavior, which affects both the teacher-student relationship and trust in the evaluation process.” credit Bogdan Gogan, vice-president of the National Council of Students.
How the grades should be
“I would say that they must be as clear as possible, coherent, not ambivalent and not giving rise to room for discretion in the evaluation” says professor Doru Căstaian.
The implementation of grading standards will not be very easy, but it is necessary, he emphasizes:
“Of course there will be difficulties at the beginning. Because it’s something new, because the inertia is great, because probably many of us will try to redefine our methods to fit into this Procustian bed of standards, without fundamentally changing them. But little by little, especially if there will be some effective committees in schools, and some teachers who will give honest feedback to each other, then in principle things will get better over time”.
Daniela Vișoianu believes: “The teachers in Romania are not in the best moment of their history. We are after a summer and an autumn of hate speech against them – that they don’t work, that they don’t do their classes, that they don’t teach, that they work too little. Adjusting their teaching and assessment to the standards can mean, for many, a major adjustment effort. They need consistent support.”
Students also want real curriculum reform
In addition to the standardization of grades, student representatives say that a real reform of the school curriculum is also absolutely necessary.
“Most students feel that a significant part of the contents studied are too theoretical, too loaded and insufficiently connected with today’s reality. According to a survey carried out by the National Council of Students in 2024, more than 70% of students believe that the high school subject contains information that is not useful or relevant to them in the long term. The curriculum must be updated and adapted to the current demands of society and the labor market, but also to the way the modern world works, one dominated by technology, communication and critical thinking. Students need real skills, not just memorization”draws the attention of Bogdan Gogan, vice-president of the National Council of Students.
