The rescheduling of Baccalaureate raises heated controversies. The teachers of the “Saint Sava” National College in Bucharest sent an open letter to Minister Ligia Deca in which they say that it will be impossible for them to participate in the organization and supervision of the written tests and, at the same time, manage the completion of the courses.
Historic decision: The baccalaureate will extend from winter to summer. Photo source: archive
As well as the teachers of the Caragiale high school. “We will also have a reaction. We will also send a letter to the ministry. It’s an aberration what’s happening,” teacher Andreia Bodea, director of Caragiale high school, stated for Adevărul.
The professors of the “Saint Sava” National College in Bucharest sent an open letter to Minister Ligia Deca warning that the organization of the Baccalaureate, in its new formula, could lead to huge dysfunctions. It is the first time in the recent history of the Baccalaureate that this national exam takes place during the school year. And the teachers are already predicting the chaos that awaits them.
Sava high school teachers accuse: “The rescheduling of the Baccalaureate, an anomaly”
The teachers will not be able to finish the school year, the averages of the students, the situation of the corrigents and to focus, at the same time, on the organization and supervision of the Baccalaureate, they draw attention. “We consider this fact to be an anomaly that will create dysfunctions in the educational process. The teaching staff will be put in the position – impossible from our point of view – to manage the busiest period during the school year (its completion) and to participate, at the same time, in the organization of the national Baccalaureate exam”. show the more than 30 teachers who signed the open letter.
The letter from the Sava teachers comes in the context where the written tests of the 2025 Baccalaureate exam will begin on June 10, four days after high school graduates finish their courses. However, for students of the 9th, 10th and 11th grades, school continues until June 21. Practically, the exams will be given during the school year. This is the reason why Minister Ligia Deca came up with several proposals: on those days, students should enter the “Other School” or “Green Week” programs, not to come to classes but make up for them on the weekends, schools should modify the program students by moving classes to the afternoon or the exam schedule is reduced – under the conditions that teachers will not have time to finish teaching the subject and its recapitulation.
However, the teachers of Saint Sava College do not agree with any of these proposals. On the contrary. Regarding the “Different School” and “Green School” programs, the teachers claim that the measure is in contradiction with the structure of the school year, which establishes that the period until which these programs can be carried out is May 30, 2025. Moreover, they draw attention and on the fact that final grade students will not be able to participate in the activities. As for making up classes on weekends, the teachers do not agree with this proposal either. “Such a decision would disrupt the students’ weekly schedule. They would have to spend in schools approximately 36 hours in a week, their effort curve being affected in an unjustified way”, say the teachers.
High school principal: “Students will be forced to go on vacation”
The approach of the teachers from Sava will be followed by that of the teaching staff who teach at the IL Caragiale National College. “On Wednesday we will have a teacher’s council and we will make a decision then”said director Andreia Bodea for Adevărul. This testified to us that the situation we have reached is an abnormal one, and if we do not come back with regulations, in the summer we could witness a real blockage in education. The headmistress also stated that, most likely, for the students of high school classes IX-XI, classes will not end on June 21, as the calendar provides, but on June 9: “Not even a day before the exams, more precisely on June 9, the students of the 9th, 10th and 11th grades will not be able to attend their classes. Let me explain: on this day, the president of the Baccalaureate Commission comes to the high school, the exam rooms are set up, the functionality of the audio-video cameras is checked, posters are pasted on the classroom doors, etc. It’s a compromised day where we’ll have zero hours. Then, there are three more days in which the students of the lower grades of the 12th will not be able to come to classes because the exams are taking place. Then the evaluation of the works begins. Teachers do not correct from home. They go to assessment centers. How to make hours during this time? Here is another waste of time for the younger students. Other break days. Most likely, school will end for them on June 9.”
In order to recover all this lost time, minister Ligia Deca came up with some proposals: among them, the students should enter the “Other Week” or “Green Week” programs. “There is no such thing! During these two weeks, children go on trips, visit museums, the Astronomical Observatory, etc. But with what teachers? That they are supervising and uploading works to the platform. And the parents will wake up with the children at home. This will happen”Andreia Bodea also specified.
Another option proposed by the ministry is the recovery of hours lost during the weekend. But this measure is also harshly criticized. “How do I call the children on Saturday and Sunday? But children have various activities these days. Sport, a foreign language, an instrument, it’s his right to stay at home. What do you mean call them? But what is their fault?”, asks the director of ILCaragiale, outraged.
“A real problem, a hasty decision, a solution pulled out of a hat”
Another problem that students and teachers will face will be the lack of time allocated to those who will have homework to pass. “It’s the end of the school year! There will be no time for assessment of these students who are entitled to be assessed in addition. And what do you tell them? That their teacher is away at the assessment center?”
The director Andreia Bodea also told us that on the days when the national exams are held, an extremely large number of teachers are transferred from one high school to another: “In Caragiale there are 24 exam rooms, we will have 48 supervisors, then those who sit in the hallways, plus the teachers from the Commission, plus two, three who sit in the luggage room. Who is left to do classes with high school students? Hardly anyone!”
Andreia Bodea admits that she is facing a dilemma and at the moment she does not see any solution: “I don’t know what I will do. I have no solution. It will be total chaos. I kept talking about it in the Faculty Council and everyone looked to me to come up with a magic solution. I am very angry and worried. I’ve been through a lot, but I really didn’t expect this. I came to the conclusion that the minister doesn’t know… I can’t explain… but there is an army of people surrounding her, advisers, lawyers. What are those people doing? It was a hasty decision because there was that problem with the high summer temperatures and let’s quickly pull a solution out of the hat. They could think of other solutions: make the exams earlier, shorten them by an hour, keep the students in schools less. They come at 8.00-8.30 and some leave at 14.00, because they have to be present when the last works are loaded into the platform. But, the best thing was to put money and buy air conditioners in the classrooms. And they solved the problem. That’s how they messed us all up.”
“Recovery of lost hours can be done with the consultation of parents”
The parents, on the other hand, says the director of IL Caragiale, agree with the situation: “The parents of the 12th grade students, in the gross selfishness that characterizes us, have no problem. Instead, the parents of those in classes XI, X and XI are desperate. There are people who cannot keep their children at home. What do I do in this situation? Do they leave them like that, on the street?”
The headmistress is also dissatisfied with the fact that there is a free day between the three written tests of the Baccalaureate: “That the parents asked. Well, if one day the parents ask not to give the Baccalaureate at all, what do we do? We don’t give it anymore? I also ask a lot from my parents and they don’t do the right thing, they send it to themselves naked children at school. This with the days off between exams seems like a scam to me!”.
Cătălin Nan, president of the Parents’ Federation, told Adevărul that the recovery of lost hours in the 9th, 10th and 11th grades should be thought about together with the parents. “To make a decision by mutual agreement. Parents should be consulted, let’s reach a common denominator. Let’s decide together what is best for the children. On the other hand, with regard to the minister’s recommendation that lost hours be made up at the weekend, schools are free to decide how they will proceed. Because this recommendation will not become a law that they will be obliged to follow. Let’s not forget that there are many days off per year that students have to make up: bank holidays that schools make up in one way or another. It is imperative that school principals talk to parent associations and parent committees to think about the best way to recover these hours. I am convinced that if they work together they will find effective solutions. That if rules are imposed on us with the sword, then naturally they will create all kinds of problems”, said the parent representative.
