The new year promises to be a turning point for Romanian education: high schools are given the freedom to build their own framework plans, 9th grade students will learn according to completely new programs, and electives and curricular approaches promise a more flexible school and more connected to the reality of the 21st century. Between the optimism of the reform, the tensions with the trade unions and the announced social measures, the education system is expected to enter an unprecedented stage of transformation.
Implementation of alternative framework plans
2026 is the year in which the implementation of alternative framework plans will begin, which will give high schools more flexibility. At the same time, 9th grade students will learn according to the new programs, 20 years after the last changes. Marian Staș, professor and specialist in educational policies, says optimistically for “Weekend Adevărul” that “the two processes will irreversibly mark the school in Romania, indisputably propelling it truly into the 21st century”.
Therefore, high schools in Romania will be able to test a different model of education. Until January 15, they have time to sign up for the pilot program of alternative framework plans. “The Alternative Framework Plan is a plan that I know from American logic, but it also exists in other European countries. It says that you have these compulsory subjects, the so-called common core. These subjects must be completed by all children, because they are part of the basic training and become subjects for the Baccalaureate. But in addition to these, the other hundreds of hours you have every year are no longer regulated by the minister, but, at the school level, it is determined which subjects you want put and how many hours you want to give them”explains former Minister of Education Daniel David at “Interviurile Adevărul”.
Education expert Marinan Staș has only words of praise for the pilot program: “It represents kilometer zero in the Romanian school architecture of the 21st century. Up to now, around 100 high schools are already working on their framework plans. The existence of a single framework plan for all high schools in Romania has ceased to exist, and this represents an exceptional historical fact. The year 2026 will be strongly marked by this transformation process. Never before, in the history of the Romanian school, have high schools had up to 60% of the time budget at their disposal to design their own master plans”.
Among the electives that students will be able to choose are subjects such as “History, slavery and deportation of slaves”, “History of the 1989 revolution and regime change in Romania”, “Emotional management”, “Introduction to machine learning” or “Financial education”.
All 9th grade students will learn according to new programs
Students who will start high school in the fall of 2026 will learn different programs than previous generations. The proposal for the Romanian Language and Literature curriculum was intensively discussed.
“It represents the lucid signal of some people of the 21st century who say that, in fact, what has happened so far with the Romanian Language and Literature school curriculum, which is an instance of revolutionary times, of a way of approaching school that is far out of date and even dangerously, tendentiously stuck, possibly in some patterns that have no place in today’s school. And it’s not only about what books we read, but also about the way in which this discipline or this area curriculum opens our minds and teaches children to think with their heads. From here, in my opinion, there is no turning back”thinks Marian Staș.
An unquenchable conflict
As in 2025 we witnessed a declared conflict between the unions and the ministry, I asked Marian Staș how he thinks things will be in the new year.
“I think 2026 will probably mark a kind of war of attrition, orchestrated by a trade union pathetic, already long since devolved, of the “dog that barks don’t bite” type, defined by the sad, mediocre figures who lead it. The bad news for those who now lead the unions in Education is that they have long since lost their credibility and legitimacy among the constituents in the territory, ie the teachers in the system. Who would believe that you really care when you earn between 23,000 and 29,000 lei every month, in mockery and contempt for those whose interests you say you are defending?”says Staș. In support of the union leaders’ salary statements comes data from the union leaders’ wealth statements.
The new year will settle things in Education, believes Marian Staș:
“Once the stage of managing the multidimensional crisis at the national level is overcome, and the restoration of a healthy fiscal discipline, the 2026-2027 school year will have a high potential for recovery and positive developments, not only in the area of curriculum transformation, but also in the area of human resources”.
On (almost) plus
If in the case of middle school and high school students, former minister Daniel David did not want a return to the old system, whereby all those who had an average higher than 9.50 were rewarded, in the case of students things could be different. Right at the end of 2025, the Ministry of Education announced that, thanks to the support of the European Commission, the fund for scholarships in 2026 will be supplemented by approximately 60 million euros, which means that they will be closer to the levels before the austerity measures.
Also in 2026 we will see how Romania will implement the homework order. Although regulations regarding the number of hours dedicated to homework existed since 2017 (no more than one hour of homework for primary school students and two for those in middle school and high school), the new order put into public debate came with certain additions. Thus, school managers and principals should ensure that teachers do not give homework that exceeds the regulated volume.
Another good news is the continuation of the “Healthy Meal” Program, for which more than 1.5 billion lei are allocated in 2026. The purpose of this program is to combat school dropout, support students from disadvantaged backgrounds and increase school participation. However, this initiative is presented rather as a social measure, without addressing the structural problems of the educational system, such as the working conditions of teachers, human resources or the adequate financing of educational units.
