Fewer than 3 out of 10 candidates passed the Baccalaureate in the autumn session of 2024. The pass rate is the lowest in the last 5 years, statistics show. This is because the entire school system has become irrelevant and ineffective, says education expert Marian Staș.
Only 29.3% of the candidates from the Baccalaureate 2024, autumn session passed – Photo Archive
Specifically, of the more than 33,600 candidates for Baccalaureate 2024, the autumn session, only 28,016 appeared for the exam, and 8,206 obtained grades of 6 or higher.
According to the press release of the Ministry of Education, the cumulative pass rate is 29.3%, with 8,206 candidates passed. Specifically, they promoted:
– 31.2% (5,855 candidates) of the Class of 2024;
– 25.4% (2,351 candidates) from previous Promotions.
“This result confirms, certifies the dissolution of the relevance of the exam, a direct consequence of the way the school operates. It simply is no longer relevant, no longer important. Of course, there are children who go to take this exam, but in fact, their actual preparation for such a thing can be almost non-existent“, explained Marian Staș for “truth“.
In fact, the problem is one “systemic“, emphasizes the education expert.
This 29.3% pass rate, “it gives a better measure of how the school is doing.”
“The autumn sessions gather exactly the children who did poorly or didn’t do well. Probably many went there to see how it goes. To me it is a mirror, a systemic litmus test of poor school quality. This diagnosis is all the more relevant, the more we talk about mitigation, because, from summer to autumn, we are talking about children who didn’t take once and who give once more, and who will be in the following years, or , the quality diminishes even more, they are less and less prepared to take the exam”the expert also said.
According to the information published by the Ministry of Education, in the summer session of the Baccalaureate, the pass rate for the current promotion was 81.5%, and for all candidates, 76.4%.
In order to pass the matriculation exam, the final average for the three written tests needs to be above 6, and the minimum passing grade for each written test is 5 (five). But many high school students no longer care about the Baccalaureate.
“Baccalaureate has ceased to be relevant. It’s a kind of inertia, plus a meditation money-making machine. In addition, it is a whole machine to steal the hat, at least in Romanian and history, where those subjects are tailored in such a way that the students do not need to know history and Romanian properly to get a grade seven. The first topics, I and II, can be solved by a thinking child who does not need to have read anything, nothing, nothing. Subjects III, which are worth 30 points, are the ones that mean real history and Romanian. This is a mockery of teachers and an insult to the way you construct relevant national assessment subjects“, says Marian Staș.
Reform in education: “It’s all to be thrown into the air”
“It’s to throw everything in the air and do school for real. National ratings are actually the tip of the iceberg. These evaluations represent the visual proof of the value, the validity of an education cycle. For things to go well at the BAC or the national assessment, deep system transformation is needed. Of the curriculum model, of human resources and so on, of all the things that the school has not done for 30 years and stole its own hat, pretending to do, and leaving the most important project abandoned of the system, the keystone of any educational model: the framework plans“, emphasizes the education expert.
In June, Ligia Deca, the Minister of Education, said that the framework plans for the high school were in the working groups, in the process of completion, but did not specify an exact date when they would be ready. However, although the framework plans were supposed to be ready long ago, their completion is endlessly postponed by the Ministry of Education.
The reason?”Because they are made unionist. They have two major fundamental flaws: they are based on the norms and teachers’ salaries, not on the good of the children, and the obligation of the religion class, which fundamentally changes the whole discussion. There is only one thing certain in the framework plans: the religion class is there, that is not the curriculum design.“, emphasizes Marian Staș.
The bus to the museum
“A healthy project would have been like this The bus to the museum,” says the expert.
Marian Staș criticizes the superficiality and lack of relevance of the Baccalaureate exam, which he considers a “money-making machine” through meditations, without really evaluating students’ knowledge. He emphasizes that, in a civilized educational system, students should be assessed in all the subjects they study, not just in a few. In contrast, in Romania, the exam is reduced to three subjects, and the rest of the subjects are neglected, which leads to a deficient preparation and an educational system that does not fulfill its the role of forming well-trained young people.
Thus, the education expert proposes abandoning the Baccalaureate exam and replacing it with admission for those who want to attend university courses.
Those who did not take the BAC in the autumn session of this year, can register again next summer. In practice, high school graduates who have not passed the Baccalaureate can take the exam every year, both in the summer and in the autumn session, without a limit of attempts. The exam is free for first-time takers, both in the summer and fall sessions, but those who have already tried twice without success to take the BAC must pay a registration fee.
In 2024, the fee for the third attempt at the Baccalaureate was 464 lei. This fee is set annually and varies by county, being announced by the beginning of March of the current school year.
