Romania plans changes to Baccalaureate exam calendar due to climate changes

Romanian students who will finish 12th grade next year will undergo the end-of-high school exams, known as the Baccalaureate, starting June 10, which is earlier than ever in recent history, according to plans announced by the Education Ministry in Bucharest on Monday, One key reason for bringing the national exams earlier is climate change.

• Full story in Romanian – here

More precisely, the Ministry says the exam calendar change is caused, in part, ”by the need to take into account the evolution of extreme temperature levels in summer time, which may affect the performance of the candidates”., according to a summary of the changes published on the Ministry website.

The Ministry also announced it plans to bring a series of skill-oriented tests related to the Baccalaureate earlier in the school year – in late January and early February (January 27-February 5). This tests have not taken place so early since 2018. 

The Baccalaureate examinations have not taken place so early in June in recent history: an Edupedu.ro analysis saw it has never happened for the past 15 years.

• In 2024, the first written exam of the Baccalaureate took place on July 1,  three weeks later than planned for the Baccalaureate next year.

Another reason for bringing the exams earlier, as mentioned by the Ministry, is the need to help students comply with deadlines for submitting requests to join universities, for which the Baccalaureate diplome is needed.

The option of changes to exam dates due to climate changes was mentioned by Education minister Ligia Deca recently. During a series of climate action consultations n July 29th, she mentioned the possibility of changing national exam calendars and noted that the school and university infrastructure in Romania faced difficulties in organising exams during summer months when „there are real chances of orange or red weather codes”.

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