A decreasing number of students select physics as the Baccalaureate exam of their choice. In the 2017 Baccalaureate session, only 1% of the candidates sat the exam in physics, IPN reports.

The data were presented in hearings staged by the Parliament’s commission on culture, education, youth, sport and mass media on November 8.

Igor Sharov, secretary of state at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research, said over 700 students chose to take the physics exam in 2013 and only 192 this year. “We are concerned about the fact that the students do not want to sit the test in physics. What should we do for the students to become fond of physics and choose a career in engineering, which is so necessary for our economy?” asked Igor Sharov.

He also spoke about the problems in the Baccalaureate session mentioned at the hearings held in Parliament in July. Then the MPs notified the Financial Inspectorate and the National Anticorruption Center of the poor quality of the physics tests and the institutions are to present a report by November 15.

Socialist MP Vlad Batrancea said the number of students who take the Baccalaureate exams decrease, while the costs incurred for organizing the exams increase. He suggested that the National Agency for Curriculum and Assessment would have spent too much on the preparations for the Baccalaureate exams.

Unaffiliated MP Lilian Carp transmitted a message to the director of the National Agency for Curriculum and Assessment Anatol Topala, who didn’t attend the hearing, saying he should tell which of the public functionaries and MPs exerted pressure on him and asked that he should modify particular grades in the Baccalaureate exams.

The parliamentary commission’s chairman Vladimir Hotineanu said that after the Financial Inspectorate and the National Anticorruption Center present the report, the MPs will be able to submit recommendations and proposals for changing the situation.