The lawmakers passed the new Education Code in the first reading. In the Parliament’s sitting, Minister of Education Maia Sandu said the bill provides for the adoption of a new approach to education and is aimed at modernizing the education system in the context of the European integration process and the Bologna Process. The Communist faction rejected the document, IPN reports.

Under the Code, education will be mandatory up to the age of 18. It will start with the first preschool cycle – the preparatory group - and will end with high school or technical vocational education. The education for children with special needs will be free at all the stages and will be organized into general, special or home.

The studying of the Romanian language as an official language will be compulsory in all the education institutions, of any level. The state will ensure the conditions needed for studying the Romanian language, including by increasing the number of subjects studied in Romanian in general education institutions with another teaching language.

In higher education, besides the national grading system, there will be used the qualifying grading scale (A, B, C, D, E, FX, X) for facilitating academic mobility.

The internal assessment of teachers in general education will be carried out annually by the administration of the education institution. The external assessment will be performed once in five years by competent bodies. The assessment methodology will envision the consultation with students, parents and other teachers from the given education institution.

Only teachers with a master’s diploma will be able to teach at lyceums. The university lecturers will need to have a doctor’s diploma. The teachers in all the education institutions will be employed by contest. The school principals will be named for a four-year period only, by contest, while rectors will be elected by the general assembly of the university, not by the senate, as now.

The education institutions will have to annually publish progress reports. Another provision of the Education Code concerns the elimination of discrimination and ensuring of learning conditions for children with special needs.

On retirement, the teachers will receive a lump sum of 15% of the salary for every year of work in the education system.

Investments of 400 million lei a year are needed for extending the length of mandatory education. About 61 million lei will be needed annually for renewing the teaching staff in general education institutions and for supporting the young specialists.

The authors said a new Education Code is needed because the Education Law was adopted in 1995 and does not efficiently and appropriately meet the acute needs deriving from the new realities and the changes that occurred meanwhile in the paradigm of education.

The Code was adopted in the first reading by a majority of votes. The Communists refused to support the document, saying it is inefficient and populist.

After the bill is passed in the final reading, the Government will present proposals for adjusting the legislation to the given document within 24 months of the publication of the Code.