Over 12,700 people have registered for the 5,000 places available within the National Program for the Study of Romanian Language, the 2024 edition. The new phase of the program, launched at the beginning of February by the Ministry of Education and Research, is intended for adults who want to improve their knowledge of Romanian or study the Romanian language from scratch. Most applications for the free courses were submitted by people living in Chisinau – 6, 911 - and ATU Gagauzia – 1,586, IPN reports.

Of the total number of applicants, more than 9,000 applied to study beginner level (A1) or elementary level (A2).

The enrolled persons work mainly in education, economy, medicine and central and local public administration. More than half or 56% opted for online courses.

The courses will be taught between March and December 2024. The duration of a course will be of 120 hours on average, depending on the level of language proficiency, compared to the 2023 course which had 60 hours.

For this year’s edition of the National Program for the Study of Romanian Language, the Ministry of Education and Research allocated 10 million lei.