Romania and Moldova unveil education reforms on school director duties and textbook procurement

Romania's Ministry of Education opened a public consultation on a draft procedure that would allow school principals, deputy directors, inspectors and other education administrators to receive partial or total exemption from teaching duties. The proposal sets out the conditions, documentation and reporting requirements for such workload reductions, aiming to give leaders more time for management, project work, union activities and other non‑teaching responsibilities.

Moldova's Ministry of Education and Research presented a reform of the regulation governing the selection and purchase of school textbooks. The new rules would shift the evaluation weight to 90 % for quality and only 10 % for price, permit publishers to submit a preview of 25 % of a book for early review, and require pilot testing and public consultation of winning titles. The reform also strengthens the National Committee for Textbook Acquisition, expands quality criteria, and earmarks roughly 150 million lei for the acquisition of about 80 new titles this year.