Romania's Education Minister Sorin Costreie has put the recent examination for school directors on his list of priorities, saying the way the test was run and its results must be analyzed before any decisions are taken. The minister told Digi24 that several aspects of the exam require verification, including the time allotted to candidates and the absence of draft sheets, even though the instructions stated that some problems could be worked out on paper.
Costreie said the first step is to establish whether the examination was conducted under legal conditions, particularly since appeals have been lodged. Only after that review, he said, can conclusions be drawn about what needs to be improved. The long-term goal, he explained, is to build a well-trained corps of directors and school inspectors capable of running schools professionally.
Asked about the exam questions themselves, the minister declined to draw firm conclusions for now. He described them as standard items testing logical thinking, with some grammar and even mathematics mixed in, and said he would analyze the matter together with his team before deciding on any measures. He stressed that this was his personal view and that all necessary steps would follow the joint review.
On the purpose of the test, Costreie said it is primarily designed to assess candidates' cognitive and analytical capacity. He identified the time limit and the lack of scratch paper as the main problems, noting that the exam instructions themselves allowed problems to be solved either mentally or on a draft sheet. These are among the small details that will be examined to understand why they arose and what impact they had on the way the exam unfolded.
The minister also pointed to a broader concern: interest in school leadership positions is falling. He said the desire to become a director has become increasingly small, and that he can understand why — the salary is the same as for a teaching post, but the responsibilities are far greater, with only minimal relief from teaching duties. In his view, Romania needs a professional managerial corps, paired with greater school autonomy.
The review comes as candidates have challenged the exam's conduct, and the minister's remarks suggest that procedural questions — not only the content of the test — will shape the next steps. For now, no measures have been announced, and the ministry is expected to assess both the legality of the examination and the lessons to be drawn from it before proposing changes to how school directors are selected.