Over 2.8M pupils and kindergarteners start classes for 2019-2020 school year Monday

A number of 2,824,594 pupils and kindergarteners start on Monday classes for school year 2019-2020. 

According to a release of the Ministry of National Education (MEN), this school year classes will be taught by a total number of 215,289 teachers and educators. 

The length of the new school year will be of 35 weeks for classes, structured in two semesters: semester 1 - between September 9 and December 20, 2019, semester 2 - between January 13 and June 12, 2020. 

On May 29, 2020 the classes for 12th grade day classes, 13th grade night classes and reduced frequency will end, and on June 5 the classes for 8th grade will end. 

The holidays of pupils in all the education cycles are programmed as follows: 
* winter holiday: December 21, 2019 to January 12, 2020 
* spring holiday: April 4 - April 21, 2020 
* summer holiday: June 13 - start of school year 2020-2021 

Classes in the primary cycle of education and pre-school education will have one more break between October 26 and November 3, 2019. 

In the school year that starts Monday the written tests/reading tests of the year-end national evaluations for 2nd, 4th and 6th grade will take place in the May 11-28, 2020 period. 

As a novelty, the process for admission in the high-school cycle for school year 2020-2021 will see admissions to high-schools taking place only for students who have taken the National Evaluation and whose admission grade is above 5.00 (five) out of a possible 10.00. 

"Graduates of 8th grade from the previous series, who are not 18 until the start of the 2020-2021 school year and who've participated in the admission process in the previous years, but were not enrolled in an education unit, may join the admission process for the state high-school cycle for year 2020-2021," MEN states. 

On July 10, 2020 the first computerized assignment of pupils to high-schools will take place. The process involves 8th grade graduates complete a ranked list of high-schools and education specialties which is the basis for assignment. The pupils are then sorted by a computer using their admission grade and placed in the high-school they ranked as most preferable that has enough seats. 

Between July 21 and 31, 2020 the second stage of admission to state high-school education will take place, which is dedicated to candidates in the current series of graduates that were not assigned in the first round, as well as pupils from previous series of graduates that will not be 18 by the start of school year 2020-2021. 

Education is mandatory in Romania up to the 10th grade.