Romania reaches required PISA standards

Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) pretesting ended the other day, and the final result of Romania's participation is 94.69%, said on Thursday Education Minister Sorin Cimpeanu, who underlined the importance of international comparative evaluations, specifying that 4 million lei have been allocated this year to support these studies.

"The other day we completed the PISA pretesting. We managed to reach the required standard for participation: 94.69% is the final result of the participation in the PISA pretesting. Along with the PISA Programme, the TALIS [Teaching and Learning International Survey] Programme, the TIMSS [Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study] Programme is considered of major importance. (...) Systemic interventions in education must come out of the gray area of improvisation; they must be based on data, on solid scientific evidence, and international comparative evaluations that we have decided to support financially are essential. Almost 4 million lei have been earmarked this year alone for such studies. It may be little. We want to expand the support base for these instruments, which we consider extremely important," the minister told a conference on Romania's pre-university education under the magnifying glass of TIMSS 2019, guidelines for educational policies in Romania, organised by the University of Bucharest.

He pointed out that science education has a major social role because it trains young people to understand life, to relate to the great challenges of the contemporary world.

"Learning mathematics and science is not just a necessary exercise for school and exam. Science education has a major social role; it trains young people to understand life, to relate to the great challenges of the contemporary world. The Ministry of Education is and will remain committed to the generation of educational policies based on scientific evidence. We need more than ever to collaborate with education science experts," said Cimpeanu.

He pointed out that the government approved on Wednesday Romania's participation in the TALIS 2022 Programme.