Will the new education law improve performance of Romanian students in international assessments?

Romanian students have been performing increasingly worse in international evaluations over the last few years, with the Romanian education system being outstripped by those in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Lithuania. Will the education system's performance improve after the hundredth modification of the education law?

Romania ranked 47th out of a total of 57 countries participating in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2006, when the latest such assessment was made, with Romanian students faring worse than in 2001, when they ranked 34th out of 43 participants.

Those who were involved in putting together the education law say the changes will contribute to improving students' performance, and, implicitly, to a better position in international rankings, while others say the law has its weak points, which do not encourage performance.

"Teachers will conduct more assessments in order to correct deficiencies, with there being an assessment every school year. The teaching staff can use 25% of the classes allocated by curriculum to remedy students' deficiencies," says Mircea Miclea, former Education Minister and chairman of the Presidential Commission for education, who was involved in putting together the new education law.