Debate after one of the topics from Romanian at the National Assessment 2025. Gelu Sunday: “I disgusted the lack of knowledge of the social realities in Romania”
Sociologist Gelu Sunday criticized the choice of subject II from the DFE test from the National Assessment, which asked the students to describe an event lived on a trip. He, said, in a Facebook post, the choice is “discriminatory” and “broken by the reality of many children in Romania”.
“I admit, I am disgusted by the lack of knowledge of the social realities in Romania of those who did, and validated the topics,” wrote Gelu Sunday, after the publication of the topics.
“Thousands of students, of those who gave the national exam today, were not in their lives on a trip. Not because they would not have wished, but only because their families are too poor to allow such expense. Many of them are broken by the field work, the animal care, they can go through the house or in any other activity.
Such a topic does not give equal opportunities to all students who support the national assessment, believes on Sunday. “Yes, those children are” invisible “for a crooked and poorly fair system and receive a much weaker quality of education. But to develop a topic asking for a composition for something that 10-15% of the students does not have a foundation in reality and knowledge, it is, from my point of view, discriminatory.
The sociologist proposes an exercise in imagination: “Ps. Imagine what it would have been for the students in the great urban agglomerations if the subject had been focused on” a day they spent with parents at the field work “.
How was the requirement from the National Assessment 2025, the written test in Romanian language and literature:
Pro and cons reactions in Facebook comments
The criticism of Gelu Sunday was intensely discussed in the comments, where the opinions were divided. Some have contradicted him directly: “Come on, Mr. Sunday, we really have to be done? It was the easiest subject of the last 10 years and I say this from the perspective of a parent whose child has just given this exam,” a person wrote. Another added: “It's not just about personal experiences, you can have imagination.”
His Facebook post has collected over 3,000 reactions, 350 comments and 700 distributions in just a few hours.
Other comments ironized the sociologist's position: “And if they were told that the trip was on the Moon, who was still disadvantaged?”, While someone else wrote: “Forgive me, but you only discriminate everywhere. What is the big thing to describe a trip? (…)
Gelu Sunday: “Some wrote anything. Others wrote about how the cow went to the pasture”
After the reactions aroused by his first post, the sociologist Gelu Sunday returned with a new message on Facebook, in which he thanks those who entered the debate and adds new examples received from the teachers.
“The previous post has, at this moment, over 110,000 views. As it was natural, my ideas have aroused debate. Thank you to those who do not agree with me and I appreciate their criticism,” he wrote.
The sociologist says that several teachers wrote in private about how the students reacted in front of the requested subject.
“Some supervisor teachers wrote to me in private what they saw, with their eyes, that they wrote on that subject the children I was talking about. Some wrote anything. Many, from several counties, wrote about the activities of” Week otherwise “. imagined »like.”
At the end of the message, the sociologist makes a personal remark about their own experience and ironizes the reactions of those who claim that the students should have prepared better: “No, it would have been difficult for me to talk about Bucharest at 14 years old. Not for the first time, for the first time, at 20. But it is clear,”
