“Would it be good for pre-university principals to have a maximum of two mandates?” It is the question that showed how much dissatisfaction there is among teachers. The skills profile should matter, otherwise we will have another blind competition, draws the attention of the directors' representative.
The competition for the heads of schools will be organized next year PHOTO. Pixabay
A question posted in an online teachers' group about whether it would be good to limit the number of terms to two for pre-university principals sparked heated discussion. Most responses showed how wide the gulf is between teachers and principals at the top of certain schools.
Many teachers see the post of principal as a privilege given by politicians to party colleagues. “The question is not OK. Ideally, it would be depoliticized”one of the answers says.
Someone else agrees with this position, but points out that “it's hard to do in today's society”so “at least to limit the mandates”. “Maybe there are 5% of directors who are not politically supported,” continue the answer.
The necessary political support is mentioned in many of the opinions expressed. “One mandate, non-politicized”; “Whoever wrote the post has no idea. It's only after one mandate that you get into your rhythm, plus advancing in mandates also comes with better school management”, another point of view is expressed.
“I really have a clue, I was a director for 9 years. Other colleagues must also have access to this feature. It's not a monopoly. A breath of fresh air is welcome,” comes back with a counter-answer.
“There are managers who flog incumbents, force them to do things that are not in their job description, and gather scumbags around them, scumbags who get days off and many other benefits! And I'm sorry I can't mention the other inequities and discriminations that some execs have the sadistic pleasure of doing on a weekly basis! There are too few fair execs, or too few good people, or too few PEOPLE in the position of director”another opinion is expressed.
“I would propose that it become a service obligation that each holder have a mandate in their career! That way, maybe they would not generalize so easily anymore. It's a shame that no one talks about the principals who do a lot of good for school communities and who implicitly bring benefits to those who slander them.” feels another commentator to defend the executives.
Another answer states that if the director proves that he has the necessary managerial skills, the number of mandates really does not matter. “I know exceptional principals, who have been running high schools for 20-30 years, with great results, respected and appreciated by teachers, students, parents, the local community alike”the answer is completed.
“The teacher who thinks his principal is not suitable should go to the competition”
The organization of the directors' competition has been talked about since the beginning of this year. Minister Daniel David gave the end of 2025 as the deadline, so that soon, at the Adevărul Interviews, he would come up with new specifications according to which these contests could take place in the first part of next year, according to a new methodology. Different from the previous contests is the fact that the law introduced the obligation for the system to propose a skills profile. The new directors would occupy the positions starting next fall, the minister claimed.
The president of the association of principals, the Community for Excellence in School Management (CEMS), Prof. Marian Anghel, draws attention to the fact that this is a skills profile that a principal should have, because “we can't put a director on someone who we just put our hands on and say
“There is, by the current legislation, the obligation for the system to propose a skills profile. It just so happens that we have also worked on it and in meetings with the ministry we even proposed a profile of eight skills for the director. And if there will be a skills profile validated before the director competition, theoretically whoever will demonstrate that they overlap to a greater extent than others on this profile then they should be able to be”, said the CEMS president.
The CEMS proposal regarding the skills profile, made together with the Association for Values in Education, was also submitted to the Ministry of Education, but also to the Prime Minister's Education Advisor. As for the eight proposed competencies, they can be more, they can be less, they can be the same or they can be different, the important thing is that there is a work option and it doesn't start from scratch, said Anghel.
“If there won't be a skills profile, it seems to me that we will have a blind competition again. I mean, we're going to look for some people, but we don't know what people we're looking for. If the system does not realize or assume what skills the principal who will lead a school from 2026 to 2030 will need to have, then I don't know what they will do the competition on. That's why it's put into law, put by some people who saw things that way, and it seems very fine to me. You create a skills profile, then you look for people who have those skills to a greater or lesser degree or relative to others,” added director Marian Anghel.
The CEMS and AVE proposal was received with interest, with Minister Daniel David announcing at that time that working groups will be organized in which the powers that the director must have, as written in the law, will be validated.
On the other hand, the idea of not changing school principals in January even if this change would have ensured continuity through competition, also proposed by CEMS, seems to have been taken up by the Minister of Education.
The directors' arguments were solid. “Changing the director in January seems totally inappropriate from many points of view. From the way the chair of the one who leaves and the one who comes is set up, which does not mean that he takes the classes of the other, because it does not work like that. If a physics teacher leaves and a Romanian one comes, I have to take my classes back and then some physics teachers leave and in the Romanian classes we have to look for people to come to relieve the other. There are a lot of problems higher than they are in appearance. Plus, a term of office, which is still a management term, has to start with a date of entry. Our proposal was that the term of office in the future should start from the 1st of August, so that it has a period of accommodation that it does not know. You do not start with the first day of school.”Anghel specified.
The hope is that in the next period a calendar will appear. These contests would take place between April and May, and the mandates would begin in August.
Through the competition tests, the level of competence of each candidate would be verified on the competences established up to the date of its start.
“This is the natural way. The existence of a competency profile, to know what we want from a director, and then to have some evidence that verifies those competencies,” added the CEMS president.
“There is a great fear that people from outside come and take the positions of director”
The professionalization of the director's role, which the Minister of Education also spoke about, represents one of the great fears in the system. The big confusion, says Prof. Marian Anghel, is that people from outside the education system will come to lead the schools. “It's a big fear that people from outside come and take the principal positions, but that's not what it's about. The professionalization of the principal role is about what percentage or even unanimity of the principal role is a management role. To professionalize it is to recognize it as a profession in itself, with its own training, with its own skills profile. Now, depending on the size of the school, maybe there are discussions how much can be a teacher and how much a principal, or how much a principal should be. In a large school, of for example, I would leave, I don't know, two, maximum four hours for the director's discussion if he wants to teach, as is the case in most countries, in order to keep that didactic profile. But if he doesn't want to teach anymore, he says – I'm OK with that and I don't want to teach, then let this option exist. Because in its current form, the situation is a bit awkward.” Angel signaled.
A director of the Didactic House will not be able, with 14 hours of teaching – which means only two hours less than the entire chair for a teacher with 25 years of experience, as it was dimensioned until the summer – to ensure the management of the institution in the remaining two hours. “In the end are we more teachers or more principals? I don't know, that's for others to answer, not us. Let them decide what they really want.” director Marian Anghel also emphasized.
As for the directors against whom colleagues have many complaints, the solution is competition. Those who challenge him should go to the competition and show that they can be better directors.
“We don't have the right director. OK, if you think he's not the right director, go and be a better director than him. Because, that's it, in some situations it's true that the director isn't right. But it's not right maybe because a man who could have been right, unfortunately, didn't add it up. And then here's what's left.” Angel pointed.
The reality is, however, that the interest in the position of director has decreased a lot, Marian Anghel also said, and if the current conditions are maintained in the future competition, many will no longer be interested.
Dissatisfaction is related to the increase in the teaching norm, which does not leave the principals time to do their job, but also to the ban on teaching by the hour, which in many schools generates big problems.
“If the conditions don't change from now on, I think many will give up. (…) For me, the obligation of the chair is not the first thing. The first thing is the ban on having classes that are paid by the hour. Because I have someone in my school who was supposed to retire, in physics, but I asked him not to retire because there is a very big deficit in physics. If that colleague also leaves, I can – maybe I can find someone, but at the country level there are a few hundreds of physics positions taught by unqualified people. A director who is a physics major and who is not allowed to take hours by the hour, as if they forbid him to work overtime in Romania – which is something I don't understand, because it is not illegal to work overtime in Romania, obviously – then he might not give up his classes or his classes.concluded the president of CEMS.
