Over 15,000 Romanian middle school graduates admitted to high school with very low grades

Over 15,000 middle school graduates in Romania were admitted to high school with grades below 5, following the first stage of the computerized distribution, according to data from the Education Ministry. Most of them, namely 13,237 chose the technological profile, while 1,857 opted for the theoretical one. Of the total 15,791 primary school graduates with grades below 5, 697 are to be distributed to high schools in the second stage. Grade 5 is the lowest passing grade in Romania. This year, it was possible for middle school graduates to be admitted to high school with an average grade below 5, calculated after several tests and computing their average grades during the four years of middle school. However, starting 2015, those with a final grade below 5 will no longer be admitted to high school. Of the total of 128,707 students who completed the registration forms to enroll into high school, 127,746 (or 99.3 percent) were distributed to high schools in the first stage. The rest of 961 are to be distributed in the second stage scheduled for July 24. The admission to high school is made based on the average grade of the final exams, which weights 75 percent, while the remaining 25 percent is given by the average grades in middle school. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com