The state secretary of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research Igor Şarov attended today a working meeting with the heads of the Local authorities specialized in Education (OLSDI), organized by the National Agency for Curriculum and Evaluation. The agenda included several topics on the organization of national exams and the conduct of school Olympics in 2019.

At the start of the event, Secretary General of State Igor Sarov thanked OLSDI Chiefs for their involvement during the last year in the implementation of new reforms in education, especially the continuous training of teachers, decentralization of the education system and curricular reevaluation.

At the same time, the official noted that the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research and the National Agency for Curriculum and Assessment will continue to ensure correctness and transparency in the process of conducting national evaluations, in strict compliance with the provisions of the Baccalaureate Examination Regulation, the graduation exams and the Methodology of organizing and conducting national testing in primary education.

In turn, the director of the National Agency for Curriculum and Assessment, Anatol Topală presented the criteria for selecting the persons involved in organizing and conducting national examinations and assessments, special examination conditions for pupils with ESCs, the principles of giving the grade "10" based on international certifications to the foreign language exam, the rules for completing the SAPD database with reference to the candidates' data on the graduation exams and their verification.

The National Testing Chart on the representative sample is as follows: on February 20th, testing will take place at the primary stage, on February 21 - at the secondary school, and on February 22 - at the high school level. Testing candidates for graduation exams will take place from April 1-12.

Also, officials discussed the main actions taken in the last years to support pupils who obtain results at the regional and international Olympiads.

In this context, we would like to remind you that the most recent measure in this regard was the approval by the Executive in December 2018 of the amendment to the Regulation on Supported Students, which implies the increase of food allowances during the contest period and the purchase of office space for Olympics participants and teachers involved in their preparation.

Moreover, we mention that in the state budget for this year, more than 7 million lei are planned for the organization of the Olympics and competition.