In brief
- The German special sections and schools have, for the first time, framework curricula of their own, for mathematics and computer science and for social sciences. They apply progressively, starting with the pupils entering grade IX in the 2026-2027 school year.
- The timetable is heavier than anywhere else in theoretical upper secondary education: 34, 35, 35 and 34 hours a week in mathematics and computer science and 33, 35, 34 and 34 in social sciences, against a maximum of 30 to 33 hours in the general framework curriculum.
- The two tables do not contain „The History of the Jews. The Holocaust” or „The History of Communism in Romania”, even though article 88 paragraph (3) of the Pre-University Education Law no. 198/2023 requires them in the common core of every upper secondary framework curriculum.
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 732 of 1 September 2026
In force from: 1 September 2026
Pupils entering grade IX in a German special section will have between 33 and 35 hours a week, under a timetable written specially for them. Order of the Minister of Education and Research no. 4.662/2026, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 732 of 1 September 2026, approves an explanatory note and two framework curricula: one for the science profile, mathematics and computer science specialisation, the other for the humanities profile, social sciences specialisation. It is the ministry’s second intervention in the upper secondary timetable this summer, after the one through which the second foreign language in upper secondary school was tied to the specialisation.
The same ministry published, in the same week, the curriculum for the nurse responsible for general care qualification, with a timetable just as detailed by module.
A framework curriculum is the table that says which subjects are taught, how many hours a week each of them has and which category each hour falls into. There are three categories: the common core, that is, the hours compulsory for everyone, marked TC in the tables; the specialist curriculum, the hours that give the specialisation its character, marked CS; and the pupil-chosen curriculum from the school’s offer, marked CDEOȘ, that is, the electives. Out of these the timetable the pupil sees on Monday morning is built.
German special sections and schools are something other than education in the German minority language. They operate under the Agreement between the Government of Romania and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany on cooperation in the field of schooling, signed in Bucharest on 15 March 1996 and approved by Government Emergency Ordinance no. 99/1999, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 309 of 30 June 1999. The Agreement provides for two models of cooperation, and the one the special sections follow is the model in which specialist subjects are also taught in German, not merely the language itself, so that the school leaver obtains the German general higher education entrance qualification, alongside the Romanian baccalaureate diploma. Most pupils in these classes are not native speakers of German, and the syllabuses for several subjects are written by the German side.
The order has five articles and one annex. It was signed on 17 August 2026 by Minister Mihai Dimian, rests on approval report no. 381/DGMD of 3 August 2026 and was put out for public consultation on the ministry’s website on 29 July 2026, with a deadline of 10 calendar days for proposals. The annex occupies pages 12-15 of that edition of the Official Gazette of Romania and contains the explanatory note, the two tables and their specific notes.
In the same period the Ministry also fixed the calendar of the professional qualification certification examinations for 2026-2027, with the dates by level of education, through MEC Order no. 5.214/2026.
The rules for drafting such framework curricula are new as well: MEC Order no. 4.617/2026 rewrites the methodology of the national curriculum, in 51 articles.
What it changes in practice
The education ministry signed a second curriculum act on 1 September 2026, this one a syllabus: NATO becomes an elective in grade X, one hour a week.
A framework curriculum appears where there was none. Neither the general upper secondary framework curricula, approved by Order of the Minister of Education and Research no. 4.350/2025, nor those for upper secondary education taught in the languages of the national minorities, approved by Order no. 6.932/2025, contain the phrase „German special”. This is the first act to devote a table of their own to them, with subjects and hours settled centrally.
It applies only to grade IX in the first year. Article 2 says that the curricula apply progressively, starting with the cohort entering grade IX in the 2026-2027 school year. Classes in that year begin on 7 September 2026, under Order of the Minister of Education and Research no. 3.194/2026 on the structure of the school year. Pupils in grades X, XI and XII in 2026-2027 continue on the curricula they started under, and the new table reaches them only as the grade IX cohort moves up.
The timetable becomes fixed, not a range. The general upper secondary curriculum leaves a margin on the electives, hence a variable total: 28 to 30 hours in grade IX, 29 to 31 in grade X, 30 to 33 in grade XI and 29 to 32 in grade XII, in both specialisations. The curricula for the German sections give a single figure: in mathematics and computer science 34, 35, 35 and 34 hours a week, in social sciences 33, 35, 34 and 34. The board of administration no longer chooses how many elective hours to put in, only what kind of elective it makes out of the hours already allotted.
German and three subjects taught under German syllabuses take up a third of the timetable. The explanatory note says that for German as a mother tongue, mathematics and history the school syllabuses are the responsibility of the German side, both in the common core and in the specialist curriculum. Added up over the four years, these hours come to 31 hours a week in both curricula. If the elective hours that the specific notes expressly reserve to the same subjects, for the papers of the German examination, are added, plus the yearly hour of „elective under the responsibility of the German side”, the figure reaches 54 out of the 138 hours of the mathematics and computer science curriculum and 50 out of the 136 of the social sciences one.
The electives are named, not left open. Specific note no. 3 in each curriculum lists exactly which subjects go into the pupil-chosen segment: in mathematics and computer science, Romanian language and literature, German language and literature as a mother tongue, English, mathematics, physics, history and the German side’s elective; in social sciences, French, mathematics, physics, biology, history and the German side’s elective. What is left to the pupil, under the same note, is the choice of the type of elective: consolidation, a new subject or an integrated elective.
In social sciences, a pair of subjects is played in two versions. In grades XI and XII, physics and biology appear with the formula „1 + 2*” and „2 + 1*”, and the asterisk points to a note saying that the choice between version A, with one hour of physics and two of biology, and version B, with two hours of physics and one of biology, belongs to the management of the school. The total stays the same, three hours, whichever version is picked.
Nothing changes for the baccalaureate or for the German qualification through this order. The explanatory note says that the subjects provided for in the elective segment ensure both compatibility with the framework curricula approved by Order no. 4.350/2025 and the curriculum covered by the national baccalaureate examination. The order does not touch the baccalaureate papers, does not amend the conditions of the German qualification and does not change the rules of mutual recognition in the bilateral agreement. It merely arranges the hours so that the German requirements on the minimum number of years of study and the number of weekly hours in the examination subjects are covered.
What has changed compared with the previous situation
The most useful comparison is not with the past of these sections, about which the order says nothing, but with the other two upper secondary framework curricula in force. Both are cited in the notes of this very act.
Against the general upper secondary curriculum, the mathematics and computer science timetable is 4 hours a week longer in grades IX and X and 2 hours longer in grades XI and XII, if the comparison is made with the top of the range. Against the bottom of the range, the difference rises to 6, 6, 5 and 5 hours. In social sciences, the differences against the top are 3, 4, 1 and 2 hours. Over the four years, mathematics and computer science comes to 138 cumulated weekly hours, against at most 126 in the general curriculum. The 2026-2027 school year has 36 teaching weeks, so the difference means around 432 extra teaching hours over the course of upper secondary school.
Against the curricula for teaching in the languages of the national minorities, the distance is smaller, but it runs the same way: there, in mathematics and computer science, the totals are 30 to 32, 31 to 33, 30 to 34 and 29 to 33 hours a week.
The structure of the curricular areas is different too. The area „Language and communication” starts from 9 common core hours in grade IX, against 6 in the general curriculum, because Romanian and German as a mother tongue have 3 hours each, and modern language 2 is named expressly, French, rather than left to the school’s choice. The area „Counselling and guidance”, on the other hand, appears with an empty line in both German curricula, so the hour of personal development and career counselling, present in the common core of the other two framework curricula in all four grades, is missing. Also missing from the tables are „The History of the Jews. The Holocaust” and „The History of Communism in Romania”, one common core hour each in grades XI and XII respectively in the other curricula.
The order repeals nothing and contains no transitional provisions. It names no school, so the list of institutions it applies to does not follow from the act. The „Goethe” German College in Bucharest, for instance, presents on its own website its German special section as operating under the 1996 agreement, with one mathematics and computer science class and one social sciences class, exactly the two specialisations for which the order approves curricula.
Advantages and disadvantages
What it improves
- The German special sections no longer work on an arrangement inferred from other framework curricula, but on a table approved by order of the minister and published in the Official Gazette of Romania.
- The number of hours in German as a mother tongue, mathematics and history is fixed over four years, so the requirements of the German university entrance examination now have a verifiable footing in Romanian law.
- Pupil and parent can read in advance, in black and white, how many hours each subject has in each year, without depending on the school’s yearly decision.
- The specific notes say expressly that the electives are calibrated for the papers of the national baccalaureate examination as well, so the German track is not pursued at the expense of the Romanian one.
- French as modern language 2 is provided for in all four years, including specialist hours in social sciences, which gives continuity to a subject that in other curricula can be broken off.
What remains a problem
- The two history subjects the law requires in the common core appear in neither table, and the common core hours are already allotted in full.
- The hour of personal development and career counselling, present in the other upper secondary framework curricula in every grade, is missing altogether.
- The timetable climbs to 35 hours a week, 1 to 4 hours above the top of the general curriculum’s range and 4 to 6 hours above its bottom, and the act does not explain where the difference comes from.
- The order names no school, so a parent cannot establish from the act whether their child’s school falls under these curricula.
- Specific note no. 2 of the social sciences curriculum does not tally with the table of the curriculum, so it cannot be said in which year the subject „Social Studies” is taught.
- Publication comes 6 days before classes begin, and the public consultation lasted 10 calendar days, in the middle of the holidays.
Practical advice
- Ask the school office whether your child’s school is a German special section or school within the meaning of the 1996 agreement. Not every class taught in German falls here. The distinguishing mark is the German general higher education entrance qualification, not merely a language certificate.
- Check which year of study the pupil is in. The curricula apply only to the cohort entering grade IX in the 2026-2027 school year. For grades X, XI and XII nothing changes this year.
- Ask for the class’s framework timetable, not only the weekly one. The framework curriculum shows that grade IX has 34 hours in mathematics and computer science and 33 in social sciences, that is, on average almost 7 teaching hours a day.
- Look at the CDEOȘ column before the parents’ meeting. In mathematics and computer science the pupil has 7 elective hours in grades IX and X, 10 in grade XI and 9 in grade XII, but the subjects are already named in specific note no. 3.
- In social sciences, ask which version the school management has chosen for grades XI and XII: one hour of physics and two of biology, or two of physics and one of biology. The choice belongs to the school and changes the preparation for the baccalaureate papers.
- If the two hours of recent history the law requires matter to you, ask the school and the inspectorate how they are timetabled, given that the published table does not contain them. The answer will also tell you whether the hour is added on top of the 33 to 35, or taken from somewhere.
- Keep the reference of the act. Order of the Minister of Education and Research no. 4.662/2026, Official Gazette of Romania no. 732 of 1 September 2026, pages 12-15. The PDF edition is attached to this article.
Frequently asked questions
What is a German special section and how does it differ from a class taught in German?
From when do the new timetables apply?
How many hours a week will pupils have?
Which subjects appear and which disappear compared with an ordinary school?
Does anything change for the baccalaureate examination?
Does anything change for the German qualification?
Who decides which electives are taught?
Which schools does it apply to?
What happens to pupils already in grades X, XI or XII?
Errors and inconsistencies in the published text
- The annex, framework curricula B.1 and B.2, the curricular area „Man and society”. Neither of the two tables includes the subjects „The History of the Jews. The Holocaust” and „The History of Communism in Romania”. Article 88 paragraph (3) of the Pre-University Education Law no. 198/2023 provides that the framework curricula of upper secondary education are to include the two subjects „as school subjects, part of the common core”, and article 248 paragraph (29) of the same law includes them in the upper secondary framework curricula from the 2025-2026 school year. The order is issued, according to its own preamble, precisely „in accordance with the provisions of articles 86-92” of that law. Both subjects appear with one common core hour each in the general upper secondary framework curricula approved by Order of the Minister of Education and Research no. 4.350/2025, the Holocaust in grade XI and communism in grade XII, and in the curricula for teaching in the languages of the national minorities approved by Order no. 6.932/2025, an act that specific note no. 4 of this very annex points to as a document of alignment. The common core totals in the tables here are fixed figures, 20, 21, 13 and 13 in mathematics and computer science, allotted in full to the other subjects, so a school that applies the framework curriculum as published has nowhere to put the two hours.
- The annex, framework curriculum B.2, specific note no. 2, „Details concerning the social science subject (TC + CS fixed)”. The column in which the subject „Social Studies” appears, with one hour of specialist curriculum, falls under the table heading „Grade XI”. Read that way, the specialist curriculum in the social science subject gives 3 hours in grade XI, that is, philosophy 2 plus social studies 1, and a single hour in grade XII. The table of framework curriculum B.2, in the same annex, provides on the row „Social science subject” 2 hours of specialist curriculum in grade XI and 2 in grade XII, and the „Total (TC + CS)” row of this note gives 3 and 3, figures that tally only if the social studies hour belongs to grade XII. It cannot be established from the act in which year of study the subject „Social Studies” is taught, nor how many specialist curriculum hours grades XI and XII have in the social science subject.
Editorial analysis
The order fills a real gap. The German special sections have been running since the nineteen-nineties, under an international agreement approved by emergency ordinance, and until now they had no framework curriculum of their own. The text also does the hardest thing in an act of this kind, which is to put in figures the balance between two school systems: how many hours of German as a mother tongue, how many of mathematics under a German syllabus, how much room is left for the baccalaureate papers. The specific notes are carefully written, and the figures in them tally with the main tables on almost every row.
The price of that balance only shows, though, if you add the tables up. The mathematics and computer science curriculum calls for 138 cumulated weekly hours over the four years, and the social sciences one for 136. The general upper secondary curriculum, approved by Order no. 4.350/2025, reaches at most 126 and can fall to 116. The difference of 12 hours against the maximum, spread over 36 teaching weeks in each year, means around 432 extra teaching hours over the course of upper secondary school, the equivalent of almost three months of school. A pupil in grade X at a German section has 35 hours a week, while a classmate at an ordinary theoretical school may have 29. The order nowhere explains the difference and says nothing about the time needed for study at home, which under a double certification track is not smaller but larger.
The second observation, one that emerges only from the arithmetic, concerns the weight of the German side. The explanatory note says that the syllabuses for German as a mother tongue, mathematics and history are the responsibility of the German side, in the common core and in the specialist curriculum alike. Added up, these hours give exactly 31 weekly hours over four years in each of the two curricula, that is, 22.5% of the mathematics and computer science timetable and 22.8% of the social sciences one. If the elective hours that the specific notes expressly reserve to the same subjects, for the papers of the German examination, are added, plus the yearly hour of the German side’s elective, the share climbs to 39% and 37% respectively. In other words, roughly four hours in ten are taught under curricular documents that the Romanian ministry does not approve. It is the natural consequence of a bilateral agreement, but it deserved to be stated in the act, not inferred from the tables.
The hardest problem, though, remains the one in the section above. A framework curriculum that does not contain two subjects the law expressly places in the common core puts the school to an impossible choice: either it applies the order and breaks the law, or it applies the law and steps outside the approved table. The ministry had the solution to hand in its own acts: the curricula for the national minorities, published in January 2026, solve exactly the same shortage of room, with a heavier common core, and find a place for both. The calendar perhaps explains how it came to this. The draft was put out for consultation on 29 July 2026, with a 10-day deadline, in the middle of the holidays, the order was signed on 17 August, and publication came on 1 September, six days before the first day of classes, when grade IX pupils had long since been admitted.
What should be changed
- Introducing the two history hours required by article 88 paragraph (3) of Law no. 198/2023. Without them, any inspectorate checking the timetable of a German special section finds a non-conformity the school cannot repair on its own, because the common core totals are fixed. With them, the curriculum becomes applicable without interpretation.
- Correcting specific note no. 2 of the social sciences curriculum. Moving the „Social Studies” column under the grade XII heading, or a simple clarification in the text, would make the note tally with the main table and would spare every school having to decide alone in which year it teaches the subject.
- Publishing the list of schools the curricula apply to. In article 4 the act addresses schools it does not name. An annex with the list, or at least a reference to an act that contains it, would let a parent find out from the Official Gazette of Romania whether their child’s school falls here, instead of asking at the school office.
- Restoring the hour of personal development and career counselling. This is the only upper secondary framework curriculum in force that leaves the area „Counselling and guidance” empty in all four years. Pupils in these classes are preparing two final examinations at once and possibly a move to study in another system, so they are among those with most to gain from an hour of guidance.
- An explanation of the difference in volume against the general curriculum. Three lines in the explanatory note, showing where the 33 to 35 hours come from and why fewer would not do, would turn a figure that today comes as a surprise into a considered choice, one that parents and inspectorates can check.
- A transitional provision and an earlier publication deadline. A framework curriculum published six days before classes begin leaves schools building the timetable and the staffing plan on a draft, not on an act. Publication by the end of the second semester of the previous year, as usually happens with framework curricula, would remove the risk.
Original text of the legal act
The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.
The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania
Official Gazette of Romania no. 732 of 1 September 2026 16 pages PDF, 143 KB the act starts on page 12
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