In brief
- The 1,500 lei net of the teaching career bonus for the 2025-2026 school year are given a new procedure, signed by three institutions: the Ministry of Investments and European Projects, the Ministry of Education and Research and the Special Telecommunications Service.
- At least 65% of the amount, that is 975 lei, has to be spent on professional training courses endorsed or accredited by the ministry, and the certificate of attendance has to be uploaded into the application, otherwise the expenditure is not eligible.
- Teachers who are no longer in the system in the 2026-2027 school year lose whatever is left unspent, and those amounts are withdrawn. Those who stay may use the money until 31 August 2027, or 30 September 2027 in universities.
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 720 of 28 August 2026
In force from: 28 August 2026
Four days before school starts, the 1,500 lei on the teaching career card are given their second procedure in a single month, and the deadline by which teachers had to activate their card had already expired when the procedure appeared in the Official Gazette of Romania. The joint order of the Minister of Investments and European Projects, the Minister of Education and Research and the Director of the Special Telecommunications Service no. 1.315/5.102/430 approves the Specific procedure for implementing the measure supporting teaching activity for the 2025-2026 school and academic year, applying the emergency ordinance as amended and approved by Law no. 163/2026.
The measure supporting teaching activity is the official name of the card on which teachers receive the teaching career bonus. The money does not arrive in a bank account but on an electronic medium issued by an issuing unit, that is, by a company that issues voucher cards, and it can be spent only within the network of affiliated suppliers.
The procedure changes neither the amount nor who receives it. It changes who checks what, in what order and to what deadlines, which means it changes exactly the things that decide whether the teacher manages to use the money or loses it.
In the same week, the Government also approved the budget of the milk, bread roll and fruit programme for the 2026-2027 school year. For the same school year, the ministry also set the network of 289 practice schools where teaching practice takes place.
What it changes in practice
The first effect is the division of responsibility between the three institutions, written out article by article. The Ministry of Education and Research draws up the list of beneficiaries and uploads it into the application, communicates the list of endorsed or accredited courses and the list of suppliers, and settles teachers’ complaints within 15 days of registration. The Special Telecommunications Service develops the IT application, provides the cybersecurity measures and runs the automated checks. The implementation unit within the Ministry of Investments and European Projects receives the weekly reports from the issuer, uploads the lists and transfers the money to the issuing unit.
The second effect is the automated cross-check of every beneficiary. The application compares the data against three systems: at the Directorate-General for Personal Records the personal identification number and the initials of the name are validated, and the system checks weekly whether the person is recorded as deceased; at the General Inspectorate for Immigration only the validity of the personal identification number is checked; at the Labour Inspectorate the match between the personal identification number and the unique code of the school is looked up in REGES-ONLINE, together with the COR occupation codes. The teacher is eligible if at least one of the COR codes associated with him is on the list of eligible posts sent by the ministry.
The third effect concerns a category that does not appear in REGES-ONLINE. Teaching staff in military higher education institutions, in the national military colleges, in the pre-university schools of the defence, public order and national security system and in those subordinated to the Ministry of Justice are validated exclusively at the Personal Records Directorate, without the check at the Labour Inspectorate. For that purpose the ministry sends separately the list of the unique codes of those schools.
The fourth effect is the obligation to prove the course. The teacher has to use at least 65% of the nominal value of 1,500 lei, that is 975 lei, on professional training courses from the list published by the ministry, and then to upload into the application the certificate of attendance or of completion. The deadline is at most 5 months from the date on which the course was paid for, but no later than 31 March 2028. If he does not upload it himself, the ministry can upload it.
The fifth effect is validation, which is done once and by one person. The county school inspectorates, the Bucharest School Inspectorate and the state universities check the certificates of the teachers in their area, and the ministry checks everyone’s. The first user to validate closes the process; the others only see the status, without being able to validate a second time. The ministry may, however, invalidate on request a validation made in error.
The sixth effect is the loss of whatever money is left. For teachers no longer in service in the 2026-2027 school or academic year, the amounts unused at the end of the 2025-2026 year are withdrawn. For those with validation errors or mismatches, the amounts stay suspended until the matter is settled. Those who remain in the system may use the bonus until 31 August 2027 for the school year and until 30 September 2027 for the academic year.
The seventh effect is the declaration on the beneficiary’s own responsibility, which is mandatory and is signed by ticking a box in the application. Through it the teacher undertakes to use the money only for the permitted categories and commits to repaying in full any amounts used improperly. The declaration is completed once, at first log-in.
The eighth effect is the rule on file names, which may look like bureaucratic detail but decides whether the document gets into the system. Certificates are uploaded in archives holding PDF files named certificat_[cnp]_[cui_furnizor]_[număr certificat]_[dată certificat], with the date in year, month, day format, with the personal identification number taken from the list of eligible persons, with the supplier’s unique code from the ministry’s list and with the underscore used only as a separator. Files that do not follow the rule are not uploaded.
What has changed compared with the previous situation
The order replaces a procedure that was one month old. Article 4 repeals Order no. 3.718/4.351/2026, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 622 of 28 July 2026, which also approved a Specific procedure for the same measure and the same school year. The difference visible at the level of the act is that the new procedure has three signatories rather than two: the Special Telecommunications Service comes in as an issuing authority, not merely as a technical supplier.
The settlement regime has changed as well. Article 3 provides that, for the 2025-2026 school and academic year, Order no. 3.956/2023 on the way career bonuses are settled, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 950 of 20 October 2023, does not apply. The general settlement mechanism is therefore suspended for this year, and the new procedure applies in its place.
Finally, a stage appears that did not exist before: the check on continuity in the system. Within 15 days of the start of the 2026-2027 school or academic year, the ministry enters the list of teachers who have remained in service, and the match with the school is checked on 1 September 2026 for the school year and on 1 October 2026 for the academic year. Only after that check is it known who may still spend the money left.
Advantages and disadvantages
What it improves
- Each institution’s responsibility is written out article by article, so the teacher knows whom to address: the education ministry for lists and complaints, the inspectorate for validating the certificate.
- The automated check for multiple records guarantees that a teacher working at two schools appears only once in the final list.
- Teachers’ complaints are settled through a single platform, with traceability, and the ministry has 15 days from registration.
- Teaching staff in military education and in schools subordinated to the Ministry of Justice, who do not appear in REGES-ONLINE, have a validation route of their own and no longer drop off the list.
- The certificate can also be uploaded by the inspectorate or by the ministry if the teacher does not do it, so an oversight does not automatically mean losing the money.
- The application sends notifications for five months from the date the course was paid for, so that the teacher does not forget the certificate.
What remains a problem
- The activation deadline for pre-university education, 27 August 2026, had already passed on the day the order was published, 28 August.
- A second procedure for the same school year arrives a month after the first, and teachers who worked from the July version have to read it all again.
- The 65% is calculated against the nominal value, not against what the teacher has actually spent, so anyone who spends less on courses is left with ineligible expenditure.
- The amounts of teachers who leave the system are withdrawn, without the procedure saying what happens to those who leave for reasons beyond their control, such as retirement or illness.
- The certificate has to be uploaded within 5 months of paying for the course, but the procedure does not say what happens if the supplier issues the certificate later than that.
- The file naming rule is strict, and a rejected file produces no explicit message to the teacher, who finds out only when the inspectorate carries out its check.
Practical advice
- Check the updated list of courses and suppliers on the website of the Ministry of Education and Research before you pay for a course. A certificate from a supplier who is not on the list cannot be validated, and the expenditure becomes ineligible.
- Spend at least 975 lei on courses, that is 65% of the 1,500 lei. The percentage is calculated against the nominal value, not against how much of the card you have used.
- Upload the certificate in the module for teachers within at most 5 months of the date you paid for the course. The application sends you notifications throughout that period.
- Name the file exactly as the procedure requires:
certificat_cnp_cuifurnizor_numarcertificat_datacertificat, with the date written year, month, day, without spaces and without any other underscores. - If you teach at several schools in the same county, the system associates you with one of them at validation. Do not upload the certificate twice.
- If you leave the education system after 1 September 2026, use the money you have left before that. For those no longer in service in the 2026-2027 year, unused amounts are withdrawn.
- If a validation was made in error, ask the ministry in writing to invalidate it. That is the only way to start the process again, and the ministry is also the only body that can change the e-mail address linked to the account.
Frequently asked questions
How much money do I get and what may I spend it on?
Until when may I use the money?
What happens if I do not upload the course certificate?
Who validates my certificate?
How do I log into the application?
Why does the Special Telecommunications Service appear in this procedure?
Errors and inconsistencies in the published text
- Annex, Article 21. The text provides that the support measure may be activated „până la data de 27.08.2026 pentru mediul preuniversitar”, that is, by 27 August 2026 for pre-university education, but the order was published in the Official Gazette of Romania on 28 August 2026 and, providing for no other date, entered into force on that same day. The activation window for pre-university teachers therefore closes one day before the procedure that creates it exists. The contradiction can be seen inside the act as well: Article 3(1) requires the issuing unit to send the activation instructions „în termen de 5 zile de la data intrării în vigoare a prezentei proceduri specifice”, that is, within 5 days of the entry into force of this specific procedure, so by 2 September at the latest, for a deadline that had expired on 27 August.
- Annex, Article 5(9). The amounts of teachers with validation errors stay suspended „dar nu mai târziu de două luni înainte de alimentarea cardurilor”, that is, but no later than two months before the cards are loaded. The act does not identify the loading it refers to. If it is the one in Article 21, that is, by 31 August 2026 for the school year, then the suspension period ends at the end of June 2026, two months before the order was issued. The result is that it cannot be established for how long the amounts of a teacher whose situation has not been cleared up stay blocked.
Editorial analysis
The procedure solves a real administrative problem. A card worth 1,500 lei handed to a teaching body numbering hundreds of thousands of people, with European money and with an obligation to account for every leu, genuinely calls for an automated check of identity, place of work and occupation. The idea of matching the ministry’s list against Personal Records, against Immigration and against REGES-ONLINE, instead of asking the teacher for certificates, is a good one and spares the system a round of paperwork. Likewise, the rule that a certificate is validated once, by the first user to reach it, removes exactly the kind of deadlock in which two institutions wait for each other.
What does not show when you read the order from cover to cover appears when you place its dates side by side. The order has three signature dates, spread over six days: the Ministry of Investments signed it on 20 August, the Special Telecommunications Service on 25 and the Ministry of Education on 26. The approval report is dated 18 August. Publication came on 28 August. The deadline in Article 21, 27 August, falls between the last signature and publication, so it was not missed because of a delay at the printers: it was already impossible on the day the last minister signed. Most probably the deadline was carried over as it stood from the July procedure, which this order repeals, without being recalculated.
The second observation concerns the architecture of the obligation. The teacher has to use at least 65% of the nominal value on courses, not 65% of what he has actually spent. The difference is not theoretical: anyone who spends 1,500 lei only on books and materials has no eligible expenditure at all on the course side, and the procedure provides for no partial correction. Combined with the fact that the list of courses and the list of suppliers „may be updated over the course of the project”, the teacher carries the risk of a list that changes after he has paid.
The third comes from comparing the deadlines. The institutions work with deadlines of 3, 5, 10 and 15 days between themselves, and some of them are in working days. The teacher, by contrast, has a single deadline of his own, the 5 months for uploading the certificate, and a single activation deadline, the impossible one in Article 21. Nowhere in the procedure is there a deadline within which the institution has to tell the teacher that his certificate has been validated or rejected, although whether the money stays with him depends on that answer. A complaint carries a 15-day deadline, but it presupposes that the teacher has already found out there is a problem.
The same calendar pressure shows on the second money entitlement in schools: the 800-lei holiday vouchers are claimed through a declaration filed by 24 October, while the inspectorates report the sums nine days earlier.
What should be changed
- An activation deadline that falls after publication. The date in Article 21 has to be moved to after the order enters into force, otherwise the condition on which the loading of the card depends cannot be met by anyone who learned of it from the Official Gazette of Romania.
- Identifying the loading that Article 5(9) refers to. A deadline expressed as „two months before” an unnamed event cannot be calculated, and the amounts of teachers with mismatches depend on it.
- Notifying the teacher of the outcome of validation. The application already sends notifications about uploading the certificate; the same route could carry word of whether the certificate was validated, rejected, or whether the file was not accepted.
- A rule for involuntary departure from the system. The procedure withdraws the unused amounts of those no longer in service in 2026-2027, without distinguishing between resignation, retirement and termination of the contract for reasons that have nothing to do with the teacher.
- Freezing the list of courses and suppliers once payment is made. If the list can be updated at any time, the eligibility of an expense ought to be judged against the list in force on the date of payment, not against the one in force on the date of validation.
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. 720 of 28 August 2026 16 pages PDF, 114 KB the act starts on page 8
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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.