In brief
- Three school positions now have job profiles approved by ministerial order. From 14 October 2026, the IT specialist, the programmer analyst and the technician have education, experience and competence requirements written at national level, in Annexes nos. 1-3 to the order, each annex with the same 10 headings, from duties to pay.
- The experience required differs threefold between two neighbouring positions. One year in computing or information technology for the IT specialist, three years for the programmer analyst, one year in the field of studies for the technician. The working time is identical for all three: 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week.
- Nobody already employed loses anything. Article 2 of the order provides that staff employed on these three positions before it entered into force keep their employment and the corresponding rights. The new requirements concern recruitment carried out from 14 October 2026 onwards.
- The technician is the only one of the three positions that does not require a baccalaureate diploma, even though the duties include configuring and securing the school’s switches, routers and firewalls.
Published: Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 860 of 14 October 2026, pages 10-16
In force from: 14 October 2026, the date of publication, because the order does not set another date and Article 4 provides only for publication in the Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial)
From 14 October 2026, an IT specialist employed by a school needs one year of experience in computing, and a programmer analyst three years, even though the two positions require the same university studies. Order of the Minister of Education and Research no. 5.773/2026, signed on 6 October 2026 and published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 860 of 14 October 2026, approves the job profiles for three auxiliary teaching positions: IT specialist („informatician”), programmer analyst („analist programator”) and technician („tehnician”). These are exactly the posts that schools have started filling again after Parliament widened the exception to the hiring freeze in education, so the text reaches the head teacher and the candidate at the same time.
Until now, each school wrote the job description for these positions with a wide margin of interpretation, and a candidate could be accepted in one county and rejected in another with the same diploma. Order 5.773/2026 closes that margin: the three annexes state which diploma is required, which certificate goes with it, which qualification level has to be reached, how much experience is needed and what the person must be able to do once employed. Under Article 1, the job profiles are an integral part of the order, so they carry the same force as its articles.
What it changes in practice
The IT specialist can be employed on three education levels. With upper secondary studies, if the candidate holds a baccalaureate diploma from the theoretical track, science profile, Mathematics-Informatics specialisation, or from the technological track, technical profile, with specialisations in the fields of Electrical Engineering, Electromechanics or Electronics and Automation. With post-secondary studies, if the baccalaureate is followed by a post-secondary school completed with a graduation diploma in the field of Informatics. With higher education, on a broad list: 16 university fields, from Mathematics and Physics to Economics, Accounting and Industrial Engineering, but only if the specialisation is one of the 19 listed in the annex, among them Informatics, Information Technology, Cybernetics, Robotics, Mechatronics, Automation or Computational Mathematics. Separately, the annex accepts any specialisation obtained in 16 fields with a directly computing profile, from Business Informatics to Systems and Computer Engineering or Electronic Engineering and Telecommunications.
The document that attests the training is specified for each level: the baccalaureate alone for a Mathematics-Informatics graduate, the baccalaureate plus the level 4 vocational qualification certificate for the technological track, the baccalaureate plus the level 5 certificate for the post-secondary route, and on the university route the bachelor’s or master’s degree, always accompanied by the baccalaureate diploma. The qualification level required under the National Qualifications Framework, the scale on which the state places qualifications from vocational school up to doctoral studies, is 4 for upper secondary studies, 5 for post-secondary or short-cycle university studies and 6 or 7 for higher education. The experience required is at least one year in computing or information technology. Cisco, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services or Linux certifications are only recommended, and the annex states explicitly that no qualification, requalification or further training programmes are needed.
The programmer analyst starts higher up. There is no upper secondary route: entry is either through post-secondary studies in the field of Informatics or through higher education, and the list of university fields and specialisations is identical, word for word, to that of the IT specialist. The visible difference is the experience, at least three years in computing or information technology, and the duties of its own: configuring and administering assessment platforms, implementing functionalities required by specifications, writing unit and integration tests to validate the code, plus fixing the defects reported by users. The training recommendations change as well: advanced courses and specialisations in software engineering, cloud, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and programming languages such as Java or Python.
The technician has the lowest education threshold of the three positions. On the upper secondary route, the requirement is a high school graduation diploma, technological track, with qualifications from the technical profile or from natural resources and environmental protection, in the field specific to the post as set by the employer in the job description. No baccalaureate is required. On the post-secondary route, the requirement is a foreman school („școală de maiștri”) or post-secondary studies completed with a graduation diploma, with qualifications from 19 fields listed in the annex, from Agriculture, Chemistry and Construction to Media Production, Forestry and Transport. The qualification level is 4 for the upper secondary route and 5 for the post-secondary one, and the experience at least one year in the field of studies, not in computing.
The technician’s duties are the most numerous of the three annexes and cover two different worlds. On one side, classic maintenance: preventive upkeep of the low voltage electrical infrastructure, connecting equipment to water, gas and power, mechanical and electrical troubleshooting, replacing consumables, keeping records of the instruments, drafting requisition notes for spare parts. On the other side, the network: configuring, securing and monitoring switches, routers and firewalls, with data traffic optimisation and prompt intervention in incidents. For this position, the annex lists the induction course in the field specific to the post under the heading of the programmes needed to practise the occupation, the only case of the three in which additional training appears as a requirement rather than as a recommendation.
For all three positions the working time is 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week, the work environment is the pre-university education unit or institution, and pay remains the one set by the legal framework governing the remuneration of staff paid from public funds, so the order touches no salary. Under Article 3, implementation falls to the Directorate-General for Management, Teaching Careers and the School Network, to the county school inspectorates, the teacher training houses, the pre-university education units, the extracurricular education units and the county centres for educational resources and assistance.
What has changed compared with the previous situation
The substantive change is that the three positions no longer depend on the way each school drafted its job description. The education requirements, the experience and the competences are now the same across the country and are read from a single act, with the same structure of 10 headings for each position. The order is based on Pre-University Education Law no. 198/2023 and on Government Decision no. 731/2024 on the organisation and operation of the Ministry of Education, and the draft came through approval report no. 3.503/DGMCDRSIP of 16 September 2026.
The part that matters most for the person who already holds the post is the transitional regime in Article 2: staff employed before the order entered into force in the positions of IT specialist, programmer analyst and technician keep their employment and the corresponding rights. In other words, nobody is reassessed against the new requirements for a post they already occupy. An IT specialist employed with upper secondary studies remains an IT specialist with upper secondary studies, and a programmer analyst with two years of experience at the time of hiring does not fall out of compliance because the threshold has moved to three years. The protection is tied to the existing employment: it works as long as the person stays in the post held on 14 October 2026.
The second new element, less visible, is that the order expressly repeals nothing. It does not name the act or the practice it replaces and contains no provision along the lines of „any provision to the contrary is repealed”. For a head teacher this means that the job descriptions in force on 14 October 2026 do not automatically become void, but any new description drawn up for a recruitment after that date has to follow the corresponding annex. The act sets no deadline for schools to align their documents and no express obligation to redo them for existing staff.
The third change is the hierarchy between the two computing positions. Until this order, the titles of IT specialist and programmer analyst circulated in staffing tables without a clear line between them. The line now exists, but it is drawn almost entirely through experience and the education threshold: the programmer analyst cannot be employed with a high school diploma alone, and the minimum experience is three times longer. The list of university studies, by contrast, is the same for both.
Advantages and disadvantages
What it improves
- A candidate with the same diploma gets the same answer in any county, because the list of fields and specialisations is fixed in the annex rather than left to the panel’s judgement.
- The transitional regime in Article 2 is short and free of hidden conditions: whoever is employed keeps their employment and their rights, so the order produces no staff reassessments.
- Professional certifications remain recommendations for the IT specialist and the programmer analyst, and the annexes state explicitly that no qualification or requalification programmes are needed, so the entry threshold does not rise with the cost of courses.
- The university route is wide open: 16 fields with 19 accepted specialisations, plus 16 fields with a computing profile from which any specialisation is accepted, including through a master’s degree, postgraduate studies or professional conversion.
- The technician’s profile lists the equipment in their care in concrete terms, in three groups, from local servers and firewalls to microscopes, refractometers and water distillers, so the technical inventory of the post can be written without improvisation.
- All three annexes set the same working time, 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week, which removes the discussion about the permanent availability of the network person.
What remains a problem
- The line between the IT specialist and the programmer analyst is weak in substance: of the programmer analyst’s 14 duties, 11 repeat the IT specialist’s duties almost identically, and the university studies required are the same.
- The technician configures and secures switches, routers and firewalls, yet is the only post with no baccalaureate requirement and no experience required in computing.
- The order repeals nothing expressly and does not name the earlier rules, so a head teacher has no way of knowing what no longer applies.
- There is no deadline for redoing the job descriptions and no rule for the recruitment competitions started before 14 October 2026.
- Article 2 protects existing employment, but says nothing about transfer to another unit, promotion to a higher level of studies or fixed-term contracts extended after 14 October 2026.
- The experience „in the field of computing/information technology” comes with no indication of how it is proved, so panels will decide differently whether a service contract or work as a self-employed person („persoană fizică autorizată”) counts.
Practical advice
- If you already hold one of the three positions, ask the school office for a copy of your employment decision with its date and keep it. The protection in the order is measured against employment as at 14 October 2026, and the date is the only thing that proves it.
- If you are preparing a file for an IT specialist post, first check whether the specialisation on your diploma appears on one of the two lists in Annex no. 1. A diploma in the field of Mathematics or Economics counts only if the specialisation is among the 19 listed, while a diploma in Business Informatics or Systems Engineering counts whatever the specialisation.
- For the programmer analyst post, prepare the proof of the three years of experience in the field before submitting the file: contracts, certificates of employment or an extract from the general employee register. The threshold is three times higher than for the IT specialist and is the only requirement that genuinely separates the two positions.
- Head teachers advertising a technician post have to set the specific field in the job description, because both the upper secondary and the post-secondary route refer to „the field specific to the post as set by the employer”. Without that field written down, the education requirement cannot be checked against the file.
- If you have a technician post that includes the network and security, put the induction course from Annex no. 3 in the job description and state its subject. The annex lists it among the programmes needed to practise the occupation but leaves the content to the employer.
- Do not rewrite the job descriptions of existing staff just because of this order. The order preserves existing employment, and a new description signed now may raise questions about education requirements the person did not meet when hired.
Frequently asked questions
Do I lose my IT specialist post if I only have a high school diploma and no experience in computing?
Can I be employed as a programmer analyst with a baccalaureate diploma?
What experience is required for each of the three positions?
Do I need a Cisco, Microsoft or AWS certification for the IT specialist post?
Does the order change the pay for these positions?
Does the school have to redo the job descriptions by a certain date?
From what date does it apply?
Errors and inconsistencies in the published text
- Annex no. 1 (IT specialist) and Annex no. 2 (programmer analyst), item 4, last paragraph. In the job profile of the programmer analyst, the heading on the qualification level under the National Qualifications Framework speaks about „postul de informatician”, the post of IT specialist, twice: level 5 for post-secondary or short-cycle university studies and level 6 or 7 for higher education. Read literally, the provision produces two effects that do not close: Annex no. 2 sets no qualification level for the post it describes, even though the level is a condition of employment, while for the IT specialist it would restrict the levels to 5, 6 and 7, contradicting Annex no. 1, which provides level 4 for an IT specialist with upper secondary studies. The intention is visible from the context, but the qualification level of the programmer analyst remains unwritten in the act.
- Annex no. 3 (technician), items 3 and 4. Item 3 requires the induction course in the field specific to the post only „în cazul în care calificarea absolvită nu este în domeniul specific al postului stabilit de angajator”, that is, where the qualification obtained is not in the field specific to the post as set by the employer, and only on the upper secondary route. Item 4, however, lists it with no condition at all under the heading of the qualification, requalification or further training programme needed to practise the occupation, therefore also for a candidate qualified in the field and for the post-secondary route, where item 3 does not mention it. A candidate rejected for lack of the course and one admitted without it can each rely on one item of the same annex.
Editorial analysis
The most interesting thing in this order is not visible if you read it from start to finish, but if you put Annex no. 1 next to Annex no. 2. The programmer analyst has 14 duties, of which 11 reproduce almost word for word the duties of the IT specialist: administering the digital infrastructure, administering and developing software, configuring the basic software, managing cybersecurity, administering the network and the databases, support for staff, plus the five common formulas about continuing training and compliance with the rules. Only three belong to the analyst alone: the assessment platforms, implementing functionalities with unit and integration tests, and fixing the reported defects. For those three duties the order requires three times as much experience, three years instead of one, and closes the upper secondary route completely. The list of accepted university studies, by contrast, is identical down to the comma between the two annexes. If the substantive difference is this small, the practical question becomes whether a school that cannot find a programmer analyst with three years of experience will not simply advertise an IT specialist post for the same work.
The second observation comes from another juxtaposition. The technician is the only one of the three posts that requires just a high school graduation diploma, without the baccalaureate, and the only one where the experience is required „in the field of studies” rather than in computing. At the same time, the duties include configuring, securing and monitoring the network infrastructure, with switches, routers and firewalls, and optimising data traffic. The security of a school’s digital perimeter thus lands on the post with the lowest education threshold in the order, in an act that, for the other two posts, carefully lists 19 university specialisations. The 19 fields from which the post-secondary technician route can be entered include Informatics, but also Agriculture, Food Industry, Forestry or Textiles and Leather, and the choice of field is left to the employer.
The third observation is about timing. The approval report is dated 16 September 2026, the order was signed on 6 October 2026, that is 20 days later, and published on 14 October 2026, another 8 days after signature. The administration had 28 days in total between the report and publication. Schools get no days at all: the order enters into force on publication, and the first recruitment carried out that day already has to follow the annexes, with no transition period for internal documents and not a word about the competitions under way at that moment. The asymmetry is not dramatic, because the act imposes no costly obligations, but it is exactly the place where a head teacher caught with a competition started on 10 October is left without an answer.
Otherwise the order is carefully drafted and you can tell it was written by people who know what a school looks like: the technician’s equipment heading runs from network cable testers and soldering stations to refractometers and water distillers, and the IT specialist’s duties go all the way down to assisting the teacher during digital assessments. Its problems are architectural: two almost identical posts separated only by experience, and a third one that receives security tasks without matching education requirements.
What should be changed
- Correcting the qualification level heading in Annex no. 2, which speaks about the post of IT specialist in the programmer analyst’s profile. Without that correction, the programmer analyst’s qualification level has no written basis, and a competition panel can reject or accept the same file with equal justification.
- Clarifying the induction course in Annex no. 3, through the same wording in items 3 and 4: if it is required only of a candidate qualified outside the field of the post, then the heading on the necessary programmes has to repeat that condition, including for the post-secondary route.
- Separating the duties of the IT specialist and the programmer analyst, or giving up one of the thresholds. If the three duties that belong to the analyst alone justify three years of experience, they should also be the only ones in the profile; if they do not, the experience threshold should be lowered, otherwise analyst posts will stay vacant in small schools.
- Tying the technician’s network and security duties to an education requirement in the field of information technology, or moving them into the IT specialist’s profile. A firewall configured by someone with no required training in the field is a risk the order itself creates.
- An explicit deadline for aligning the job descriptions and a rule for the competitions started before 14 October 2026, along the lines of „they are completed under the conditions in force on the date of the announcement”. It would spare the inspectorates dozens of identical questions in the first month.
- Specifying how experience in computing or information technology is proved, in particular whether work carried out as a self-employed person or through civil contracts counts. The three-year threshold decides access to the post, so it cannot remain a matter of local judgement.
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. 860 of 14 October 2026, pages 10-16 16 pages PDF, 100 KB the act starts on page 10
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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.