In brief
- School directors now have a precise grid of the class hours they have to teach: 8, 10, 12 or 14 hours a week, depending on the size of the unit.
- The director of a school with no more than 100 pupils teaches the full teaching load, with no reduction at all. At the other end, a school with more than 1,000 pupils leaves its director only 8 hours.
- The order replaces the 2011 rules and keeps the trade union reduction, capped at 90 teaching loads nationwide, with monthly and half-yearly reporting duties.
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 714 of 27 August 2026
In force from: 27 August 2026
A week before the school year begins, directors find out how many class hours they have to teach, and the figure depends on how many pupils are enrolled. Order of the Minister of Education and Research no. 4.690/2026, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 714 of 27 August 2026, approves the methodological rules on the reduction of the teaching load for staff holding management, guidance and control positions in state pre-university education. It is the ministry’s second act of the same week to touch teaching careers, after the one on the appraisal of directors of university sports clubs.
The act was signed on 19 August 2026 by Minister Mihai Dimian and repeals Order no. 4.865/2011, which had governed the same matter for fifteen years. The legal basis is Article 208 of Pre-University Education Law no. 198/2023.
The order itself has four articles. The substance sits in the annex, which contains the methodological rules, with seven articles and a detailed grid.
The day after this order, Law no. 182/2026 amended the very article it rests on and capped at 40% of a full teaching load the hours a partially relieved head teacher may still teach.
Also a week before classes start, the budget of the milk, bread roll and fruit programme for the 2026-2027 school year was set.
What it changes in practice
The first effect is the grid of hours for directors, built in steps. The director of a state pre-university education unit teaches 10 hours a week if the school meets one of six conditions: it has at least 25 study groups; it has between 10 and 24 study groups and at least 10 primary classes or early childhood and pre-school groups; it has at least 5 affiliated school units; it has at least 20 study groups plus a boarding house or a canteen; it has at least 4 levels of education and a minimum of 16 study groups; or it is a special education unit with at least 16 study groups.
The second threshold goes down to 8 hours, but only on top of the first. The director must meet one of the conditions above and, in addition, one of these: at least 1,000 pupils, pre-school or early childhood children; at least 500 pre-school and early childhood children; at least 400 early childhood children; at least 600 pupils in post-secondary education; or at least 200 pupils and pre-school children in special education.
The third effect concerns those in small schools. Directors of units with more than 100 pupils that fall into none of the categories above teach 14 hours a week. And directors of units with 100 pupils or fewer carry out the teaching load in full, which means they get no reduction at all.
The fourth effect covers the remaining positions. Directors of extracurricular education units, of county centres for educational resources and assistance and of centres of excellence teach 12 hours. Deputy directors also teach 12 hours. Management staff in the school inspectorates teach 6 hours, while guidance and control staff in the inspectorates and management staff in the teacher training centres teach 8 hours.
The fifth effect is the trade union reduction. Representative trade union federations designate the persons who benefit from a partial reduction of the teaching load, within a limit of 90 teaching loads nationwide. The act lists twelve duties for them, from taking part in working groups on draft normative acts to observer status at the external evaluations of schools.
The sixth effect is the oversight of that reduction, built on three levels. The person who benefits from it files a monthly activity report with the trade union organisation. The presidents of the county organisations file a half-yearly monitoring report with the school inspectorate. The presidents of the federations file a half-yearly report with the Unitatea de Politici Publice „România Educată” (the ministry’s Educated Romania public policy unit). The list of names and each person’s teaching obligation are approved by order of the minister.
What has changed compared with the previous situation
The previous benchmark was Order no. 4.865/2011, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 601 of 25 August 2011, which is now repealed. Between the two acts the underlying law changed: the old rules rested on the legislation in force before 2023, the new ones on Pre-University Education Law no. 198/2023.
The second new element is a valve that works both ways. Management, guidance and control staff may ask the school inspectorate in writing to carry out the teaching load in full, so the reduction is not compulsory. In the opposite direction, those whose studies do not allow them to teach at the level required carry out activities laid down in a procedure approved by the secretary of state who coordinates pre-university education.
The third new element is an institutional transitional clause. Article 7 states that, from the reorganisation of the school inspectorates and the setting up of the National Centre for Training and Development in the Teaching Career, the name „county school inspectorate” („inspectoratul școlar județean”) is to be read as „county pre-university education directorate” („direcția județeană de învățământ preuniversitar”), and „teacher training centre” („casa corpului didactic”) as „teaching career centre” („centrul pentru cariera didactică”). The act is therefore preparing for an administrative reform that has not yet happened.
Advantages and disadvantages
What it improves
- The grid is objective and verifiable: the number of hours follows from public figures, not from someone’s judgement.
- The reduction grows with the size of the school, which matches the real volume of a director’s administrative work.
- A director may ask to teach the full load, so anyone who wants to stay in the classroom is not prevented from doing so.
- The trade union reduction has an explicit numerical cap, 90 teaching loads nationwide, instead of a vague formula.
- Reporting on three levels makes the trade union reduction traceable, and the list of names is approved by order of the minister.
- The transitional clause stops the order from becoming inapplicable on the day the inspectorates change their name.
What remains a problem
- The order comes out a week before the school year begins, when staffing has already been settled.
- The thresholds stack in steps, and a school that loses one study group can push its director from 8 to 10 hours from one year to the next.
- Directors of schools with no more than 100 pupils get no reduction at all, even though they run an institution with the same reporting duties as any other.
- The procedure for those whose studies do not allow them to teach is approved separately, by a secretary of state, so it cannot be read out of the act.
- The 90 trade union teaching loads come with no criteria for splitting them between federations, only the overall cap.
- The clause that changes the names applies from a date nobody knows, because the reorganisation of the inspectorates has no timetable yet.
Practical advice
- Count the study groups first, not the pupils. The first threshold, the one of 10 hours, is decided on study groups, affiliated units and levels of education, not on the number of children.
- Check whether you fall into the second step. The 8 hours are granted only cumulatively: one condition from the first group and one from the second.
- If the unit has a boarding house or a canteen, check the condition of 20 study groups: that combination is one of the gateways to 10 hours.
- Directors of large kindergartens should look at the thresholds of 500 pre-school children and 400 early childhood children, which are separate from the general threshold of 1,000 pupils.
- If your studies do not allow you to cover the hours set, ask in writing to be placed under the procedure approved by the secretary of state; the act provides for it expressly.
- Anyone who wants to teach in full may ask the school inspectorate in writing. It is a right, not an exception to be negotiated.
- For trade union reductions, remember the monthly activity report: without it, the half-yearly monitoring has nothing to rest on.
Frequently asked questions
How many hours does a school director teach?
How do you get down to 8 hours?
What about deputy directors?
What happens in the school inspectorates?
Can I ask to teach the full load?
What if my studies do not allow me to teach the hours set?
How many trade union reductions are there?
What do those with a trade union reduction have to report?
Which act is repealed?
Editorial analysis
The grid is well built and, more importantly, it is verifiable. A director no longer depends on the inspectorate’s reading to find out how many hours to teach: count the study groups, the affiliated units and the levels of education, and read the answer out of the act. The choice to build the first threshold on study groups and affiliated units, and the second on the number of children, has a visible logic, because the two measure different things, administrative complexity and volume. And the right to ask to teach in full turns the reduction into an option rather than an obligation.
The part that does not fit with the rest is the timing. An act that changes how directors are timetabled comes out on 27 August, a week before classes start, when staffing lists are drawn up and the timetable is done. The order it replaces stood for fifteen years, so this was not an emergency that appeared overnight. The practical effect is that the first year of application will be handled through corrections rather than through planning.
The second observation concerns the bottom end of the grid. The director of a school with 100 pupils teaches the full load and at the same time runs an institution with the same reporting, procurement and evaluation duties as one ten times larger. The difference in volume is real, but the paperwork does not shrink in proportion to the number of children, and the act does not acknowledge this at all. The allocation of the 90 trade union teaching loads is also left unanswered: the cap is clear, the criterion for splitting it between federations is not.
What should be changed
- Publication of the grid before the staffing lists are drawn up. An act that changes teaching loads should come out in the spring, not a week before the school year opens.
- A minimum reduction for small schools. Even two hours would acknowledge that a director’s administrative tasks do not fall below a certain floor, however few pupils the school has.
- Criteria for allocating the 90 trade union teaching loads. The national cap exists; without a rule for splitting it, the allocation stays a negotiation with no public benchmark.
- Publication of the procedure for cases where studies do not allow teaching. It decides the situation of real people and is approved separately, through an act that is not published in the Official Gazette of Romania.
- A rule on annual stability of the thresholds. Losing a single study group can change a director’s teaching obligation from one year to the next; measuring against the position on a fixed date would make the arrangement predictable.
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. 714 of 27 August 2026 16 pages PDF, 111 KB the act starts on page 2
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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.