Corina Lungu
It allows students to combine the disciplines of science and humanities. This year this practice was introduced for the first time. So far, only 79 lyceums have chosen this profile. There are 738 places in them out of the total number of 13732 planned by the Ministry for the 2025-2026 academic year.
Corina Lungu, Head of Department of the Ministry of Education and Science: “In 2024, not a single real profile class was opened in six districts. This is a problem that has prompted the Ministry of Education to take measures to ensure that students have access to subjects appropriate to the field. Therefore, through amendments to the Education Code, effective April 2025, a new, general profile was introduced. This is an innovation, but also a challenge: the new curriculum provides for a balanced study of both humanities and mathematics profiles. The number of hours will be distributed evenly, occupying an intermediate position between the real and humanities profiles”.
Not all lyceums agree with this approach. Pavel Cerbusca, director of the Republican Theoretical Lyceum “Aristotle”, said on Radio Moldova public radio that “the general profile is a very abstract profile, and lyceums should think about the future”.
“Lyceums should still be oriented to certain profiles – it is important for a child to get the necessary preparation for the future profession. The most problematic subjects are math, biology, chemistry. The team that develops math curricula should make radical changes, because it is math that has the lowest grades. In the 90’s, when the real profile classes were opened, the competition was 80%, and only 20% for the humanities. Now the situation has changed: many children directly say that they are “running away from math”.
On Monday, July 14, the admission campaign to lyceums for the 2025-2026 academic year started in Moldova. The documents are accepted from July 14 to July 23, the results will be announced on July 27, after which the students will have three days to inform about their decision – they can apply to three lyceums at the same time. The second stage will start on August 4. This year, 732 more places are planned than last year.
Admission to lyceums will be based on a competitive average score – each institution independently sets the minimum passing score, but it cannot be lower than the national level of 6 points. Up to 30% of institutions have set this minimum score. In 13 lyceums in Moldova, according to the decision of the teaching staff, the minimum score for admission is 8, and in two private lyceums – 8,5 and 8,25. All of them are located in the municipality of Chisinau.
Even if a pupil has completed 9 grades of gymnasium in a Russian-language institution, he/she has the right to apply to Romanian-language institutions. There are also no geographical restrictions.
