DOES THE TEACHERS’ CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT REPRESENT A PRIORITY FOR THE ROMANIAN EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM?

Abstract

At present, being involved in a permanent professional development process represents a compulsory issue for teachers. In fact, the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) of the actual teachers has recorded considerable importance during the past two decades. As example, whether in 2002/2003, the teachers’ involvement in CPD activities was considered as optional in approximatively half of European countries (Eurydice, 2005), in 2018, a massive percentage of teachers (92.5 % of lower secondary teachers) participated in CPD activities (European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice. Teachers in Europe: Careers, Development and Wellbeing, 2021). Several European countries (Bulgaria, Spain, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia) considered the participation of teachers in CPD activities as a crucial step for their career development. However, in most European countries, the schools have to design a continuous professional development plan for their own staff. In such conditions, less than 1/3 of schools asks teachers to be involved in a particular CPD plan. In the case of Romanian teachers, their involvement in CPD process is regulated by the National Education Law (1/ 2011), with several amendments and completions. But in order to make it efficient, the whole process must be in accordance to the actual challenges related to teaching practices. In this respect, the paper tries to answer to an issue that envisages the teachers’ CPD as a real priority for the actual educational system.