Romania’s physics teacher shortage, school by school

How much of physics is left unplaced#

Every summer the hours that no permanent teacher already holds go into “mobility”, Romania’s national teacher placement: permanent appointments, secondments, fixed-term placement by exam mark, then the county inspectorates’ public sessions. The ministry publishes each county’s final list: which post was filled, at which stage, and what was still vacant.

In the 2026 session, 34,297 weekly physics hours went through this process. On 3 September, 16,226 of them (47%) had not been assigned to anyone. Divided by the 18-hour teaching load, that is roughly 901 full posts. In chemistry 38% was still unplaced, in biology 18%, in geography 17%.

Not all placed hours went to a teacher appointed to the post either: 16% of physics hours in the process had already been given out as paid hours, 6% to retired teachers. In biology, 5%.

It was not one bad year. In the 2025 session 49% of physics hours were left unplaced; in biology, 16%.

It is not only about fragmented posts#

An obvious explanation: physics has few hours per class, so in lower secondary schools it often forms incomplete posts of 2–6 hours, hard to fill in any subject. To test it, physics and biology were compared only on posts of the same size and level.

The difference remains on posts of the same size. In every category, including full posts of at least 18 hours, the share of unplaced hours is higher in physics than in biology. In lower secondary schools, across the two sessions, 48% of full physics posts were left unplaced, against 6% in biology. Over 2025 and 2026 together, adjusted to the same mix of posts, the physics rate is 48% and the biology rate 17%: 2.8 times higher.

The same schools, year after year#

2,346 schools had physics hours in the process in both sessions (matched by name, locality and county). Of those left with unplaced hours in 2025, 76% were left again in 2026. Of those with no unplaced hours in 2025, only 34%.

That makes 1,025 schools with physics hours unplaced in both autumns. Had the gaps fallen at random among the same schools, county by county, there would have been about 818.

More physics hours go unplaced in villages#

Across all subjects, hours in rural schools are not left unplaced more often than in towns. In physics they are, as in chemistry (50% against 30%). In 2026, 63% of physics hours in village schools were left unplaced, against 38% in towns.

The difference remains on posts of the same size and level. On posts of the same size and level, over both sessions together, the rural rate is 62%, and the urban rate, adjusted to the same mix, 42%. In biology the gap is small (18% against 13%).

The national colleges, Romania’s selective high schools, all of them in towns, do better than other town high schools: in 2026, 23% of their physics hours were left unplaced, against 40%. In village high schools, 57%.

How many physics teachers sit the exam#

At the 2026 national exam, 207 candidates sat the written physics paper in the whole country. 36 scored at least 7, the minimum, in the written paper and the classroom inspection, for a permanent post; 151 scored at least 5, the minimum for a one-year substitute post. On 3 September, physics hours worth 901 full posts were still unplaced; in all, hours worth 1,905 posts went through the process, many filled by contract extensions or paid hours. In biology, 437 candidates scored at least 7, and hours worth 165 posts were still unplaced.

Physics candidates scoring at least 7, by year from 2022 to 2026: 23, 15, 30, 54, 36. Marks from earlier years can also be used in placement, but they come from the same small cohorts.

Unplaced physics hours by county#

The table shows the 2026 session: physics hours in the process, how many were still unplaced on 3 September, and in how many schools. Click a county to open the map there.

What happens to the unplaced hours#

An hour unplaced on 3 September does not automatically mean a class without physics for the whole year. After 3 September, head teachers can give the remaining hours to retired teachers paid by the hour or to teachers topping up their load, or run a competition at the school, where people without a physics degree can be hired. For the 2025–2026 school year the ministry reported 254 full-time physics teaching loads (“norme”) held by staff “without studies matching the post” and 216 held by retired teachers. The lists on titularizare.edu.ro do not say what happened to each hour after 3 September.

What is counted: every physics, chemistry, biology and geography post in each county’s final lists (complete vacancies, incomplete vacancies, posts filled by permanent appointment, secondment, fixed-term placement and other stages), measured in weekly hours. Hours that permanent teachers already hold do not appear in these lists, so the shares are of the hours in the placement process, not of all physics teaching.

Limits: the lists are those published on 3 September 2025 and 3 September 2026. Schools were matched between years by name, locality and county (76% of 2026 schools were found in 2025); the 2025 school mergers changed some names. The 2022 session is not used for shares: its list of occupied posts is missing, and its lists closed before the placement sessions of 1–2 September 2022.

Sources and data#

1. Ministry of Education, Titularizare 2026 (the national teacher-placement process): county reports (vacant, placed and occupied posts; exam results).
2. Ministry of Education, Titularizare 2025: county reports.
3. Edupedu, 12 September 2026: the ministry’s answer on posts held by staff without matching studies and by retired teachers, by subject, 2025–2026.
4. School network 2025–2026 (school and locality registry codes, SIIIR and SIRUTA, for every school), Ministry of Education, data.gov.ro; locality coordinates from Wikidata (CC0).
5. County boundaries: geoBoundaries (CC BY 4.0).

• Every school, with physics, chemistry, biology and geography hours by year (CSV, no personal names)