The long summer holiday is over so it’s time to get back to school. More than 3 million students start the new school year in Romania today, September 14.

While some children get to study in newly renovated schools, others are not so lucky as their schools are still being revamped or haven’t been renovated in years. In early-September, 800 schools were still under renovation, from a total of 19,000, reports local Mediafax.

The new school year also starts with a series of changes, as the Education Ministry changed the structure of the school year just two weeks before its start. One of the changes refers to the winter holiday. The students will have a 3-week holiday, and not a 2-week one as it has been before. On the other hand, the summer holiday will start later, on June 24 instead of June 17, and will end on September 11.

The Government also decided that high school students in 11th, 12th, and 13th grades will recover some of the money spent on textbooks, in the limit of RON 55 (EUR 12). More than 360,000 students will receive money for textbooks, but only if they are from the list approved by the Ministry of Education. To get the money back, the students have to submit a written request at the school office, together with the bill for the purchased books.

Third graders will also get new books starting this year, most likely in the first part of the first semester.

The 2015-2016 school year will have 175 days (36 weeks). The first holiday will be between October 31 and November 8, for the primary education, followed by the winter holiday between December 19 and January 10, the one between semesters (February 6-14), and the spring vacation (April 23-May 3).

In Romania, the school year has two semesters. This year, the first one starts on September 14 and will end on February 6.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com