Bucharest, July 17, 2025. AVE (The Association for Values in Education) extends registrations for The 2025 Headmasters of the Year Awards Gala until July 27 (23:59). The headmasters of public pre-academic educational establishments in Romania (kindergarten, primary school, primary and lower secondary school, high school) can register by filling out a form online. Eligible to register are all headmasters and deputy headmasters who have held this position during the 2024-2025 interval, save for those who were awarded at the Gala’s previous editions. Filling out the online registration form can be done in several stages.
During this period reserved for registration, any person who knows a school headmaster with exceptional results can recommend them using an online form.
“Each year, the Gala has shown us that there are headmasters who have the courage and drive to change the communities they are part of. These headmasters do not seek recognition, though they fully deserve it. Hence, the following are invited to recommend exceptional headmasters: teaching staff, parents, students, but also representatives of NGOs, the press, partner institutions and inspectorates. All recommended headmasters will be phoned by an association representative to encourage them to register. AVE believe in the power of things done together, and the over 6,000 recommendations received throughout the Gala’s previous eight editions show us that there are headmasters who make school a better place”, states Simona Pavelescu, AVE Executive Director.
The 2025 Headmasters of the Year Awards Gala is an event aimed at acknowledging and bringing to the fore the contributions made by school headmasters in transforming education in Romania. During the Gala, awards will be presented to 4 school headmasters for the Innovation, Equal opportunities, Entrepreneurship and the 2025 Headmaster of the Year categories. Applications are allowed for no more than two of the three award categories (Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Equal opportunities). Each registered headmaster shall be automatically considered for the grand prize, the 2025 Headmaster of the Year.
The judging proceedings for The 2025 Headmasters of the Year Awards Gala have for stages: validating registrations, preliminary assessment, the regional judging proceedings and the national judging proceedings. The regional stage will take place this edition in Bacău, Alba Iulia, Oradea and Constanța. Each region will send for the Bucharest stage three winners, for the Innovation, Equal opportunities and Entrepreneurship categories.
The judging process engages from recruitment specialists to business leaders representing the largest employers in Romania, representatives of NGOs versed in education, students, school headmasters who won previous editions, journalists, Ministry of Education representative.
The winners will be announced and the awards will be presented on October 20. The award presented to each category shall be 3,500 Euro, an amount provided to allow furthering the project initiated at school with the community’s support or to start a new project, but also to have a spot reserved in The Programme for the Transformation of Schools in Romania, which AVE coordinates. The four winners also receive an invitation to be part of the jury at the following edition of The Headmasters of the Year Awards Gala.
By filling out online the registration form, school headmasters are closer to receiving the well-deserved recognition. For nine years, The Headmasters of the Year Awards Gala has been doing so for the leaders who transform school from within, even when it seems impossible. This initiative is about headmasters who do not wait for perfect conditions to emerge, but act with bravery, perseverance and vision so as to make school a better place for children, teachers and the community. Since 2017 awards have been presented to 34 headmasters, who have become leadership models in education.
The media partners who support the ninth edition of The Headmasters of the Year Awards Gala are: Republica, BIZ magazine, Agerpres, SpotMedia, Vocativ and România pozitivă.
About The Association for Values in Education
The Association for Values in Education is a non-profit organisation who has been contributing for 10 years to the transformation of the education system in Romania through programmes and projects developed starting from the needs of schools. AVE has coined and implemented programmes designed to have an impact both among the school’s management and teaching staff. AVE enables collaboration among private companies, school headmasters, the civil society and NGOs active in the field of education in order to forge successes with an impact on the education system. You can stay in touch with AVE’s endeavours by following the LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram pages.