Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said its accord with the European Union candidate was off track, citing weak fiscal policies and wage rises in the public sector among factors undermining efforts to bring down stubborn inflation.
Trade union leaders said they want spending for education such as investment in modernising crumbling schools and raising wages, to be hiked to six percent of gross domestic product in next year's budget from the current 3.8 percent.
"We hope to obtain more money for education," Aurel Cornea, one of the education's trade union leaders, told Reuters. "We want salaries to rise to around 400 euros ($472.8) by the time Romania joins the EU in 2007."
Teachers earn on average about 730 lei ($237.8) per month.
Analysts said the four-party centrist ruling coalition, which came to power last December on promises to fight graft and improve living standards, faced the first test of its determination to keep in check growing macroeconomic imbalances.