History of Romanian education

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See also: Romanian Education System

The history of Romanian education can easily be structured alongside the lines of the formation of the Romanian state. The earliest period (before 1800) was marked by limited education and fragmented opportunities. The state- and nation- creation period of the 19th century is marked by an increase in the interest in education, and a gradual construction of an educational system. The period after World War I features the challenges of integrating different systems and creating a new, larger nation, whereas the period after World War II features the transformation of a liberal system into a Soviet-style communist one.

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[edit] Education Before 1800

During this period, education was dominatly a religious one. Greek and Latin were dominant. In Wallachia, the history of higher education started back in the end of 17th century. Constantin Brâncoveanu, ruler of Wallachia, founded the Princely Academy of Saint Sava (Sfântul Sava) in Bucharest in 1694 (this establishment survives to this very day). Education was available only in Greek. In 1776, Alexandru Ipsilanti, ruler of Wallachia, introduced new courses in Saint Sava Academy. From that time, French and Italian started to be taught also. Private tutoring was also available,

In Transylvania, under Austrian rule, most of the education was either in German or Latin. Medieval structures, such as serfdom and a strong guild system survived well into the 19th century. Thus, much of education was religious in nature, or provided by guilds (as an apprenticeship followed by a tour around the country to further learn the tricks of the chosen trade). Literacy was rather low in all the Romanian provinces

Modern education, however, starts to appear - in Transylvania and Banat, secondary schools were chartered in big cities (such as Cluj or Timişoara), and in Bukovina, the Theological School, that later became University of Cernăuţi was founded under Austrian rule.

[edit] Education in the 19th Century and the Early 20th Century

This period was marked by the organization of education in the territories that would later on become Romania. The territories under Habsburg rule had an advantage - as such, in 1786, in Sibiu, Divinity School was created. There were taught graduate courses in theology. The Theological-Pedagogical School was joined, in 1844, by an Academy of Law, founded by the German minority. In 1887 the Academy was disbanded. Furthermore Transylvania had a well built network of lower schools (including in larger villages) and secondary schools (gymnaziums). Teaching was usually performed in the language of the majority population in the area (mostly Hungarian and German in cities, and Romanian and Hungarian in smaller towns), for lower schools (usually the first two years), and then in Latin or German for higher schools. Literacy was highest in this region (Transylvania and Bukovina, for the entire period), and written Romanian (as well as written Hungarian and German) is abundant from the region. Many of the Romanian writers of the period (such as Ioan Slavici or Mihai Eminescu, studied or debuted in this region). This situation lasted until 1867, when, after rule over Transylvania was transferred to Hungary in the newly made Austria-Hungary, most Romanian and German schools were closed, Hungarian became the main language in administration, and most Romanian cultural organizations were closed. Slowly, throughout the 1870s and 1880s, they were reopened, mostly as private organizations, and sometimes on the brink of legality (and usually sustained by Romanian cultural groups, such as ASTRA), continuing to offer Romanian language education even during this period.

In Vallachia and Moldavia, education in the early part of the 19th century was disorganized and limited - schooling was only available in towns and cities, frequently run alongside churches, while higher education was organized under ad-hoc and rather irregular conditions, in so-called seminaries and pensions (some of which survive, as regular high-schools to this very day - such as the Saint Sava highschool in Bucharest). The situation, however, improved throughout the 1830s and 1840s, schools being started by municipalities and the state under the Regulamentul Organic, and with rich families affording education abroad (Paris and Vienna were favorite destinations). Furthermore, cultural organizations offering scholarships appeared, creating an intellectual core that would shape Romanian policy in the 19th century. The last remnants of Turkish and Greek educational traditions vanished, being replaced by French trends. The first state organized comprehensive framework appeared as late as the 1860s, with Alexandru Ioan Cuza's educational reforms - making the first four years of schooling compulsory, organizing secular schools and a framework for education, opening new high schools (such as the Gheorghe Lazăr high school in Bucharest) and the first two universities (in Iaşi in 1860 and Bucharest in 1864). The spelling reforms of 1862 allowed for a unified system of education throughout the newly created Romania.

The 1880s marked additional reforms, with education minister Spiru Haret creating an ambitious program of educational reformation and modernization. His program was a mixture of education and nation building - very successful in bringing literacy in rural areas. His program involved opening countless rural schools (sometimes no more than a room with a teacher, a blackboard, a map and a flag), reorganizing the high school curricula as to offer a balanced and modern system, and basically creating Romanian higher technical education from scratch. So successful was his system that many schools in Romania bear his name to this very day, and his name continues to be associated with education to this very day.

The education system was, however, quite limited. There were very few teachers (the average was 82 students per teacher in 1908/09 in rural areas, and 56 in urban areas), and drop-out rates, even in the first four years of compulsory schooling were very high (up to 30% in 1910/11). Literacy rates, especially in rural areas were extremely low, being estimated at about 25-30% for rural males of the 1900 cohort, and around 80-85% for the urban males of the same cohort (Hoivik, 1974, p.283).

[edit] Education between 1918-1949

Two problems had to be overcome after 1918 - first, the integration of no less than four different education systems after Romania was joined by Bukovina, Transylvania and Bessarabia, and second, the need for industrialization and modernization that the society was experiencing. The first task was even more daunting as the school system was expected to also participate in nation building, even as there was no integrated schools system to speak of. Minister Constantin Angelescu had an essential role in shaping the inter-war education system of Romania. The model of Spiru Haret was kept, and, the arguably better Austrian and Hungarian systems prevalent in Transylvania and Bukovina were discarded. Until 1941, there were differences in the subjects and type of education received by schoolchildren in rural and urban environments - each were adapted to the types of jobs that the students were expected to do after graduation. The differences could be sufficiently great that urban schools could require transferring rural children to take an extra year in urban schools, to adapt. High-schools were also modernized - classical education was simplified to an extent (modern languages and classical languages were merged in what became the human studies program, and technical education improved and increased significantly to provide technicians and workers for the factories that were being built throughout the country.

The nation-building element was extremely strong throughout the period - and nation building was perceived mostly in the ethnic rather than civic sense - Romanian ethnicity was used, for most of the period, as synonym for the nation - and the school system reflected that. Despite the country receiving large proportions of minorities, there were very limited opportunities to study in any other language than Romanian. Furthermore, Angelescu clearly specified that beyond the flag and map campaigns of Spiru Haret, the teaching of history and geography should reflect the nation building process. Literacy slowly rose, school attendance more than tripled between 1907 and 1937, and illiteracy rates in Romania amongst 13-19 year olds dropped significantly during the 1930s (Banat had dropped to 18%, whereas the worst off region, Bessarabia, stood at 54%, with the national average at around 30%) (Hoivik, 1974, p. 286). Adult literacy remained low throughout the period, especially amongst women, which had a total literacy rate of 39%, whereas males had a literacy rate of about 84% (Hoivik, 1974, p. 289).

The fascist legionary dictatorship and World War II left it's toll heavily on the Romanian educational system, with many university professors being killed or forced to retire. However, the Soviet occupation that ensued fundamentally changed the Romanian education system, turning it from a liberal, French inspired one to a clone of the Soviet Stalinist system.

[edit] Education between 1945-1990

This period can be divided into three smaller periods, based on the three reforms (the "textbook" reforms). The first one was the 1948/1949 reform, that basically installed a carbon copy of the system of the USSR at the time, the second one was the 1958 reform, gradually liberalizing many segments of the educational system, and the third one in 1972, again restricting the system, and bringing it in tow with the party and it's national-stalinist ideological line. The years for these reform roughly correspond with the years of changes in the Romanian society - the 1972 textbooks, for example, being issued after Ceauşescu's policy changes after his visit to North Korea and China.

In the first period (1949-1958) the entire national educational system was sized under the control of Romanian Communist Party, backed by Soviet Union. Education was reviewed by the communist government as an important tool to control the people and create the "new man". The 1949 reforms were essential in destroying the old system and creating the new one. First, a large number of teachers and professors were arrested or killed, with lesser qualified, but obedient cadres taking their places. The classical division between technical, classical and vocational schools was eliminated completely - schools simply became three tiered institutions (ground school, middle schools and universities), providing identical education to everybody. Most universities were demoted to the ranks of technical institutes. All private schools were closed, and religious education was taken over by the state (which severely limited it). New subjects were also introduced - Russian became compulsory on all levels whereas French was eliminated, "scientific" atheism took the place of religion, and a subject of Soviet studies became widespread. Most social sciences were suppressed completely, or communized - sociology was nearly forbidden, psychology, law and philosophy reformed on the basis of Stalinist dogma. Critical thought was replaced by memorization and rote learning - even in technical subjects, since criticism could be very dangerous. Censorship became widespread - many classical authors being outright banned, with the proletkult and socialist realism becoming the only norm in art, science, and education. "Healthy origins" (aka not belonging to a rich or formerly influential family), rather than merits became the main criteria for admission to prestigious schools and graduation. Compulsory schooling had been increased to 7 years, and the Communist party got involved into the educational process by creating organizations inside schools (such as the Young Pioneers and the Union of Working Youth). The image of the stiff, dogmatic teacher with no character , that enjoys tormenting his or her students originates from this period - for example, corporal punishments were allowed, and remained widespread even into the early 1990s. However, there were some limited achievements - one, typical of totalitarian regimes, basic literacy, being achieved in this period by adult literacy campaigns (literacy jumped to over 90% in the period), second, the expansion of co-ed education, and third, minority education (especially in Hungarian - something that will disappear afterwards and reappear only after 1990).

The choices of students in this periods show the complete change in the system. The most politicized specializations, such as law, economics, or business, hugely popular before 1945, almost disappeared (only 12.5% of students were attending these specializations in 1955, as opposed to 28% in 1948) whereas the interest in technical subjects (which were the least affected) skyrocketed (from 26% to 49%) - a situation that suited the government, embraced on a crash course in industrialization, just fine.

During the 1960s, however, the trend was reversed, with a short lived wave of liberalization, that swept the country. Modernist and neo-modernist tendencies reappeared, with writers such as Nichita Stănescu and Marin Sorescu becoming not only popular, but also being included in educational materials. Foreign language studies were reintroduced, first with French, then with English, Spanish and German. The Christmas holiday was reinstated after a student protest in 1961 (although under a different name), and limited channels of expression appeared. Student magazines appeared, and student clubs slowly became allowed. The traditional structure in education replaced the alien Soviet one, and compulsory school was extended to 8 years. Classical and vocational high schools became available once again, and unpopular subjects were removed. However, the influence of the party remained entrenched deeply, and, in the 1970s, the system took a turn for the worse yet again, and the control and repression remained still there - it was far from a free system.

The third period came in 1972, with the education reforms that coincided with the nationalist craze of Nicolae Ceauşescu. Foreign language studies were curtailed again, social sciences became restricted, and a new form of nationalist socialist realism became the default in education. Glorifying the party and the leader became the norm, and portraits of the leader appeared all over the classrooms, with students being forced to participate to celebrations glorifying Romania and Ceauşescu. Education about the outside world was restricted and classical programs were again restricted, in favor of industrial high schools, training students only for a blue collar job, with little extra. Furthermore, with the deterioration of the economy in the 1980s, students were sent to agricultural work, and some even participated in the construction of the Danube-Black Sea canal.

In this period, minorities suffered hardest because of the nationalism craze - although the Hungarian community was the largest minority in Romania, they lost the possibility of using the Hungarian language in universities and schools completely. No minority had a university educational curriculum in minorities’ languages after 1956, and most German or Hungarian schools were closed in the 1970s and 1980s. Even worse fared the Roma minority was the second in number but not officially recognized during the socialist regime. Even after the fall of the socialist regime, the Roma minority didn’t have a clear status: many of them refused to confirm their origins. A big percentage was poorly literate or illiterate as a result. This produced many difficulties before and after 1989. Almost 80 percent of adults from the Roma community were unemployed (Kocze, 2001). Many of them were indicted criminals; the entire community was associated with delinquency and discriminated against by the entire population, again as a result of these policies. Massive urbanization, with limited education stifled the perspectives of this generation.

This led to an even bigger orientation towards technical education, but, because of lack of investment and lack of contact with the outside world (either western or eastern), it suffered heavily of lack of quality and expertise. The regime, however, masked this incompetence with attempting academic contests between students, which were strongly encouraged. This was done by using the Eastern block "academic olympiad" tradition - inter country contest in purely theoretical subjects, built to show performance of students, while allowing to hide the deficiencies of the education system. Many teachers imposed a tradition with their results in Olympiads - but by only training a very small percentage of their students for these narrow channels of competition, they disregarded the skills needed in real, workplace competition - and, although a lot of students obtained prestigious results in international contests in math, chemistry, and physics, Romania's average standards for education remained (and remain) very low. Subjects taught became ever more theoretical, since hardware for experiments was lacking, with this lack being masked by continuously adding new subjects, evermore superficially treated - it became customary for a student to have 14-16 subjects in a semester.

In the same period, paid home tutoring and cram schools (known in Romania as meditaţii) became customary for a large part of the population. The lack of quality offered in school, and the heavy competition for a place in a technical or medical university forced students to use these parallel, illegal market-based resources. Bribing and corruption also became frequent. Teacher qualifications became even more narrow, and the relation between teacher and student was usually one of superiority - many teachers treating their students as inferior and unworthy, and favoring those taking part in the home tutoring sessions.

Even worse was the influence of the Romanian Communist Party, which managed to engage even pre-school children in political activities, through organizations such as The Falcons of the Motherland (Şoimii patriei), and the Young Pioneers which served as indoctrination structures from the earliest ages.

[edit] Education after 1990

In all Eastern European countries, a lot of changes have arisen after the failure of the communist project (Offe, 1997). Romanian education suffered many transformations, starting with it being depoliticized in 1990. However, in 17 years, there is no stability or consensus to how education should be done - each year brings substantial changes, that some times overrule changes done just a few years before - a very good example for this would be the grade school graduation exam - before 1999, it was a combined national graduation/high-school admission exam known as "admitere" given in Romanian and Math, which was subsequently replaced in 1999 by an exam known as the Capacitate exam, that would serve only for graduation (given in Romanian, Math, History and Geography, followed by an admission exam given by high-schools (usually in Romanian, Math or History, which, in turn, was changed in 2000, by making Capacitate serve again as an admission exam, and giving Geography or History as choices, followed by the student choosing their high-school and taking their diploma there, which was replaced in 2001 by a computerized system. Furthermore, in 2004, the Capacitate exam was replaced by a batch of tests that would only serve as placement guides for the computerized system, known as the Teste Naţionale (National Tests). These changes made a superficial form of reform, without looking in-depth at the needs of students. Schools were, in most cases, opposed to any reforms - trying to continue their "same old". As such, elective subjects were allowed in 1999 - with the intention of allowing students to pursue their own path of interest, but soon became a perverted systems, where students had no choice, and where the school would force upon students a package of "electives" without any choice from the students. As such, these reforms were basically superficial, changing the formal names and descriptions of practices that remained nearly identical.

Bribing remains endemic - in 2006, a national newspaper bought the subjects for the national high-school graduation exam (arguably the most important exam in Romania) and published it the day before the exam, prompting a huge scandal, and forcing a desperate move - the official publication, 6 months in advance, of all the variants for the 2007 exam. Even with these moves, during the 2007 exam, reports of bribing remain endemic. Cramming and home tutoring increased even more since 1989 - basically providing a parallel system to the state system.

For the first 8 years, underfunding was a problem - salaries becoming very low, and morale becoming quite bad amongst teachers. However, even with improved funding starting 2001-2002, because of lack of reform, salaries remained low, with money being spent uselessly. Quality of education remained extremely low - with very high formalism - all the reforms remaining superficial - useless subjects being thought, in a similar way as before 1990. Most schools will still teach over 12-13 subjects per semester, like before 1989, with teachers employing over-formalism and not reaching out to students. As such, in 2007, students in Romanian high-schools where still learning the Pascal programming language, or were studying advanced calculus while applied maths, foreign languages or more usable computer skills were left behind.

As such, between 1998 and 2000, the average budget for education was 3.5% of the GDP. Comparing the areas of allocation, the primary and primary schools received the most investments: 52.1%, compared with 22.1% for secondary education and only 9.6% for tertiary education. We can see in that way a small amount in expenses for higher education compared with previous levels. If we compare with Canada, the government used to allocate in 1990 6.5% from GDP, and 5.5% in average between 1998 and 2000. From the areas of allocation, the secondary school received the most investments: 62.2%, compared with 28.6% for tertiary education and only 9.2% for pre-primary and primary levels. Compared with Romania, we can infer a commitment to spend more money on secondary and postsecondary educational forms. However, in 2007, the budget for education was 5.2% of the GDP, but much of it was wasted uselessly on supporting what is called "useless teaching".

A 2007 presidential commission analysis, brought about by the disastrous results of the PISA and European assessment tests reached the conclusion that "The educational system is inequitable, inefficient, low quality, not up to any European or international quality standard."

Some improvements were the opening of private universities - but most structured themselves as legal diploma mills, charging about 350-500 € per year, teaching almost nothing, and giving out diplomas after 4-5 years. A great improvement, however, was full university autonomy, allowing for some universities and departments within universities to reform bottom up - allowing for high quality education without any support from the higher level (such an example is the University of Bucharest, the University of Timişoara and the University of Iaşi which used EU programmes to create a modern, audited education system in many departments). However, similar autonomy allowed for other universities to remain stagnant, being almost identical to the 1980s (the Polytechnic University of Bucharest and ASE are an example - basically nothing has changed since the 1980s, up-to teaching philosophy or industrial technology (because of the over-supply of professors) in a computer science department).

Universities have been faced by both shortages and over-capacity, since the job market was very turbulent in the 1990s. Engineering became unpopular after many industries closed down, but, became again hugely popular in the early 2000s, after the new boom in industry (communications, metal industry, chemical industry, cement etc.) and construction. Law became popular in the 1990s, because of a lack of trained professionals in the field - but, after 2000, when the bars were filled and notary public positions were occupied - it became far less popular. Social sciences, such as political science, sociology and psychology are popular, since they were unavailable during communist times. Computer science is very popular, but there is very limited supply, basically NO university in Romania is offering a purely computer science program - but rather a combination with maths (which is very unpopular, since much of that math is at a very high level, and mostly useless for a computer scientist), economics, or automation and engineering.

Another improvement was minority education. There is now a full educational system in Hungarian (grade schools, high schools, departments in state universities and private universities), some education in Romani and a very vibrant effort to standardize the language (grade schools, some programs in high schools, and a positive discrimination scheme which is very controversial), and some education (usually classes in schools and high-schools) in German, Russian, Bulgarian, Czech, Serbian, Turkish and Ukrainian.

Religion has been introduced in the early 1990s, to a huge controversy, since many teachers (and to some extent even the curriculum) consider indoctrination as their main goal, especially in rural areas, prompting parents to withdraw their children from the courses - despite the population being mostly Orthodox Christians. The ministry and churches consider that the subject provide a good assistance to people who were deprived by religious education for decades, and allow for religious expression.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Høivik, Tord (1974) The Development of Romania: A Cohort Study, Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 11, No. 4. (1974), pp. 281-296. Available at : [1] (Jstor access required)
  • Korka M. (2000). Strategy and Action in the Education Reform in Romania, Paideia,Bucharest.
  • Marga, A.(1998). The Reform of Education in 1999, National Agency Socrates, Alternative, Bucharest.
  • Marga, A. (2000). Education in Transition, Phare Universitas Program, Paideia, Bucharest.
  • Ministry of Education and Research, Romania – www.edu.ro
  • Nicolescu, L. (2001). The contribution of the education to the transition towards the market economy: Romanian case. in ed. Kari
  • Novak, C., Jigau M., Brancoveanu R., Iosifescu, S & Badescu M. (1998). White book of education in Romania, Romanian Ministry of Education, Bucharest. OECD, (2000). Reviews of National Policies for Education, Romania.
  • Offe, C. (1997). Varieties of Transition. The Eastern European and East German Experience, Cambridge: MIT Press.