The Romanian educational system has been transformed to fit the communist pattern of total subordination to the needs of the state. Since 1948 the educational system has developed as a major force for increasing the general educational level of the population, for inculcating members of society with socialist ideals in support of the regime and its policies, and for providing technical specialists and skilled workers for the nation's labor force. Modifications and adjustments in the system have taken place periodically, but such changes have largely reflected a shift in emphasis among these major objectives rather than any change in basic educational principles.

Considerable progress has been made in the educational field since the end of World War II. An intensive campaign to eradicate illiteracy was undertaken and, according to the government, was successfully concluded by 1958. The number of schools was significantly increased, as were student enrollments throughout the system, although in 1972 the number of students continuing their education beyond the primary level was still proportionately low. The growth of the school structure was further indicated by the successive extension of the period of compulsory education from four years in 1948 to ten in 1968. Full enrollment under the ten-year program, however, was not expected to be achieved before 1973.

To meet the demands for skilled and semiskilled industrial and agricultural workers, the educational system was gradually transformed, heavy emphasis being placed on scientific and technical programs and on vocational training. The most recent reforms, promulgated in 1968, not only reinforced education to meet national economic requirements but also placed renewed stress on the need for increased ideological and political training of the country's youth as a prime element in the successful development of the Romanian socialist state.

Despite the progress achieved in producing a disciplined work force, which benefits the country's economic development, the educational system continued to show basic limitations and shortcomings. Overspecialization and excessive student workloads served to limit the effectiveness and efficiency of secondary and higher schools. Furthermore, the constant effort to expand the mass base of the system, although achieving uniform and satisfactory results by communist standards, lowered the quality of education and sacrificed individual creativity.

BACKGROUND

The educational history of Romania has followed closely the political development of the country. The earliest educational institutions were established in the principalities of Walachia and Moldavia during the sixteenth century and served as the basis of the first system of public education, which became operative in 1832. The unification of the principalities in 1859 led to the adoption of the Educational Act of 1864, which established the principle of free and compulsory education, "where schools were available," under state supervision. Despite the legal provisions for an adequate school system, however, administrative and financial limitations kept the number of schools small and pupil enrollment low.

Little progress was made in improving the scope and substance of public education until the latter half of the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth. Beginning in 1893, the country's educational process underwent extensive reorganization: the structure and functions of elementary and normal schools were revised, the curricula of secondary schools and institutions of higher education were revamped, and the position of vocational training in the system was strengthened. Although these advances served to improve the quality of education then available, the number of state-supported schools continued to be low.

Romania's territorial acquisitions after World War I almost tripled its population and added greatly to the problems of public education. Educators considered the system deficient in many respects through the 1930s and the mid-1940s, but they succeeded in achieving considerable uniformity among the school programs at the various educational levels and, in the main, imparted a basic general education to the majority of pupils who completed courses through the secondary school level.

Precommunist Education

The educational system that had evolved in precommunist Romania was operated largely, but not exclusively, by the state and reflected the traditional European order of the times, in which the socially and economically privileged classes were the chief recipients of the benefits of education. Only a limited number of children of the peasantry received more than the four years of elementary education required by the state, and both they and the children of the urban lower classes were discouraged from going on to secondary schools either by the lack of sufficient institutions or by the inability of their parents to pay tuition fees beyond the compulsory level. The public, state-supported system administered by the Ministry of Education consisted of kindergartens, elementary schools, secondary schools, vocational schools, and institutions of higher learning. Academic standards were generally high, and advancement was based primarily on scholastic merit.

Kindergartens were open to children between the ages of five and seven in both state and private schools. No specific subjects were taught and, although theoretically compulsory, attendance was seldom enforced. Attendance records for the 1929-38 period indicated that only approximately 13 percent of all eligible children attended public kindergartens and that fewer than 1.5 percent were enrolled in private ones.

The seven-year elementary school system, four years of which were theoretically compulsory, comprised two types of institutions for children between the ages of seven and fourteen: four-year schools for pupils preparing for secondary schools and seven-year schools for students terminating their education at the elementary level. Elementary education was free except in private schools and, although attendance was supposedly mandatory, enrollments before 1940 averaged less than 75 percent of all children of elementary school age.

Curricular requirements were demanding at this level, particularly in the four-year primary schools. All students studied the Romanian language, literature, history, geography, and natural sciences, in addition to participating in physical education classes and handicraft programs. In the seven-year schools the curriculum during the last three years also included a variety of vocational subjects.

Four types of educational institutions made up the secondary school system: lyceums, primarily preparatory schools for universities; teacher training schools; theological schools; and trade schools. Most of these institutions were public, and each type offered an eight-year course with varying degrees of specialization. Attendance was generally limited to children of the landed aristocracy and the urban upper class. All subjects, even those of a vocational nature, were taught on a theoretical basis. The general curricula in the lyceums included the Romanian language, history, literature, the physical sciences, mathematics, and music. Before being accepted in a university, all graduates of lyceums were required to have passed the baccalaureate, a special comprehensive examination given after all graduation requirements had been met.

The theological schools, also state supported, trained priests in the different faiths; the teacher training schools trained kindergarten and elementary school teachers; and the trade schools prepared students for work in business and commercial concerns. No qualifying examinations were given to graduates of theological, teacher training, or trade schools, since none were eligible for admission to higher level schools. Enrollment throughout the secondary schools was also low; statistics show that over the 1928-39 period less than 6 percent of the total number of students enrolled in elementary schools entered a secondary school after completing four years of compulsory elementary education.

Higher education in precommunist Romania was centered in four universities; two polytechnical institutes; and a limited number of academies specializing in architecture, the arts, physical education, agronomy, and higher commercial and industrial studies. All academic disciplines could be pursued at one or another of these various institutions, and three to seven years were required to obtain the basic university degree. An additional two to four years of study and research were required for the awarding of an advanced degree. The number of students attending higher institutions was proportionately small, and the number receiving the basic degree was even smaller.

Communist Educational Policies

After communist seizure of the government in 1948, the educational system was reoriented away from basic French educational concepts toward those based on the communist philosophy as developed in the Soviet Union. The ultimate objective of the reformed system was to make education available to as large a segment of the population as possible, with a view to transforming the citizenry into a cohesive and effective element for the building of a socialist society along Marxist-Leninist lines. The new system was specifically designed to be tightly controlled, uniform in operation and administration, exclusively secular and public, and fully coordinated with the labor needs of the planned economy.

The August 1948 decree revamping education spelled out in detail the specific policies and methods that would be employed in meeting the new educational goals. Foremost among the basic aims were the eradication of illiteracy and the broadening of the educational base to include all children of school age. Other specific goals of the educational process included: inculcating all youth with the ideological spirit of so-called popular democracy; guiding the use of leisure time by organizing outside activities for students; educating, on a "scientific" basis, the higher and lower cadres of specialists needed for the construction of all aspects of a socialist society; and training the teachers necessary for the proper functioning of the educational system.

Although these policies have been adjusted and modified and certain aspects have received additional emphasis at particular times, they have been retained as the basic guidelines for Romanian public education. The implementation of these policies since 1948 has resulted in the restructuring of the school system, the expansion of educational facilities, the recasting of the content of curricula and courses, and a major reorganization of the teaching profession, heavy stress being placed on teachers as indoctrinators as well as educators.

EDUCATIONAL REFORMS SINCE 1948

Although the educational reform law of August 1948 has been amended many times, most of the changes that have taken place have not materially altered the basic pattern of communist education that the law established but rather have reflected the vicissitudes of Romanian political life and the country's economic needs. Almost all changes in the educational process have served to implement the original concept that the role of public education is primarily to serve as a vital instrument in the creation of an industrialized society subservient to the interests of the state.

The initial changes introduced by the Communists immediately after coming to power in 1948 affected the content more than the form of education. The public school structure was left virtually unchanged except for the addition of those religious and private educational facilities that had been expropriated by the government. An extensive purge of all categories of teachers was undertaken, and a number of special schools were set up for the political indoctrination of those retained in the system. In addition, the student bodies, particularly in the schools of higher learning, were carefully sifted, and adjustments were made in the availability of courses and in the size of classes in order to redirect students into selected fields of study.

As a further means of control the regime organized students into associations comparable to communist labor unions. The groups included the Union of Student Associations, the Union of Communist Youth, and the Pioneers Organization. The activities of these organizations affected students at all levels and consisted of planned and supervised extracurricular programs. Among the activities scheduled were special exhibitions, sports events, meetings, lectures, and competitions based on ideological themes.

By the late 1950s the reorganization of the educational process along communist lines was virtually completed, and some expansion of facilities had taken place. Curricular requirements had been codified; new textbooks had been written, printed, and introduced throughout the system; new teaching methods were in general use; and the revised teacher training program had produced adequate numbers of "reliable" teachers at all school levels. Additional schools for minority groups had been built, and overall progress throughout the system was sufficient to permit the extension of the compulsory system of education from four to seven years beginning with the 1958/59 school year.

In the early 1960s demands for skilled and semiskilled agricultural and industrial workers brought further changes in the educational system. A renewed general emphasis was placed on polytechnical education, and a period of practical on-the-job training before entering permanent employment was instituted for all secondary technical school graduates. The achievement of this new objective required a further extension of the compulsory education period to eight years and a relative deemphasis of the amount of class time allocated to the humanities and other purely academic subjects.

In 1968 a new educational law was enacted that had far-reaching consequences, but by late 1971 it had not yet been fully implemented. Changes provided for under this law were intended to improve the general quality of education at all levels and to relate education more closely to expanding technological and industrial needs. In addition, the law instituted new measures that gave stronger impetus to the political indoctrination of youth in order to counteract student unrest and dissatisfaction as well as the spread of Western liberalism (see ch. 9).

Specific modifications to be made in the system under the 1968 law included the extension of compulsory education to ten years, the establishment of additional specialized secondary schools, the introduction of more practical classroom work on vocational and technical subjects, closer coordination and supervision of extracurricular projects by the Union of Communist Youth, and the requirement that teachers include a greater number of political and ideological themes in all social science courses. The importance attached to the political aspects of the new program by the regime was indicated by the creation, in July 1971, of the new post of first deputy minister of education with the specific function of expanding and supervising all ideological indoctrination throughout the school system.

LITERACY

Before World War II the literacy rate in Romania ranked among the lowest in Europe. In 1930, at the time of the first official census, more than 38 percent of the population over seven years of age were considered illiterate—50 percent of the women and over 25 percent of the men in the entire population of about 18 million were unable to read or write. In rural areas, where most of the population lived, it was generally considered that the illiteracy rate was even higher. Much of the lack of literacy could be attributed to the fact that children of school age either were not enrolled in school or, if they were enrolled, did not attend classes regularly. There was also a fairly large percentage of children who left school without completing their studies or, having completed only the mandatory first four grades, relapsed into illiteracy in adult life.

Although the proportion of literacy had been increased somewhat by the time the Communists came to power, it was still low. The emphasis given to expanded educational opportunities by the party and government between 1948 and 1956 brought a substantial decline in the number of illiterates. Classes were organized throughout the country by the various people's councils, and a determined campaign was undertaken to increase enrollment. Most of these courses lasted two years and were conducted on a weekly basis by both regular teachers and literate volunteers; successful completion was officially considered equivalent to graduation from a four-year elementary school.

As a result of these increased efforts, the 1956 census showed an overall increase in the literacy rate to about 90 percent. According to this census the greatest proportion of illiterates was still to be found in the rural areas and among women. Literacy courses were continued until late 1958, when the government officially declared that illiteracy had been eliminated. Despite this authoritative statement, Western demographers consider that, although illiteracy has been significantly reduced, it probably still exists among older segments of the population, particularly in remote areas of the country.

THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

In early 1972 the public education system included all levels of instruction from preschool or kindergarten through elementary, secondary, and higher polytechnical schools and universities (see fig. 6). At the beginning of the 1971/72 academic year approximately 4.5 million students were enrolled in the more than 16,000 schools operated throughout the system. Kindergartens and nurseries were organized on a voluntary basis, but attendance at elementary school and through the first two years of secondary school was compulsory for students between the ages of six and sixteen. Attendance at higher level institutions was voluntary, but admission was subject to selective procedures that included heavy emphasis on political reliability as well as scholastic achievement.

All schools were state owned, and tuition, textbooks, and other classroom materials were free at all levels. An extensive system of scholarships existed, sponsored by government agencies, labor unions, state enterprises, and mass organizations. These scholarships were awarded on a selective basis to students in both secondary and higher schools to help defray transportation costs, living costs, and recreational expenses. The state also operated hostels, low-cost boardinghouses, child care centers, dining halls, and canteens for students above the elementary level. A planned increase in the number of these facilities, however, had not been achieved, and the authorities were under pressure to both improve and expand them.

The educational system, in general, stressed technical, political, and economic subjects; and the classroom work in the elementary and secondary schools was underscored by the Pioneers Organization, whose extracurricular activities were considered an integral part of the educational program. The Union of Communist Youth and the Union of Student Associations performed similar functions in the higher schools. The academic year ran from October to September, and elementary and secondary classes ended at the end of May. At the university level all instruction was divided into two semesters, running respectively from October 1 to January 14 and from February 15 to June 30. The grading system at all levels utilized numbers from a high of ten to a low of one, five being the minimal passing grade.

Note.—Attendance is compulsary through grade X.

Figure 6. Romania, Structure of Education, 1972.