The Romanian Schooling System: Teaching Their Children
Education is accorded a high degree of importance in the social fabric of Romania. Respect for the educated and the intellectual has been a tradition down the ages. Even the tiniest village in every remote corner of Romania kept important positions like the priest, the teacher and the mayor reserved for the educated. This tradition of holding the educated ones in high esteem continues to the present day as well. And the current education system is quite competitive for students and demanding for teachers.
Nursery school in Romania starts at the age of three. It can continue up to the age of six or seven, depending on the aptitude of the student. School time is usually from 8 a.m. till 12 noon. The children are taught to draw and to colour, are told a lot of stories and the teachers make sure that the little students comprehend what they are being taught.
Apart from all these things, the children are taught how to sing and dance, and how to be useful with their hands. They learn crafts like making paper boats and snowflakes and other things related to their immediate environment. Depending upon the profile of the school, they are also taught a foreign language like English, French or German apart from their mother tongue.
Once the students finish nursery education, they are tested by the primary schools they are going to go to. Primary education begins at the age of six or seven and continues till the students are ten or eleven years old. In primary schools too, school hours range from 8 in the morning till 12 noon. Children are not required to lunch at school, but are allowed to bring some light snacks like a sandwich from home. They are also fed a roll and a small carton of milk at school.
The curriculum in primary school consists of the Romanian language, Mathematics, Biology, History, Geography, Religion, Art and Craft, Physical Education, and a foreign language like English. In all it is a comprehensive curriculum, making the young Romanian aware of a lot of things about the world. Students are evaluated with grades like “not satisfactory”, “satisfactory”, “good”, “very good”, etc.
The next stage is the lower secondary school, which also lasts for four years. There are two terms in an academic year, one before and one after the Christmas holidays. There are holidays for Easter too, and a long summer vacation stretches from the middle of June till the middle of September. New subjects that are introduced at this stage include Physics, Chemistry, and a second foreign language, for example French, German or Spanish. Two countrywide tests are held at the end of either term in the 7th grade, i.e. the third year into lower secondary school. The subjects covered in these tests are Mathematics and Romanian.
At the end of the 8th grade, the last and the most vital in lower secondary school, the students have to pass a final examination in Romanian, Mathematics and History or Geography. Their results in this test are graded in a scale of 1 to 10. Depending on how they fare in this test, they can go on to high school.
Besides, they have the possibility to fill in a form containing lists of high schools and choose one or more, but it depends on their average mark at the test if they are distributed, or not at the high school they want.
Students, who have not fared well in the exam, can get admitted to schools offering vocational training, where they are taught different skills. On finishing these schools, such students, who are not academically oriented, can acquire a qualification.
Finally, after four high school years, they have to pass the baccalaureate exam and then they can enter the university they want. In the education system in Romania, it is compulsory to attend school until the age of 16.
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