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.