Secondary Education
In late 1971 the necessary adjustments in the secondary school structure to accommodate the changeover from eight to ten years of compulsory education, as provided in the 1968 educational law, had not yet been completed. Although the extension of the program through the tenth grade began with the 1969/70 school year, shortages in funds, educational personnel, and facilities needed for higher student enrollment still existed and were not expected to be overcome until 1973. Secondary schools of all types numbered about 800 in 1970 and had an enrollment of about 370,000 students, roughly one-quarter of those of secondary school age.
General education secondary schools were of the college preparatory type, offered a four-year program, and had the most rigid entrance requirements. Students could select a course either in the humanities or in the natural sciences. The humanities course included such subjects as the Romanian language, a modern language, Latin, history, psychology and logic, and the history of literature. The science course covered mathematics through advanced algebra and probability theory, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and economic and political geography. Physical education and art were included in both courses, as was a subject called sociopolitical science, which covered elements of political economy, "scientific" socialism, and the history of the Communist Party and the labor movement in Romania.
After satisfactory completion of either course of study, all students were required to take the state baccalaureate examination, which qualified them for admission to higher schools or for district employment in middle-level positions in government or in industry. The number of entrants to schools of higher education was determined by the Ministry of Education each year in the light of the needs of the various sectors of the economy and of cultural life. Since the number of applicants usually exceeded the number of spaces allocated to each higher institution, competitive examinations were held, and candidates were selected on the basis of marks received and their general political attitude. Those who either failed the entrance examination—that is, did not receive marks sufficiently high to qualify for a university or polytechnical institute—or were considered politically apathetic were usually placed in short-term vocational courses to qualify them for employment as technicians.
Specialized secondary education was conducted in schools for the professional arts and in technical and teacher training schools. Studies in art schools lasted one or two years and consisted of combined courses of general subjects and specialized training in cultural activities, including various forms of art and drama. Technical schools specialized in industrial fields, agriculture and its associated subfields, forestry, socialist economics, and public health. Courses offered covered four or five years, the time depending on the area of specialization, and included basic courses in general education. Graduates in these technical fields were designated for employment in intermediate-level positions. Teacher training schools, also of four or five years' duration, trained students exclusively for teaching positions at the preschool and elementary levels.
Vocational secondary education encompassed the largest number of schools and was reported to enroll almost 50 percent of all secondary school students. These schools provided a one- or two-year program of combined general education and vocational training in all the trades necessary for the national economy. Vocational schools were usually organized at the locations of industrial enterprises and socialist cooperatives, and students were trained as skilled workers. Additional vocational training was also provided in the form of apprentice or on-the-job training to workers already employed in industrial installations. The bulk of these trainees had either completed the compulsory level of education and then dropped out of school or had failed to be selected in the competitive examination for entrance into secondary school. Vocational training had not kept pace with increasing industrialization, and in 1972 the demand for trained workers continued to surpass the supply (see ch. 16).
Higher Education
The system of higher education was comprised primarily of universities and polytechnical and specialized institutes, which in 1971 had a total enrollment of approximately 150,000 students. All institutions were under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Education and were geared to produce specialists in the humanities, in the social, natural, physical, and engineering sciences, and in education as needed to fill positions in government and all sectors of the economy. The schools of higher learning were generally headed by a rector (university) or a director (technical institute), who was appointed by the Ministry of Education for a period of four years.
Schools were divided into faculties, headed by deans; faculties, in turn, were divided into departments, each headed by a chairman. Collectively the rector, deans, chairmen, and certain other selected faculty members were grouped into an advisory council, which had broad authority in carrying out the government's educational policies, approving the faculty work programs, supervising the instruction carried out by the departments, and granting degrees at the graduate level.
Students were admitted to all higher schools on the basis of competitive examination and assigned to particular faculties according to government-directed areas of study. Most degree courses at universities required three to six years to complete, and those at polytechnical institutes, from two to three years. Medical and dental degrees were granted at institutes attached to universities and required six years of study.