Conference 2000Romania
A sketch of the parent-school
relationship in Romania
1.1
Background
Romania
is located in Central Europe with the arc of the
Carpathian mountains in the middle of the country and
the final section of the river Danube before the
Black Sea as a natural southern frontier. It has
frontiers with Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, the
Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.
This
position has, to some extent, defined the history and
evolution of the country. Romania has had strong
influences both from the West and the East. The
discovery of the Latin origin of the Romanian people
by the first Romanian students to visit universities
in the West, some 300 years ago, marked a turning
point in the development of education and culture. To
learn and to be educated and culture represented, in
the public eye, not only something to be proud of but
also a means to an elevated position in society. In
this context ‘Normal Schools’ appeared and
were developed for preparing individuals to teach at
primary and secondary level. These schools
contributed to the growth of an important echelon of
cultured people. This enabled a radical educational
reform to take place at the turn of the century
driven by the Minister for Education Spiru Haret. He
was a mathematician who studied for his doctorate in
Paris. He introduced a modern national education
system that held its own side by side with other
European countries in the twenties. Strongly
influenced by both the French and German education
this had a strong organisational structure, a
reformed curriculum as well as purpose built schools
and halls of residence many of which still house the
most prestigious schools in Romania. The best of the
teachers who were trained in this system gave birth
to an intellectual standard and a pride in schooling
among the educational elite, which survived at school
level, throughout the years of communism.
After
1947 the educational reform, which was largely a
direct import from Russia destroyed much of the good
that had been accumulated over the previous decades
and changed the scope of education: school and
universities were transformed into institutions for
ideological propaganda and misinformation. This
reform was designed to suppress Western values and
Romanian cultural and historical values and transform
educational institutions into a vehicle for promoting
those who supported the new communist government. The
catastrophic consequences of this included an
inversion of values, promotion of mediocrity, and
promoting obedience and reducing individual
responsibility, initiative and free choice.
Nowhere
more than in universities people of poor professional
quality, were allowed and encouraged to rise to
positions of status and power.
The
result was that the majority of intellectual people
as well as some other sections of society opposed
more or less directly the changes underway but for
the most part these individuals were eliminated or
subdued. In a short period the intellectual elite was
annihilated and replaced by people obedient to the
new communist social order. The system of
indoctrination was very efficient, such that, after a
time people began to believe in the claims of the
Party and State without engaging in any critical
analysis. As the same time the totalitarian system
infiltrated all levels of socio-political, civil and
private life and the individual became largely
dependent ton the wishes of a few privileged
individuals within the system.
The
destruction of cultural, moral and ethical values was
profound. Elements of learning, culture (and
implicitly education in the broad sense) dropped in
value and importance.
It is no
wonder that the changes that took place in Romania
after 1989 were slow. Romania needs to redevelop its
sense of history as well as moral and ethical values
but all of this requires a massive cultural
‘catching up’.
The
educational reform initiated by the Romanian
Government and Ministry of Education, together with
the World Bank after 1989, set out the basis for this
change. We can expect this to be slow and to take
many years. The principle difficulties arise from the
attitudes of the majority of the population and the
very broad front that changes need to embrace:
administration, organisational systems, resources,
the teaching process, the methods of evaluation, and
not least developing a spirit of democracy and
tolerance.
In this
context, the role and contribution of parents is
fundamental. Parents represent an enormous source of
inertia in the system not least because they make up
the majority of the population! They need to go
through a shift of attitude at one and the same time
with those directly involved in teaching and learning
in school. Of course the management teams in schools
and teachers also have at least one foot in the past.
If the introduction of new values and a new way of
thinking in children is challenging, bringing about
changes in adults is considerably more difficult. The
role of interaction between parents and school is
enormous; but up until now not very much has been
done to support this. Importantly, however there are
already legislative, structural elements in the
system which support this relationship. It remains
for more action to be taken especially at the local
level to promote effective communication
representation between parents and school.
2.1 Types
of schools
The
right to education is laid down in the 1991
Constitution. A Government decision in May 1990 set
out some elements of the school system including a
structure with eight years of primary and lower
secondary school followed by a cycle of four years up
to the age of 18. The new Education Act was passed in
July 1995. Universities control admission through
faculty-specific entrance examinations separate from
the school-leaving Baccalaureate exam taken at
the end of the four-year cycle in academic and
technical lyceu.
Subsequent
regulations have added detail regarding, for example,
the conditions and career progress of teachers and
national tests at the end of the eight years of
compulsory schooling. In 1998 a two-semester year was
introduced to replace three terms.
There
are four primary grades followed by gymnasiu
from grades 5 to 8. Approximately 5% of grade-eight
graduates leave school. Of the bulk who continue with
their schooling, 57% go to general or technical lyceu
and 38% go into vocational schools. However, since
only 60% of 14 year-olds are still regular school
attenders by the end of grade 8 (much less than the
pre 1989 level) the actual portions of the age group
entering the different schools are 34.2% into four
year lyceu and 22.8% into two and three-year
vocational schools. (1994-95 figures).
Technical
and vocational schooling, sometimes together with
academic secondary schooling, are usually offered on
a common campus referred to as a grup scolar.
Each of these schools specialises in one or two
technical areas, such as textiles or industrial
chemistry, reflecting local industry. In academic
high schools, the whole school may be characterised
by a profil (e.g. mathematics or languages),
and a particular class may have a profil (e.g.
natural sciences, humanities) whereby pupils in the
class have additional lessons in some subjects.
Two-year practical specialist industrial skills
programmes and evening courses for adults are also
offered by technical lyceu. A pedagogical
school in each region specialises in training future
primary school teachers. There are very few private
schools although the Waldorf approach has inspired
the setting up of some small independent primary
schools.
Higher
education is provided through some 60 public
universities, polytechnics and institutes as well as
an estimated 73 private institutions. Enrolment in
higher education increased by 71% between 1989 and
1990 and at an average rate of 18% per year between
1989 and 1994. Estimates are for the total number to
level off, at 285,000 by the year 2000.
3.1 The
parental role - in legislation
Legislation
which impacts on the school-parent relationship
includes: the Romanian Constitution, The Education
Act 1995, Regulations which augment the Education
Act.
Parents
are also accustomed to attending ceremonies at the
beginning and end of the school year at least
throughout the primary cycle and they take great
pride if their child is one of the third or so of the
class that receives an award of prize. Most parents
show great interest in the marks that their child is
awarded at the end of a semester and may use
punishments or rewards to try to improve these.
Parents are also used to paying for additional
private lessons in order to help their child catch up
and sometimes to maintain a level of performance in
subjects in which the pupil is strong or to prepare
for entrance examinations.
The
members of a school class stay together for all
subjects. These groups are reconstituted at the
beginning of each cycle and form a strong sense of
identity. It is quite usual for reunions of members
of a liceu class to be attended by most of the
class 20, 30 or 40 years after graduation from
secondary school. Diriginte, the teacher
responsible for a class gets to know quite well all
the teachers who teach the class and has no problem
remembering who are the appropriate teachers when
discussing school progress with a parent. The parents
of different pupils within a class also sometimes
form lasting friendships as meetings with the diriginte
are the principle point of contact between
parents and school.
The diriginte
has one lesson each week with the class for social
and health education as well as discussing particular
problems with pupils. Although before 1990 this time
was used for political indoctrination some teachers
are enthusiastic about this educational role while
others would prefer these lessons to be taught by a
specialist. The educational reform has included the
development of programmes and textbooks for civic
education. A number of non governmental organisations
including the Romanian, The Youth for Youth
Foundation and the United States Agency for
International Development have organised courses for
parents in some towns to support family, health and
civic education.
Many
teachers should be able to find time to increase the
amount of work that they do in these areas of
education including contact with the family. Although
secondary pupils currently have at least 30 hours of
lessons each week teachers only have to be in school
for 18 lessons of 50 minutes.
4.1
Weaknesses in parental participation
Despite
the positive factors mentioned above teachers and
parents are often dissatisfied with the relationship
between family and school. Parents complain that
school is not approachable and that it makes enormous
demands on their children, that their children have
too much to learn and that it costs them too much to
buy the necessary books and equipment. Teachers
complain that parents won’t come into school or
take any responsibility for supporting the education
of their children. Some parents positively encourage
the truancy of their children.
One
reason for a negative attitude towards school on the
part of some parents is that the curriculum continues
to be very theoretical and largely about fact
learning. Although the programmes of study and
textbooks up to the third year of gimnaziu
have been changed (1999) some subjects have become
even more overloaded. At a time when the cost of
living is increasing in Romania parents have to find
more money for their child’s school things. For
example text books which used to be provided for free
have to be purchased by parents and supplementary
pupil workbooks represent a new expense since 1990.
At the
same time poverty does not help parents to make space
and time for their child to work at home and often
puts a stress on the family which eclipses concern
and interest for the child’s education. Some
parents feel that schooling is no longer particularly
important because it may not help very much in
finding employment. Teachers, on the other hand, are
forced to take additional lessons at school or offer
private lessons so that they no longer have so much
time for extra-curricular activities and contact with
parents.
Teachers
generally consider the relationship with the family
as very important for preventing and ameliorating
problems in school as well as important part of
providing an education which goes beyond academic
subjects. Some have suggested that in a large school
there should be a deputy school director responsible
for these matters.
With
some 2 parents for every 1000 pupils represented on
the Administrative Council of the school and little
contact between these and other parents, the parental
body is not effectively represented. Although there
are schools where parents have become involved in a
variety of activities for improving the buildings and
facilities there are few organised activities which
enable parents to take an active part.
Since a
large proportion of young people go through the
university system teaching practice also represents
an opportunity to educate future parents as partners
in their child’s schooling. These future parents
may learn the importance of reading with their
children and encouraging them to pursuit interests.
A
broader part of the educational activities of the
teacher should be considered to be his or her
professional duty and obligation beyond the subject
lessons he or she teaches. The pastoral dimension to
the interaction between teacher and parent and
between the teacher and pupil demands time which the
teacher often does not have because he or she has an
overloaded timetable or is used to being largely free
of school responsibilities outside the delivery of
his teaching timetable.
It is
clear that a rethinking and restructuring of the
whole educational process in all its dimensions, is
currently in progress in Romania. It is very
difficult, though, to overcome attitudes of people
and to address the need to change every component of
the education system at once.
Prof
Mircea V Rusu
Acknowledgements
I am
very grateful to William Lindsay of Strathclyde
University, Christopher Clark and teachers on my
Physics in-service training course at Casa Corpului
Didactic in Bucharest this year (1998-99) who
contributed to interesting and illuminating
discussion around the subject of this paper.
Bibliography
The
Romanian Constitution
Education
Act July 1996
The Law
and regulations for the organisation and function of lyceu
(law 84/1005)
The
White Book on Education, ISE, Bucharest, 1995
Pilot
project on Regional Corporation in reforming Higher
Education (EC/PHARE)
"Secondary
Education Systems in Phare Countries: Survey and
Project Proposals" OECD/GD (96) 1 Paris 1996
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