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Romania Secondary Education
Secondary education, of which two years were
compulsory,
allowed the students three options. The general secondary
schools
lasted four years and were geared toward preparing
students for the
university. These schools could concentrate on a specific
field of
study, such as economics or music or on a particular
foreign
language. Four- and five-year technological secondary
schools
trained technicians and industrial managers. Two- and
three-year
vocational high schools, extolled by the regime, trained
skilled
workers. Most primary school graduates attended vocational
schools.
Education at the secondary level clearly reflected a
technical
bias. Three years after the 1973 educational reforms, the
ratio of
general to technical and vocational schools was
reversed--from four
general to every one specialized school in 1973 to one
general to
four specialized schools in 1976. During the 1970s, the
number of
students enrolled in technical studies increased from
53,595 to
124,000. The trend toward vocationalism continued into the
1980s,
but general secondary schools continued to carry more
status,
despite official rhetoric and preferential treatment for
vocational
and technical schools. To combat popular bias favoring
intellectual
education, the leadership made a conscious effort to
incorporate
elements of vocational education into academic schools and
vice
versa.
In the late 1980s, the regime claimed that more than 40
percent
of graduates of specialized schools went on to higher
education.
But most peasant and worker families sent their children
for some
sort of vocational training, whereas the social and
political elite
secured a general secondary education and usually a
college degree
and a higher social niche for their offspring. This
restratification of the education system bred resentment
among the
working class and was troublesome for the regime's goal of
educational democratization.
Another major problem was the growth in credentialism
that in
turn created a greater demand for more post-secondary
education of
all types. But the occupations most necessary for economic
development were among the least sought, and the gap
between the
needs of the economy and the aspirations of young people
widened.
The majority of young Romanians wished to pursue higher
education,
even as education institutions were channeling students
into
production as skilled workers with specialized training.
Data as of July 1989
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