Primary schools in Romanian cities

[Loveglee]

Hi, I’m a teacher and my class are interested in what it’s like to study in different countries. Does anyone have the low down on Romanian Primary schools, especially those in cities (we live in a city). All google comes up with are private, international schools, rather than Romanian Public schools.

My info is a little out of date as I did live in Romania for three years but it is a few years back now. My children were not school age so didn't have any dealings with the public school system but certainly back then, the state school system was pretty creaky.

E.g. teacher pay is pretty low, so teachers in the state system feel quite underappreciated. We had a Romanian language teacher who was a former state primary teacher who had quit because pay and conditions were so bad.

I think class sizes are pretty big, at state nursery this was certainly the case with up to 40 kids per teacher.

Romanian school have very long holidays - if I remember correctly about three months off in the summer. In Bucharest there is a proliferation of private and /or English language schools and you will find not only foreigners attending those but also well-off Romanians who want a better education for their children.

One thing that struck me about Romania was the situation for the Roma children. School is compulsory in Romania of course, but this is apparently less rigidly enforced with Roma children as not all Romanians want to improve the education levels of this suppressed minority. I heard if you drove through a Roma village on the outskirts of a big town, you would see children playing outside during school hours.

Our Romanian teacher told us that school classes were also quite segregated with Roma children in their own classes and given the worse teachers.

To me it wasn't an education system that felt particularly 'EU-level' and it didn't fill me with great optimism.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for replying! That’s terrible that segregation still exists. I think my class will be interested in the long holidays though😱

Apparently the Roma are the group of Romanians who have fared worst under the end of Communism and their standard of living has not significantly changed.

I'm looking to find a primary school that will take students in the UK into theirs and how to get a school primary in Romania near to fagaras end if possible , there is nothing I can see online and have problems finding a school to ask how UK kids can integrate into Romanian schools primary areas even though they don't know Romanian language yet is anyone there can help me sort this out what to do as a parent with two UK kids in full time education and then possible transfer to a Romanian primary school and how please it's so confusing for me thanks

In reply u didn't use he state side did u do kindergarten then as I see Here is a cost to this part I am needing a primary school near to fagaras

Ladybird - if you are on FB, ask your question on one of the Romania expat pages.

I don't know the answer to your question. Fagaras is in a rural area - chances are they haven't much experience of integrating non-Romanian speaking children. You will probably have to pay for some private tuition to get your kids up to scratch, depending on how old they are, although if they are kindergarten/young primary age, they will probably pick up the language quite quickly.

Don't expect the schools and the facilities to be up to UK standard. It might be worthwhile paying (if there are private schools in Fagaras) to get a better standard.

Hi Ladybird - not sure if your question was for me. I used a private nursery in a city much larger than Fagaras and it was very different to Western Europe. I think you will be shocked by state schools in Fagaras and I think if it is a short-term move, your children will find it hard to return to the UK system. How old are they? Is your move permanent? Why are you moving? I don't know your circumstances but I would be very hesitant (understatement of the year) to put my kids into state education in rural Romania.
As to how to organise it, I suspect you will need to rock up there with paperwork and turn up at some local council offices and battle Romanian bureaucracy involving copious stamping of paperwork with the round and the rectangular stamps. I don't think it will be easy to organise this online. Or speak to the Romanian Embassy in the UK and seek their advice. Good luck - I was very jaded by Romania by the time I left.

I live in a non-UK country that is pretty good at integrating foreigners that don't speak the local lingo and still they find it very hard to proceed through school. I feel Romania will be sink or swim with very little support for you and your kids.

As someone with a family member who transitioned their children back into the Romanian system after being born abroad I know it was extremely difficult for the children.