Transcript ROMANIAN SCHOOL SYSTEM - La Casa degli Insegnanti

ROMANIAN SCHOOL
SYSTEM
2009
PROF. MARIA EUZEFINA DRAGOMIR
ROMANIAN SCHOOL SYSTEM
• According to the Law on Education adopted in 1995, the
Romanian Educational System is regulated by the
Ministry of Education and Research
Each level has its own form of organization and is
subject to different legislation:
• Kindergarten is optional between 3 and 6 years old.
• Schooling starts at age 6 (sometimes 7 ), and is
compulsory until the 10th grade (which usually
corresponds to the age of 17 or 16).
ROMANIAN SCHOOL SYSTEM
– Primary school comprises two 4-grade
periods:
• Elementary school (Şcoala Primară) —
grades I to IV
• Gymnasium (Gimnaziu) — grades V to VIII
– High school (Liceu) — four or five grades
(grades IX to XII/XIII)
– Vocational education (Învăţământ profesional
şi tehnic), which can prepare students for
careers that are based in manual or practical
activities.
ROMANIAN SCHOOL
SYSTEM
In 2009, some 4.4 million of the
population was enrolled in school:
• 650.000 in kindergarten
• 3.11 million (14% of population) in
primary and secondary level,
• 650.000 (3% of population) in
tertiary level (universities).
MINORITY , RELIGIOUS, AND PRIVATE
EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
• In districts where a linguistically-defined ethnic minority
exceeds 10% of the total population, free public
schooling is provided in that language: some of the
classes are taught in that language, and the language
and literature of the ethnic group is "the main language
studied", although Romanian remains compulsory.
There are classes (or whole schools, depending on the
existing population) for different linguistic minorities:
Hungarian, German, Romani, Polish, Ukrainian,
Serbian, Greek, Bulgarian, Czech, Turkish, Slovak,
Ukrainian and Russian.
• .
MINORITY , RELIGIOUS, AND PRIVATE
EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
• Since 1990, private and religious education at
all levels have been accepted and partially
funded by the state, through the Ministry of
Education and Research, provided they respect
some ministerial guidelines. Note that it is
impossible to open a school without following
the ministerial guidelines, programs and
curricula — so, in practice, all Romanian
schools get at least some limited funding from
the state
ROMANIAN SCHOOL SYSTEM
• Teacher-student relations are quite formal, but this formalism
has evolved in the past few years to a friendly, but respectful
relationship. This is due to the difference of mentality between
generations. While elder teachers usually demand respect and
are exigent, some younger ones, who better understand what it
is like to be in school, are friendly and understanding, rather
than strict.
• Teacher-Parent relations are also formal, with teachers calling
parents to school only for administrative issues at the beginning
of the semester, and for reading the marks at the end of the
semester.
Those teachers able to break the formalism and reach out
to the students are very highly regarded both by officials and by
students.
ROMANIAN SCHOOL SYSTEM
• Some schools have a uniform for the first four grades,
either the Ministry standardized issue or one of their
own design. Years V-VIII almost never have a school
uniform, nor any other dress code (but rulebooks
provide for basic decency).
• There is no school lunch in most schools, as school
either ends before lunch or starts after lunch, although
few schools have an after-school program, that may
include lunch.
ROMANIAN SCHOOL SYSTEM
• Both big city schools and rural schools may
organize clubs, but this is left to teachers. Dance
clubs, school sports, traditions and story telling,
drama, music, applied physics or chemistry and
even math clubs are popular, depending on the
teachers organizing. However, participation in
these clubs will not be mentioned on any diploma
or certificate, nor is it required. Contests between
schools exist, as well as nationwide academic
contests (known as Olimpiade — Olympiads) being
used to promote the best students
ROMANIAN SCHOOL
SYSTEM
• Additionally, many Physical Education teachers
organize intramural competitions and one or two day
trips to the mountains. Other teachers usually also
organize such trips and even whole holidays during
the summer - camps (tabere) - this being a Romanian
school tradition. However, field trips or research trips
are not common (one or two every year), and are
usually visits to museums or trips to natural habitats
of various animals or plants, to gather information for
a school
CURRICULUM IN ELEMENTARY
SCHOOLS
• The Romanian
curriculum is known as highly academic
but rigid. There are up to 15 compulsory subjects
(usually 8-13) and up to 5 optional subjects (usually 1
or 2).
For the duration of the elementary school, each
student must take:
• 8 years of mathematics, Romanian, music, art and
physical education
• up to 8 years of religion (any belief accepted, if a
teacher cannot be provided in school, a certificate from
any representative of the faith is accepted, if atheist or
agnostic, another subject must be taken)
• 6 years of geography and history,
CURRICULUM IN ELEMENTARY
SCHOOLS
• 7 or 8 years in the first foreign language (usually
English, French, or German)
• 3–4 years in the second foreign language (English,
French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian or
Portuguese)
• 3 years of Civic education, physics and biology
• 2 years of Chemistry,
• 2 years of IT although in many places this subject can
be optionally studied all the 8 years of elementary
schools).
HIGH SCHOOL
• There are five types of high schools in Romania
allowing access to university, based on the type of
education offered and their academic performance. All
of these allow for a high school diploma, access to the
Bacalaureat exam and therefore access to University
studies. the choice of high school curriculum does not
limit the choices for university. For example, a graduate
of a Mathematics-Computer Programming (Real)
Department of a National College may apply to a
Language Department of a University without any
problem.
ROMANIAN SCHOOL SYSTEM
• However, because of the subjects taught, the quality of
education and the requirements for admission in
universities, artificial barriers may appear: for example,
a graduate of a Humane and Social Studies
Department will find it very hard to apply for a
Mathematics Department at a University because the
admission exam for that university department requires
knowledge of calculus, a subject not taught in
Humanities and Social Studies. But there is no formal
limitation: if that student manages to understand
calculus, he or she is free to apply.
ROMANIAN SCHOOL SYSTEM
• High school enrolment is conditioned on passing the National Test
and participating in the National Computerized Repartition.
• High school studies are four years in length, two compulsory (9th
and 10th year), two non-compulsory (11th and 12th year). There are
no exams between the 10th and the 11 years. There is also a lower
frequency program taking 5 years for those wishing to attend high
school after abandoning at an earlier age.
• National College (Colegiu Naţional) — the most prestigious high
schools in Romania, most are each part of at least one international
program such as Cervantes, SOCRATES, Eurolikes etc. All are
"theoretical" (see below). Entering in one of these national colleges
is usually a sure ticket for a good university scholarship.
ROMANIAN SCHOOL
SYSTEM
• Military College (Colegiu Militar) — there are 3 high
schools administered by the Romanian Army. They are
considered extremely strict and legally they have the
same regime as army units, being considered military
installations with all students being members of the
army and abiding army rules and regulations
• Economic College or Technical College (Colegiu
Economic or Colegiu Tehnic) — A high school with
relatively good results and with an academic program
based on technical education or services
ROMANIAN SCHOOL SYSTEM
• Liceu (Standard High school) — An average high
school, providing one of the available academic
programs. The type of academic program offered is
added after this designation
• Grup Şcolar — A group of two schools — a high
school (usually offering academic programmes in the
field of technical or services education) and a Craft
and Trade School.
schools
• All the rules and regulations of elementary school apply
here. Uniforms are a local issue, according with each
school's policies. Few high schools have uniforms, and in
case they do, these are only used on special occasions
(such as festivities, conferences, sporting contests etc.).
Many high schools have their own radio stations, monthly or
biannual magazines etc.
• Unlike the elementary school, there are no clear guidelines
for marking. That means that typically grade averages are
not comparable betweens schools or even between
different teachers in the same school.
Romanian Baccalaureate
• High school students graduating from a
College, Liceu or Grup Şcolar must take
the National Baccalaureate Exam
(Examenul Naţional de Bacalaureat —
colloquially known as the bac).
• The Bacalaureat comprises 2 or 3 oral
examinations and 4 or 5 written
examinations, usually spanning on the
course of one and a half weeks in late June
and September. It is a highly centralized,
national exam. Usually the exam papers are
taken to a centralized marking facility,
sometimes even in another city, under
police guard
Romanian Baccalaureate
• Except for the languages exams, the subjects
are provided in any language desired by the
candidate (demands can be made "on the spot"
for a number of languages — Hungarian,
German and Romanian subjects are available in
all high schools nationwide, with other
languages in areas where the respective
language is spoken, while for other languages
the request must be filed alongside the
registration form, two months in advance).
Braille can also be provided.
Romanian Baccalaureate
• Each exam (Proba) is marked from 1 to 10 with 10
being the best, using two decimals for written exams
(e.g. 9.44 or 9.14 is a valid mark) and an integer for an
oral exam. Each exam is corrected and graded by two
separate correctors (no computers are involved, as this
is not a standardized test) agreeing on the mark based
on a nationwide guideline. The total mark for the
Bacalaureat is the arithmetic mean average of the six
or eight marks obtained (0.01 precision). To pass, a
student must obtain an average score of at 6
Romanian Baccalaureate
• The Baccalaureate is a requirement when enrolling in a
university, because, technically, without passing it, the
student is not a high school graduate, but, usually it
counts for almost nothing in the admission scores (in
most universities, 0-20% is the norm). In the best
possible situation, it makes up half of the total
university admission score, but only in the most
undesired departments of the small, backwater
universities. Given the extremely atypical Romanian
university admission system (usually another exam
making up for the rest of the process), these
percentages mean even less.
Teacher education:
Training of pre-primary and primary/basic school teachers
• Pre-primary teachers and primary school teachers are
trained in pedogogical high schools.
- Training of secondary school teachers
• Secondary-school teachers for lower secondary
education need a degree from short term higher
education and Secondary-school teachers for upper
secondary a degree from long term higher education.
All the above mentioned categories of teachers must
have completed the pedagogical module (during
university courses or at least 5 years after graduation)
and the special training programmes corresponding to
each qualification.
Specific concepts of the QUALITY ASSURANCE
system in Romania
• The quality of education is the total number of features
of a study program and of its provider, through which the
beneficiaries’ expectations, as well as quality standards
are assured.
• The assessment of educational quality is constituted by
the multi-criteria based examination of the extent to which
an organization providing education and its program reach
the reference standards.
Specific concepts of the QA system
in Romania
• When quality assessment is supplied by
the same organization providing education,
it turns into an internal assessment.
• When quality assessment is supplied by a
national or international agency, it turns
into an external assessment.
Quality assurance in education
• Quality assurance is realized through
a set of actions aiming at developing
the institutional ability to establish,
plan and implement study programs
which help beneficiaries confide in the
fact that the organization providing
education achieves all quality
standards.
Quality assurance in education …
• Quality assurance reflects the ability of an organization
providing education to offer learning programs, according to
the asserted standards and it is thus promoted so as to
lead to the ongoing improvement of educational quality.
• The improvement of educational quality requires ongoing
assessment, analysis and corrective action from the
organization providing education, based on selecting and
adapting the most suitable procedures, as well as on the
selection and implementation of the most relevant
reference standards.
QA Processes
Quality in education is assured through the following
processes:
• The planning and concrete realization of the expected results of
learning;
• Monitoring results;
• Internal assessment of results;
• External assessment of results;
• The ongoing improvement of results in education.
The components and processes of quality assurance and
the relationships between them differ according to
the following:
• The learning or qualification level, whichever the case may be;
• The type of organization that provides education;
• The type of study program.
The external assessment
of educational Quality
• Assessment of the institutional ability of
the organization providing education.
• Assessment of the educational efficiency
of the organization providing education.
• Assessment of quality management at the
institutional level.
• Assessment of the quality of offered
study programs.
The external assessment
of educational Quality
• Assessment of the accordance
between the internal evaluation and
the real situation.
• Comparative trans-institutional
assessment of the same type of study
program offered by different
organizations providing education.
ARACIS – ARACIP
• In order to undertake an external assessment of quality, two
agencies are established: Agenţia Română de Asigurare a
Calităţii în învăţământul Superior (The Romanian Agency for
Quality Assurance in Higher Education), ARACIS, and
Agenţia Română de Asigurare a Calităţii în învăţământul
Preuniversitar (The Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance
in Pre-University Education), ARACIP.
ARACIP is an independent public institution, of national interest,
which possesses juridical personality and its own budget. Its
location, internal structure and functioning rules and regulations
are established by the Government, as ARACIP suggested.
– ARACIP is a self-financing institution.
The internal assessment of quality –
Quality Assurance at institutional level
• At the level of each organization providing education in
Romania, a commission for quality assessment and
assurance is established .
• The organization providing education develops and
adopts the strategy and functioning rules of the
commission for quality assessment and assurance.
• The organization’s leader is directly responsible for the
quality of provided education.
• The commission for quality assessment and assurance
is made of 3 to 9 members. Its operational
management is assured by the organization’s leader or
by a designated coordinator.
The internal Quality Assurance
• After having obtained the temporary functioning
authorization, the organization that provides
education implements the mechanism of
internal quality assurance and writes reports
on the internal assessment of educational
quality which are sent each year to ARACIP
• After having received the accreditation, the
annual reports of internal quality
assessment are sent to ARACIP, answering the
agency request or its own initiative. It then asks
for a new external assessment.
INSIGHT INTO QA INSTITUTIONAL
PROCCESSES
high
SELF
EVALUATION
Level
of use
DIAGNOSTIC,
COMMUNICATIO
N
GOVERNANCE /
STRATEGY
QUALITY
CULTURE
low
low
Level of
implementation
OUTPUTS /
REPORTS
high
Quality culture
• External environment
– Socio-economic factors
– Educational policies
• Internal quality culture depend on the operating
methods in the institution
Long-term policies
Cooperative efforts and dialogue
Innovation
Identity
Culture of reflection
Self - evaluation
• self-evaluation is an institutional political
tool
– It reveals a picture of the institution: values,
ways of governance, visions of its mission
– It reflects the institutional operating
methods of the institution:
– The institution pays attention to
governance, discussion, strategic policies:
QA is a help
Reflections…
• Primary responsibility of quality lies with institution
≠ sole responsibility of the institution
• Links quality assurance - self-evaluation
– A good self-evaluation does not automatically
mean a high level of internal quality culture…
• Strategy for QA or strategy before QA?
– Is it possible to enhance Quality culture before
adopting a strategy in the institution ?
Reflections…
Transparency vs self-evaluation
– Shall HEIs reveal everything in a written
report?
• Does self-evaluation reveal the reality of an
institution?
– Is self-evaluation capable of addressing every
challenges met by the institutions?
•
Thank You very much for your attention !