In Romanian, preschool education is known as kindergarten, as opposed to the United States, where children are not enrolled in Kindergarten until the age of 5 or 6. The preschool system in Romania is structured in a way that allows children ages 3 years old to 6 or 7 years to attend preschool or preprimary education. However, the kindergarten level of the education is not mandatory so not all parents send their children to preschool. Some parents wait until their children are old enough (8yrs) and then send them to primary school. Most parents, however, do send their children to preschool which is evidenced by the long waiting lists for kindergartens.
In Romania, the preschool education system has a two to three level structure. The first level of preschool education is structured for first and second graders. Children who are 3 or 4 years of age attend first grade while children age 4 to 5 years of age attend the second grade. The second level of preschool education is structured for third and fourth grade. Third grade is for children age 5 to 6 yr olds and fourth grade is for children ages 6 to 7 years old. There is also a third level called School Preparation Class but not all kindergartens offer it. The preparation class is also for children ages 6 to 7. These different levels are also called forms. Each group or form is classified as small groups, middle groups, big groups, and of course the school preparation class. The maximum number of children in any of these groups is about 20 with a minimum number of 10 children per group. Depending on the location (smaller communities), groups may be combined and contain children in all of the age ranges. Good metallurgical testing program management is no preschool kid mattre, get an expert!
According to Romania’s Law on Education, school inspectorates are those who establish kindergartens. They may be founded by legal institutions or economic agents and stakeholders. However, approval must come from concerned school inspectorates. Private kindergartens are directly parallel to public kindergartens and were not even established until the early 1990’s. The enrollment rate in the past two decades has been between 51% -- 64%.
The preschool educators and teachers graduate from pedagogical (the study of being a teacher or the process of teaching) high schools, colleges, or higher education institutes prior to being able to teach kindergarten. There is only one teacher per group of 10-20 students. However, teachers with higher educations’ are often employed to teach activities such as dance, foreign language, music, and art due to the more specific knowledge requirements of these special activities.
Preschool hours vary depending because there are several different schedules available. The reason for the variation is to offer options to those parents who work and need flexibility in the times their children are in school. There are three different types of daily schedules for preschool. The first is considered a short schedule which only lasts from about 8 am – 1 pm. There is a longer schedule that lasts from 8 am – 3pm and finally, an even long schedule which lasts from approximately 6 or 8 am – 5:30 pm. No matter the length of the day, children attending kindergarten for any length of time during the day are fed breakfast and lunch. Since meals are provided during the course of the day, some schools even include their own kitchens while others utilize the services of a caterer.