ROMANIA

CONTRASTING HIGH SCHOOLS IN ROMANIA AND THE U.S.

By Irina -Andreea Coste

The education program in high schools covers a fundamental role in the development of American and Romanian students. Several aspects are identical, while other aspects are different like teachers, eating habits and campus.

First, in contrast with America, in Romanian high school classes, the students have a diriginte or head teacher, that is a professor who coordinates them for four years. The diriginte has an extremely important role in training the students. A good diriginte is the one who succeeds in conducting classes, establishing certain connection with his students, and offering them education support, counseling and even professional guidance.

Second, in Romanian high schools there isn’t cafeteria like there is in America, where students go and eat their lunch. In Romania, the students bring to school their lunch with homemade food, and they eat lunch during the small breaks that they have between classes. The student’s class hours are 45 minutes with 5-minutes breaks.

Finally, there are different Romanian and American high school campus systems. In Romania, the campus has dormitories next to the high school, where students live three to four years until they finish high school. The dormitories are divided for girls and boys; they are never mixed. Every big city in Romania has dormitories for students who come from small cities where there aren’t any high schools. The campus system helps students to continue their schooling and finish it. In contrast, American dormitories are almost exclusively dedicated to college or university students. No matter how many similarities or difference there are between Romanian and American high schools, it is important that students go to school and learn.