Report: Almost 10% of Bucharest students go to private schools

About 8.5% of the total 241,000 school students in Bucharest attended private schools in the 2015 – 2016 school year, according to a report published by the Bucharest School Inspectorate and quoted by portalinvatamant.ro. The teaching staff in Bucharest totaled 16,662 on the same school year, with 20% of them being substitute, retired, and associated teachers, or teachers without the needed training, according to the same source. This translated in a number of 13,214 tenured teachers, and 2,155 substitute teachers. A total of 1,010 teachers were retired or associated staff, while 283 did not have the required education. The capital has the widest school network nationwide, with students attending Bucharest schools making up 10% of the Romanian preschool and school students. The largest group of students was enrolled in primary schools (79,059 students), followed by high schools (63,443 students), and secondary schools (55,016 students). In the 2015 – 2016 school year, the capital had 126 kindergartens, 171 secondary schools, and 50 high schools. Private educational institutions in Bucharest had 20,756 students enrolled in the 2015 – 2016 school year, and a teaching staff of 1,718, an auxiliary staff of 363, and non-teaching staff of 915. Most private kindergartens in Bucharest can be found in the capital’s District 3, while most private primary schools are located in the 3

rd

and 6

th

Districts. District 1 leads by the number of private secondary schools, while District 3, is first for the number of private high schools. According to the same report, out of 919 buildings meant to be used for public schools, only 37 have an authorization. The number of unauthorized buildings for which obtaining a safety authorization is compulsory stood at 544, while 338 buildings did not require authorization. Out of 220 buildings meant for private instruction, 203 did not have an authorization. Data from the Inspectorate show that only some 30 – 35% of the capital’s school students are currently learning in modern and safe spaces. When it comes to graduation rates, 91% of the 8th grade graduates passed the Romanian Language exam, and 82.7% passed the Math exam at the 2016 National Evaluation. Of the students who finished their high school studies in 2016, 80.7% passed the Baccalaureate exam in the June – July session of the exam. The Romanian-language report can be read here.