20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

Romanian schools in the Balkan Peninsula during the 20 th century 789In 1924, upon the request of the Romanian community in Sofia, theMinistry of Public Instruction authorized the establishment of a secondaryschool near the Romanian primary one in that locality. In 1934, throughoutthe Order no. 173051, Romanian secondary school was converted intothe Romanian Institute of Sofia. The Romanian state paid to the architectN. Torbu the sum of 2,096,000 leva to build the institute. 65 The Director ofthe Institute, Professor P. Caraman, outlined in a memorial from 1935 thata great number of Romanian students from Bulgaria wanted to join the 5 thclass of high school, but the institute could not accept them all. The Directorstated that the grant received from the Ministry of Public Education, ofonly 5,000 lei for textbooks was inadequate, because although the studentsof the high school were skilled, they came from poor families and heconcluded "... If the Romanian state does not give them scholarships, theycannot come to learn in Romanian language, and if they do not give thembooks they cannot buy them ". 66 The Minister of Romania in Sofia, VasileStoica has also intervened with the Ministry of Public Education, in 1934and obtained 30 scholarships of 750 lei each per month, for the instituteand applied to somebody for the advertising right of the high school inBulgaria. The high school did not get this right neither in 1944 and itsgraduates could not join, due to this, the University of Sofia.Besides the Romanian Institute in Sofia, a kindergarten and a primaryschool operated. Gradually, throughout the efforts of school teachers andsupported by the Ministry of Public Education in Romania within highschool had been set up natural sciences, physics and chemistry laboratoriesand a library with 6,000 volumes. 67Historian Constantin Velichi, a professor of the Institute, emphasizedin a memorial issued on 1944 that this library was attended not only by theRomanians but also by other students from University of Sofia. Due to thebombardments within the II nd World War, the Institute was temporarilymoved to Giumaia, where it continued its courses. The Romanian statefinanced it in the school year 1944-1945 by 2,800,000 lei. 68The Romanian primary school of Giumaia, depopulated after theyielding of Cadrilater (1940), by the emigration of Romanians, it had 11pupils in the school year 1943-1944, and in the school year 1944-1945, 4pupils. The principal of this school, Radu Preda showed that he could nottake any summer courses in Cecaliţa and Argaci "... because these regions65Ibidem, file 1221/1938, f. 206.66Ibidem, file 788/1935, f. 214.67Ibidem, file 4336/1945, f. 14.68Ibidem, file 1528/1944, f. 9-10.