After the First World War, beside the confessional schools where the teaching was in the mother tongue, also schools of state and vocational schools operated, where the teaching languages were Romanian, as well as Hungarian or German.
In the villages the schools often operated in the buildings belonging to the church. The kindergarten groups of children were unfolding their activity in the same room with the pupils of the elementary school. It was quite common, that students of different grades were studying in the same room, and the schoolmaster was teaching all groups at the same time. Students didn’t have uniforms; they were wearing at school their traditional daily clothes.
The school objects were: slate-board, a cca. 18×25 cm square, wooden framed plate. The board was drawn with red parallel lines on one side, and with squares for arithmetic on the other one; the slate-pencil, a piece of sharp pen, used to scratch the board leaving white marks.
In primary school, students had 3 textbooks (reading, arithmetic and catechism) which they would carry at school in a bag made of linen, weaved in the loom. The attendance in school mostly depended on the field work, because children used to participate frequently to all household activities with their parents.
The subjects studied in high school were in accordance with the specialization of the school, but in most high schools were studied: Romanian, Hungarian, German, Latin, Religion, History, Geography, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Science.
Students were imposed a very severe discipline, and those who failed to fulfill the requirements were “painfully” punished: 6-8 rod strikes, 12 whip strikes or even they were lock-up for hours! DB
EDUCATION IN SATU MARE IN THE 20th CENTURY
A significant development of the educational system in the county of Satu Mare was made in the period between the two World Wars. The integration of the Romanian national state meant an increased development of the teaching in the Romanian language. German language teaching classes were reestablished at Beltiug, Ardud, Moftinu Mare, Ciumeşti, Cămin, Homorodu de Jos, Sâi between 1920–1935. At the same time, several elementary schools and the traditional high schools of the Calvinist and Catholic churches continued their activity in Hungarian language.
In Satu Mare were 10 high schools at the beginning of the 20th century: 3 for boys and 7 for girls. Two of which offered commercial, other two industrial and three theoretical specialization, while two institution was secondary school and one educated teachers. In Carei, among the others, a German High school was founded. The first high school of Satu Mare in Romanian language was “Mihai Eminescu” high school (the former royal Roman-Catholic high school), officially opened at 5th of October 1919.
The building of 124 primary schools and kindergartens between 1921 and 1940, led to the increasing rate of schooled children from 27.453 in the year 1920, up to 53.092 in 1940.
During the integration of Satu Mare in Hungary, from 1940 to 1944, the teaching in Romanian was almost completely suppressed, and many students had to take refuge in Romania in order to continue their studies.
A campaign of teaching the people was started at national level, in the years following 1945. The reform in education increased the number of institutions and led to the development of the infrastructure, the education becoming in accordance to the policy of the communist party the main support for the making of the “new man”. The number of students in the County of Satu Mare increased significantly in this period: 82.532 students in 1968; 98.997 students in 1975; 106.864 students in 1980. In the County of Satu Mare County 600 schools and kindergartens functioned in year 1979–1980: 12 was industrial high-school; 3 agro-industrial high-school; 1 high-school with specialization in Mathematics and Physics; 1 high-school in Economics and Administrative Law; 1 high-school in Philology and History; 1 pedagogical and 1 sanitary high-school; 133 primary schools with Hungarian section; 10 units with German section; 175 kindergarten with groups in Hungarian, and 11 with the teaching language in German; 1 high school with Hungarian language teaching, one section within the Industrial High school in Carei with teaching language in German. In 1972, a unit of the Polytechnic Institute of Cluj-Napoca was opened, for deputy-engineers. DB