Hello, everyone! ❤
It’s been quite long since I have written the last episode of the Romanian Culture series on this blog. Therefore, it is time for a new episode after I found this article which presents a short history about school uniforms. This article is written in Romanian and inspired by it I have decided to present a short history about school uniforms in Romania. Yes, in Romanian schools, just like in Japan, students used to wear uniforms. But, let’s start from the beginning. 😀
The school uniform was introduced in Romania for the first time in year 1897. The first Romanian students to wear a school uniform were from the city of Turnu Severin, somewhere in the Southwest Romania. The idea belonged to Theodor Costescu member of the Romanian Academy (an institution from Romania that gathers all the Romanian scientists and artists) and a teacher with a 40 year old career. Theodor Cotescu was also the principal of “Traian” High School. The idea of wearing uniforms in schools started to spread in Romania by royal decree after the first implementation. In 1906, Spiru Haret, the minister of education at that time, made the uniforms in Romanian schools mandatory.
Romanian girls in school uniforms from 1920s.
Before the communist times, in Romania, wearing your school’s uniform was something to be proud of. Every High School used to have its own logo on the uniform and this way everyone knew from which school the student came from.
After 1948, the communist regime installed itself in Romania and the pride of wearing a school uniform changed its meaning. During communist times, the school unform regulations from Romania became stricter. The students were not aloud to participate in classes without the school uniform. Each school uniform had to have the record number and the name of the institution where the student was attending sewed on it for identification.
The clothes and accessories banned in the communist Romanian schools were:
- High heeled shoes.
- Thin stockings
- Sarafans above the knee.
- Jewelries
- Make-up.
The elementary school girls had to wear their hair braided in pig tails and with no bangs. In case the girl had bangs, they had to be combed back and covered with a headband. High school girls were also required to wear their hair braided and a hearband. And in case some were wearing bangs, they had to comb them back and put a headband on.
The school uniforms during the communist Romania were different for each level of education as following:
Pre-school children
Romanian pre-school uniform for boys and girls from the communist times. via olx.ro
The pre-school children from communist Romania were called “Falcons of the Motherland” (“Soimii Patriei” in Romanian). The also had their own anthem. The pre-school uniform was made of the following pieces:
- Orange shirt
- Bleumarin overalls for boys
- Bleumarin skirt for girls.
- Red scarf with the edge decorated with Romania’s flag
- Bleumarin hat.
Elementary school children
Elementary school uniforms in communist Romania. via wikimedia.org
The elementary school children were called in the communist Romania “Pioneers” (“Pionieri” in Romanian). As you can see in the picture above, this uniform consisted in the following pieces:
- Bleumarin linen trousers/skirt
- Whie long sleeved shirt
- Pioneer hat: white for primary school students, black for secondary school students
- Red scarf, having the edges decorated with the Romanian flag. The scarf was thighten to the neck with a plastic accessory.
High school students
via forum.softpedia.com
The uniforms of the high school students from Romania can be seen in the above picture.
The outfit of the high school boys consisted of:
- Black suit
- Bleumarin shirt
- Dark coloured tie
The outfit of the high school girls was made of:
- Black sarafan with the length until below the knee.
- Blue shirt.
In the 1990s, the school uniforms in Romania became mandatory only at primary school level. At the rest of the school levels, the students are free to choose their outfits, but they still have to respect the dress code imposed by the school. So the current dress code imposed by the schools from Romania is:
- No piercings, no tattoos.
- No bright make-up.
- Girls are not aloud to wear revealing clothes.
- Boys are not aloud to wear sleeveless shirts, short trousers.
Also, nowdays, some Romanian schools are trying to bring back the uniforms. But this is quite hard to do that since students got used to the idea of choosing the outfits freely. My former high school managed to impose a so called uniform after I graduated. All students are now required to wear a blue jacket or vest (depending on season) which has the logo of the high school on it. The rest of the outfit is by student’s choice as long as it is a decent one and it has the jacket included. 😀
Thank you for reading and check the previous episodes of the series at the following page:
See you soon! 😉
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