Admission requirements and choice of ECEC setting

Ante-preschool education and care services (children aged under 3 years)

According to the provisions of the National Education Law 1/2011, the ante-preschool level of early childhood education and care (ECEC) is for children from birth to the age of 3 years.

The regulations in force (Government Decision No. 1252/2012) recommend enrolling children in ante-preschool education and care services after the age of 3 months. Children are usually enrolled in those services at the beginning of a school year; in special circumstances, they can be enrolled during the course of a school year. Enrolment is based on the order of applications submitted, within the limits of the places available and the approved enrolment plan. 

The procedures and criteria for establishing priority among children with regard to their enrolment are set by the management of the institution concerned in cooperation with the board of the institution. These procedures and criteria  are displayed in each ante-preschool education and care establishment.

It is forbidden to refuse to enrol children in institutions providing ECEC services based on discriminatory criteria related to race, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, social category, beliefs, gender, age, disability, non-contagious chronic disease, HIV infection or membership of a disadvantaged group. 

Usually, when enrolling children in ante-preschool education and care services, parents need to submit an application letter, a copy of the child’s birth certificate, copies of the parents’ / legal representative’s identity cards and, if the long-hours programme (10 hours) is requested, their employee certificates. A copy of the child's medical file, including a record of mandatory vaccinations/immunisations and any possible medical conditions, is required by the medical staff when the child enters the institution.

Preschool educational institutions (children aged 3-5/6 year olds) 

Children are enrolled in preschool education establishments from the age of 3 years. The enrolment process has two successive phases: re-enrolment (for those who attend the preschool education establishment in the current school year and will continue to attend it in the following school year) and the enrolment of children who are entering the system for the first time, based on the provisions of National Education Law 1/2011. All those provisions are included, annually, in a note published by the Ministry of Education indicating the period for enrolments (usually May to August) and offering a series of clarifications concerning the criteria and the transparency of the process. The note also refers to the digital platform for enrolment in preschool education and the specific procedure to be followed.

The timetable for re-enrolments and enrolments is set by the management of the institution and is displayed in the kindergarten. It may also be published on the institution's website, if there is one, and on the website of the school inspectorate.

In an institution receives more applications from parents for enrolling children in preschool education than the number of available places, general selection criteria and specific selection criteria are applied successively, as follows:

• the child is an orphan (cases in which a child is from a children’s home / a child centre / foster care are considered in the same way as cases in which children have been orphaned);

• one of the child's parents is deceased;

• the child has a sibling enrolled in that institution;

• the child has a certain degree of disability.

If there are more applications from parents than the number of available places, children are assigned to a place based on the decreasing order of general selection criteria accumulated by each child: the children meeting three of the criteria above are assigned first, then children who meet two criteria and, finally, children meeting only one of the above criteria.

The specific selection criteria are developed by each preschool educational establishment or each school with groups of preschoolers. The criteria are approved by the board of the institution and endorsed by the legal adviser of the county/Bucharest school inspectorate. The institution must indicate, for its specific criteria, the supporting documents that parents need to submit at the time of filling in / validating the standard application. These criteria must not be discriminatory and may not include any pre-enrolment lists made before the timetable for enrolment in preschool education.

Usually, when enrolling children in preschool educational institutions, parents need to submit an application, a copy of the child’s birth certificate, copies of the parents’ / legal representative’s identity cards and, if the long-hours programme (10 hours) is requested, their employee certificates. A copy of the child's medical file, including the record of mandatory vaccinations/immunisations and any possible medical conditions, is required by the medical staff when the child enters the institution.

Although there is a concentration of ECEC services in urban areas and, sometimes, there are situations when parents wishing to enrol their child in a (public) crèche or kindergarten are put on a waiting list until a place becomes available, there is still no clear, nationally shaped policy for guaranteeing a place for every child from birth to the age of 6 years in ECEC.

Group size and child-staff ratios

Group types

In ECEC (crèches and kindergartens), children are usually organised based on age groups: the junior group, the middle group, and the senior group.

Children aged under 3 years are organised in crèches as follows:

• the junior group (for children aged between 3 months and 1 year)

• the middle group (for children aged 1 - 2 years)

• the senior group (for children aged 2 - 3 years).

In kindergartens, preschoolers are organised as follows:

• the junior group (for children aged 3 - 4 years)

• the middle group (for children aged 4 - 5 years)

• the senior group (for children aged 5 - 6 years).

According to the legal provisions in force, 2 year-olds enrolled in kindergartens may be organised as follows:

• they can form a junior group, only for 2 year-olds, if the number of children aged 2 years is sufficient;

• they can be included in a junior group, with 3 year-olds, if it is not possible to establish a group of only 2 year-olds.

It is also possible to establish heterogeneous groups in ECEC especially where it is not possible to establish groups reaching the maximum number of children permitted, where the population of young children is small, where there are siblings who cannot be separated, etc.

Child-staff ratios

Provisions on the maximum number of children in a group and the assignment of teachers for each established group according to its working hours (regular hours, long hours and/or weekly programme) are found in the National Education Law 1/2011. 

One teacher is usually assigned to a group of children, irrespective of the children’s age. For a group with long hours (10 hours/day) or a weekly programme, an additional teacher is assigned to each group of children, and the two teachers work in shifts of 5 hours per day.

In private education, the maximum number of children per core practitioner may be lower, for example when there is also a teching assistant or two teachers for a group of children at the same time. 

Other staff without childcare responsibilities (e.g. cleaning and preparing meals) in ECEC provided in the public sector is assigned in accordance with regulations that are the responsibility of local authorities.

Annual, weekly and daily organisation

The working hours of establishments that provide ECEC services (at ante-preschool and preschool levels) are flexible and aim to cover children’s and parents’ needs, as well as to meet educational goals.

There are three types of programmes. 

• Regular-hours programme (up to 5 hours a day). This programme provides educational activities preparing children, as appropriate, for the next stage (kindergarten or school) and for social life.

• Long-hours programme (10 hours a day). This programme provides educational activities preparing children, as appropriate, for the next stage (kindergarten or school) and for social life, and provides, additionally, social protection for children (meals, supervision and rest).

• Weekly programme (from Monday to Friday). This programme provides educational activities preparing children, as appropriate, for the next stage (kindergarten or school) and for social life, and provides, additionally, social protection for children from a social disadvantaged background (supervision and full accommodation during weekdays). 

These three types of programmes can be provided either in different educational institutions or in the same institution. Usually, kindergartens provide long-hours and regular-hours programmes or long-hours and weekly programmes. Weekly programmes is very rare (from 526.216 children enrolled in kindergartens in the 2019/2020 school year, only 1166 were enrolled in weekly programmes) and are reserved for parents / single parents who work long hours or who have socioeconomic difficulties. 

In the weekly programme, the ECEC services (at ante-preschool and preschool levels) may be provided overnight only in extraordinary circumstances and emergency situations for parents / legal representatives, namely:

• when both parents / legal representatives or single parents work night hours;

• when there is a medical emergency afecting parents / legal representatives or other family members;

• when there has been a death of a family member.

In ECEC (at ante-preschool and preschool levels), there is no schedule such as that used in primary education; the syllabus is not organised in subjects. The specificity of learning in ECEC is the holistic approach to content rather than subject-based.

Nevertheless, the organisation of the daily programme may be summarised as in the tables below.

Ante-preschool ECEC (children aged under 3 years)

Organisation of a typical weekday: regular-hours programme

Organisation of a typical weekday: long-hours programme

NB: Out-of-school activities, such as visits, trips, watching theatre performances, cultural/artistic events and community-based social events, are scheduled as agreed with the parents, taking into account the local/national/international events throughout the year, and the themes of the specific curriculum designed to be followed with the children, and also considering the wishes of children and parents. No predetermined days or periods for such activities are set out in official documents.

ECEC preschool education (children aged 3 years to – 5/6 years)

Organisation of a typical weekday: regular-hours programme

Organisation of a typical weekday: long-hours programme

NB: Out-of-school activities, such as visits, trips, watching theatre performances, cultural/artistic events and community-based social events, are scheduled as agreed with the parents, taking into account the local/national/international events throughout the year, and the themes of the specific curriculum designed to be followed with the children, and also considering the wishes of children and parents. No predetermined days or periods for such activities provided for in official documents.