Early education (children aged from birth to 6 years) is part of pre-university education and includes, according to the National Education Law (Law No.1/2011, with subsequent amendments), art.23 (a):the early pre-school level (0-3 years old) and pre-school education (3-6 years old).
According to Article 27 (1) of Law No.1/2011, with subsequent amendments, early pre-school education is organized in nurseries and, where appropriate, in kindergartens and day care centres. Pre-school education is organized in kindergartens with legal entity or in schools where there might be two situations: (i) groups of pre-school education that function inside a school/a high school) and (ii) kindergartens without legal personality, which works as a structure of a school/high school with legal entity.
In early education, children are usually organized in age groups: lower group (3 months - 1 year old, for early pre-school level and 3-4 years old for pre-school level), middle group (1-2 years old for early pre-school level and 4-5 years old for pre-school level) and upper group (2-3 years, for early pre-school level and 5-6 years for pre-school level). In the same time, setting up of heterogeneous groups is also encouraged, particularly where establishing groups by age or even the distribution of brothers and friends in the same group are not possible.
In early education, three types of programs are offered (either in the same institution or in different institutions), namely: normal program (4 hours), extended program (10 hours) and weekly program (from Monday to Friday). Unlike pre-school education, according to GD 1252/2012, in nurseries and other early pre-school education services, parents are recommended that where possible, not to leave the children more than 10 hours in the institution and even longer, it is recommended to use the services at night only in special cases: work program during the night/single parent family, medical emergency in the family, death in the family.
The conditions and methods of organization and functioning of early pre-school and pre-school educational units are provided in the Methodology of Organization and Functioning of Nurseries and Other Early Pre-school Education Services (GD Nr.1252/2012) and the Regulation of Organization and Functioning of pre-university education units (OM 5115/2014).
Quality standards for early education are developed by the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Pre-university Education (Agentia Romana de Asigurare a Calitatii in Invatamantul Preuniversitar - ARACIP). Reference standards and performance indicators for evaluation and quality assurance in pre-university education, including early education, went through a review process, within the project POSDRU/153/1.1/S/138879, "Supporting schools to increase the quality of educational services" and will be promoted through a new Government Decision.
The accreditation of early education providers, early pre-school level, is done in accordance with the methodology developed by the Ministry of National Education and Scientific Research and the Ministry of Health and based on reference standards.
The accreditation of early education providers, at pre-school level, is accomplished by the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Pre-university Education (Agentia Romana de Asigurare a Calitatii in Invatamantul Preuniversitar - ARACIP) based on reference standards.
In early education, early pre-school level, the number of children/group can be: maximum 7 for groups with children up to one year old and maximum 15 for groups with children between 1 and 3 years old. At pre-school level, the groups of children may have, on average, 15 children, respectively: minimum 10 and maximum 20.
Early education teaching positions are: a) in early pre-school education: child carer-educator - one post is normed for every group of children; in institutions with extended or weekly program, the teaching staff is normed by shifts; b) in pre-school education: teacher for pre-school education - one post is normed for every group of children; in institutions with extended or weekly program, the teaching staff is normed by shifts.
Providing the teaching staff needed for functioning the early pre-school education is done by the local public authorities, together with the inspectorates, respecting the existing quality standards and legislation. In pre-school education, teaching positions are occupied through a competition organized in the education unit with legal entity, according to a framework-methodology developed by the Ministry of National Education and Scientific Research. Decisions regarding the vacancy of teaching positions, organizing competitions for job positions and hiring the teaching staff are taken at education unit level by the management board of the unit, on director proposal, according to a methodology developed by the Ministry of National Education and Scientific Research.