Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu National College 4.49

The Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu National College is the most important high school in Buzău, Romania. It was named after the Romanian scholar and historian Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu. Founded in 1867, it is the oldest state-funded high-school in Buzău.HistoryThe opening and the first year (1867-1868)The law of public instruction, issued in November 1864, during the reign of Alexandru Ioan Cuza in Romania, ruled that in the country's major cities state-funded secular high and secondary schools were to be open. In 1865, the government organized schools in several cities, leaving out Buzău, however. This decision was motivated by a lack of funds, and by the fact that in Buzău there was already a secondary school functioning, the Theological Seminar. That school was not, however, secular, and the citizen's pressure persuaded the mayor to open a secondary school in 1867.The school was funded by the municipality. It functioned on the premises of the city primary school and its first headmaster was Luca Pavlovici Călăceanu. Upon the headmaster's request for a curriculum, the Ministry of Public Instruction sent him the curriculum taught at the Saint Sava National College in Bucharest. The new public secondary school was attended by 11 students, all in the junior grade.Trade school (1868-1869)As the school was once again denied ministry funding in the early spring of 1868, the second year of the school's existence was also financed by the municipality. The new school year was open in September with 14 new students, all in the junior grade. By November, as the teachers were not receiving wages, conflicts arose between them and the mayor. Therefore, the municipality decided to teach a trade-school curricula. As the curricula had a high degree of difficulty, several students dropped out.