“Spiru Haret” National Pedagogical High School

"SPIRU HARET" NATIONAL PEDAGOGICAL HIGH SCHOOL "Spiru Haret" National Pedagogical High School is one of the representative institutions for education in Buzău county, both through its more than 170 years of history and its "trainer of trainers" status. The beginnings of the Normal School are related to the activity of Bishop Dionisie Romano as a teacher of the National School, the first modern education institution in Buzău. On 29th April 1838, the Eforia of Schools established a Normal School in addition to the National School of Buzău, where the teacher candidates who would become village school teachers began their training. Buzău County was among the four counties of Wallachia, along with Dolj, Gorj and Mehedinți, which responded to Eforia's initiative and which opened the first teacher training school, known as the "normal school of teachers". For 20 years, from 1899 to 1921, the Normal School of Buzău carried out its main activity in the premises of the Seminary next to the Diocese, built in 1838. In 1912, the director of the school, Constantin Tomulescu, managed to obtain a plot of land with an area of 13 hectares, located (then) at the edge of the city, corresponding to a decision of the ministry in 1866, which established that all normal schools should be built in the fields, outside the city, in order to be equipped with the land necessary for the agricultural practice of the normal school pupils. The foundation stone was laid in 1913, in the presence of minister C. C. Disescu, the construction plan belonging to the architects N. Stănescu and I. Vulcan of Bucharest. Due to political and military events, the works were completed in 1925, and the amphitheatre was finished only in 1965. Spiru Haret, three times Minister of Public Instruction, is considered the reorganizer of the entire Romanian education. The theoretical and practical conception of Haret regarding the organization of Romanian education proved to be valuable, influencing the normal-pedagogical education of Buzău for decades. As a tribute to the scholar and the man of the school, starting with 1914, only two years after his death, the school of Buzău bears his name, and in 1925 the initiative was taken to erect a bust in front of the school. This work of Emil Negulescu was unveiled on 25th June 1939, in the park in front of the school. From 1990 until the 1998-1999 school year, it was called "Spiru Haret" Normal School, and the duration of studies was five years. Starting with 1999-2000 school year, the unit was again called "Spiru Haret" Pedagogical High School, then National High School. In March 1939, in the hallway of the high school, a commemorative marble plaque was unveiled, placed today in the niche to the left of the amphitheatre, which bears the following inscription: "Holy worship of the brave sons of the school sacrificed on the altar of the homeland in the war for the nation's union, 1916- 1918", followed by the names of 39 heroes, teachers. The building of "Spiru Haret" National Pedagogical High School is registered in the List of Historical Monuments (BZ-II-m-B-02333).