Întâia reformă a şcolilor din Moldova?
The first school reform in Moldavia?

Summary/Abstract: This paper focuses on the school reform attempts in Moldavia during 1844-1847. The subject hasn’t been offered the proper attention by literature. Except for a somewhat superficial inquiry (which started interestingly enough but was prematurely discarded) by Alexandru Lapedatu, the specialists in the history of education didn’t venture to investigate this controversial topic, only mentioning its finality (the reform project imposed by prince Mihail Sturdza in 1847) and indiscriminately criticizing all its provisions. Such a simplistic approach disregarded the fact that, besides controversial chapters, that did not cater to the fundamental interests of public education of a civilized state, others were adequate to be included in the 1851 progressive law. The century’s debate reminds of the atmosphere of a popular novel, with intrigue, twists, intimidation and secret influences. The matter didn’t lack tension and hard confrontations between the Public Assembly (Adunarea Obştească) and the Commission for Public Education (Epitropia Învăţăturilor Publice) or even tensions inside the latter organism. There were also many analyses, accusations and propositions from some honoured teachers (Theodor Stamati, Alexandru Costinescu, Damaschin Bojincă şi Ioan Albineţ) who attentively followed the lacking educational system. So, was that a “first reform”, as Lapedatu stated, or not? According to our research, that is not the case. Such attempts to renew and improve the educational system existed before, however, it is true that this time, the involvement of the political body brought additional visibility to the debate and its key actors.

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