It’s been three years since I put online the first version of the map with the top schools in Bucharest and Ilfov, respectively two years since the last update of this map. Last year, I didn’t get the chance to update the maps for personal reasons, and by the time I had the time to do it, school enrollment was already over, and there was no point in working on it. I’ll make up for it this year and include information on the new map about the evolution of schools in 2023.
On the other hand, on a personal level, nothing has changed since the last edition of the top schools. We still live in Chiajna, and we haven’t found anything that we like and fits our budget. We have two years left, but time goes fast. Even though a new school has opened in Chiajna, our problem is not solved because we are not assigned to it. We still end up in the old school with poor results. So moving to a better school is one of our top priorities.
Returning to the top schools, I followed the same methodology as in previous years. I have kept the same philosophy of map markers:
- school marker for primary and secondary schools
- a round marker with a square in the middle for colleges (grades V-VIII plus high school)
- a round marker with a dot in the middle for religious and bilingual schools.
As in previous years, I have not put arts and crafts and special schools on the map.
As for the color of the markers, I also kept the same color palette as before:
- blue for primary schools
- green for schools with an average above 9.01 in the national assessment
- yellow for schools with a national assessment average between 8.01 and 9
- orange for educational establishments with an average between 7.01 and 8
- red for educational establishments with an average between 6.01 and 7
- Dark red for schools in the “God forbid” category, with an average below 6.
- I’ve marked in black the only new school in Ilfov.
I changed the data source for the top schools. I stopped using https://www.admitereliceu.ro and calculated the averages by the school directly from the data on http://evaluare.edu.ro/ (there’s no mistake in the link; the Ministry of Education doesn’t use SSL certificates, so you may get some warnings on some browsers about the security of the site). I scraped almost the whole dataset because I want to analyze the national assessment results statistically. Another reason I changed the data source is how absences are handled. In last year’s data, a few schools with very high numbers of absentees jumped out at me, and I think it is interesting to look at this aspect as well.
Also, from this year, I have included on the map the evolution of schools over the last few years. When you click on a school, you will also see the evolution of previous years.
That said, below is a map of state schools in Bucharest and Ilfov
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More InformationCompared to the previous year, the festival of high grades ended, so the map tends more toward orange and red. For the first time, only some colleges completed the middle school cycle with grades above 9.01. No middle school has grades above nine.
Compared to 2022 and 2021, which were difficult years anyway because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we also see a negative evolution of the average in the national assessment.
This year’s map also highlights another aspect: schools with very poor performance also have a small number of students who take the assessment exam. The same problem is seen in many schools in Ilfov.
I’m beginning to wonder what the point is of having schools that only take 15-20 pupils. There are communes that have two or three small schools, one in each village in that commune. However, the distances between these schools are small. If I had to decide, I would merge these schools and organize decent public transport to the remaining school.
Private schools in Bucharest and Ilfov
As in the previous article, I created a separate map of private schools. I used a color scheme similar to that used for the state schools map.
- blue for primary schools
- purple for secondary schools that had no pupils in the national assessment
- green for schools with an average above 9.01 in the national assessment
- yellow for schools with a national assessment average between 8.01 and 9
- orange for educational establishments with an average between 7.01 and 8
- red for educational establishments with an average between 6.01 and 7
- Dark red for schools in the “God forbid” category, with an average below 6.
- I have marked in black a school that, although it has had students in the past but this year has no students present.
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More InformationIn general, private schools have a much lower number of students taking the national assessment than public (state) schools.
A special mention for Avenor College, with 40 absentees and six students enrolled in the national assessment. Last year, they had 33 absentees and ten students registered for the national evaluation. I don’t know why they have such a high number of absentees, and I would greatly appreciate it if someone more knowledgeable would comment on this.
There is also a special mention for Rut School, at the opposite end of the ranking. The Providence Baptist Church in Bucharest sponsors this school and offers free services to poor children, especially Rroma. The Rut School also offers literacy opportunities to those over the age of enrolment in the state system.
A few private schools marked purple last year now had students enrolled in the national assessment and received colors corresponding to their average.
In the rest, we have a somewhat similar evolution to the state schools, with a slight decrease in national assessment averages.
