"Calistrat Hogaş" National College

The educational institution known today as the "Calistrat Hogaş" National College writes its history as a place of light from the year 1885, when it existed in Piatra Neamţ, as it would indirectly result from the last documents revealed, the "Culture", a private primary and secondary institute for girls. Social life in the second half of the 19th century is marked by a strong feminist movement, which did not remain indifferent to women's right to access education and culture. In German education, this tendency would occupy a privileged place. The initiative of Mrs. Ivanovici (sister of the lawyer Gh. Lazu, former sub-prefect and prefect of Neamţ) resulted in the establishment of the institute, which also had a boarding school and which operated in the former houses of Maria Albu - the current headquarters of the Territorial Agency of School Camps and Tourism.

Since 1889, the activity has been led by teacher Elisa Udrischi, a graduate of the Conservatory in Dresden, assisted by Gabriela Bitrou, a highly cultured young woman with secondary education in Austria. The teaching staff who taught at this girls' institute were among the best trained professionally, especially pedagogically. In the lower secondary course, worked teachers Ion Negre (the director of the gymnasium and then of the "Petru Rareş" High School), Gr. Sinescu, V. Vîleanu, Gr. Istrati, Er. Zaharia, N. Juravschi, all with university studies in the country and abroad.

The beginning of the 20th century is characterized by a visible animation of the scientific, cultural and social-political life, the deep changes being reflected in the life of education. In 1901, Ion Negre left for Bucharest (as a liberal deputy in the Romanian Parliament), being replaced by Er. Zaharia, and the school existed until 1910, when Elisa Udrischi was called to Iasi to run a music school.

In these conditions, Eugenia Popovici, with a degree in letters, and Valentina Focsa, with a degree in mathematics, established, in 1910, a preparatory course for girls for the third grade of secondary school, authorized by the Ministry of Public Instruction and Cults, with results whose quality she was known and recognized. Thus, in 1911, with the support of the German parliamentarians and with the authorization of C.C. Arion – minister in the conservative government led by P.P. Carp, the private secondary school for girls with the state education program was established in Piatra Neamţ. Transformed, in 1924, into the Eugenia Popovici – Valentina Focsa Girls' High School, the school fulfilled its mission of ensuring equal opportunities in access to instruction and education, illustrating the progress of Romanian education, marked, a year earlier, by the nationalization of schools.

If until this historical moment, the studious girls had taken their high school equivalency exams at the "Petru Rareş" High School, the right to education, existing and fulfilled in the old and prestigious school from the end of the 19th century, acquires its well-deserved status. Nurtured by the enlightened desire of the teachers and the young offspring to fulfill themselves through knowledge, the school that we call today the "Calistrat Hogaş" National College has been in existence since 1885 and was founded in 1910. From here, since then, its history springs ceaselessly and quenches the thirst for learning of the generations it has raised.

Source and additional information: www.calistrathogas.ro