Romanian pupils receive an average of 834 compulsory school hours a year, below the OECD average of 922 and the European Union average of 870. Spain has 1,053 hours, Italy 990 and Greece 791, according to Education at a Glance 2025. Those figures do not mean Romanian pupils necessarily study less in substance or are less prepared. Cătălin Viorel Nan, president of the National Parents’ Federation, says the central issue is how learning time is divided among subjects.

In Romanian primary school, pupils spend more than 20 hours a week in class, for 540 compulsory hours over 180 school days. The curriculum has 11 core subjects: Romanian language and literature, a first foreign language, mathematics, natural sciences, history, geography, civic education, religion, arts, physical education and personal development. Schools may select from 14 optional subjects, including financial education, philosophy for children and health education. Greek primary pupils have 718 compulsory hours over 169 days and a core curriculum of 14 subjects. Greece also offers 380 optional hours, but the report cautions that pupils cannot attend every option at the same time.

Spanish primary pupils attend 25 to 30 hours a week, or 789 compulsory hours a year. Education responsibilities are shared between the state and autonomous communities: core subjects are common nationwide, while regions can add a co-official language, reinforcement workshops or a second foreign language. Italy has 917 compulsory hours over 200 school days. Religion is its only optional subject, technology education is among the differences from Romania, and civic education is taught across subjects for at least 33 hours a year.

In Romania, the school week rises to 25 hours in grade five and 30 in grade six, exceeding 30 hours in grades seven and eight. The timetable adds physics, chemistry, biology, a second foreign language, social education, music, visual arts, technology, computing and ICT, as well as counselling and personal development. Italian pupils add a compulsory second foreign language at the lower-secondary level. In Spain, pupils may choose audiovisual arts and ethical values instead of religion, along with one or two options such as French or German, classical culture or entrepreneurship.

Nan points to Spain and Italy as examples of interdisciplinary learning. Subjects can be combined in projects—for example, Italian language, history and geography in one lesson. Rather than adding a new subject whenever society identifies a need, whether financial, legal, road-safety, health or environmental education, he argues that schools can integrate such topics into projects and existing disciplines. Robert Florea, deputy director of Bucharest’s Municipal Centre for Educational Resources and Assistance, also links fragmentation to weaker achievement and transfer of skills. He says many pupils leave compulsory education without mastering any of the fields they have studied.

Both experts describe a psychological cost. Nan says moving constantly between subjects, teachers, notebooks, textbooks and assessment systems creates emotional pressure and leaves too little time to explore a topic in depth. Florea says academic demands combine with pressures from a child’s family and other environments. The challenge, in the experts’ view, is therefore not simply to add school hours, but to make learning more coherent.