The commune in Transylvania boasting ‘peculiar’ records: Three teachers for one single 8th grade pupil

Strange case in a village in Transylvania: three teachers are teaching to one single 8^th grade pupil in Râmeț commune, Alba county. The boy is also the only middle school pupil in the educational unit, for the other 8 pupils are attending the primary school courses.

Alin, the 8^th boy, is crossing 8 kilometers from home to school, while his teachers come from 15 kilometers away.

The Râmeț Middle School, sheltered in a superb stone building, with boarding house on the lower ground floor, is attended by nine pupils this school year.

Alin is the only one in the 8^th grade and in middle school. A teacher comes from a different school to teach him Maths, Physics and Chemistry, the schoolmistress teaches him Music and Drawing, while the Romanian teacher goes in for teaching him the rest of the all round education subjects.

Alin is living 8 km away from school and his father is driving him in every day, also taking part of the primary school pupils.

The three women who are the 8^th grade boy’s teachers also make huge efforts to be in class. One of them is pensioner, while the other two also have classes in a nearby school, in the next village, Ponor and are forced to go 15 km up to Râmeț.

The other eight children are in primary school: one is in the preparatory class, two in the first, two in the second grade, while another three pupils are in the fourth grade. A young schoolmistress is teaching simultaneously.

15-16 children are expected to attend the classes of the Râmeț school during the 2017-2018 school year.

Râmeț village is 20 km away from Aiud town in Trascau Mountains and is practically isolated from any road traffic. The commune comprises other 13 villages and yet, no more than 530 inhabitants are currently living here overall.

Another peculiar thing is that a quarter of the commune’s population is represented by the nuns in Râmeț Monastery, one of the oldest and most known monasteries in Transylvania. 100 nuns are living in Valea Manastirii village.

The commune boasts other ‘records’ as well. One single marriage has been registered in 2014 and none last year. One couple decided to tie the knot so far this year and only one birth has been recorded also this year.

Most young couples avoid settling down in the mountain villages and this commune makes no exception. It happened that a family from Bucharest settled down in Cheia village in this area a few years ago and a family with three children from Maramures has recently announced it would relocate to Valea Poienii village.