century, in 1864, under ruler Alexandru Ioan Cuza, when four years of primary school became free and compulsory for all children, regardless of social class and sex. Despite this, the law was not enforced, and mass illiteracy persisted well into the 20th century: in the 1930s, 43% of adults were illiterate. The Romanian literacy campaigns started in 1948 largely eradicated illiteracy in the 1950s. The education system of Romania resembles the French education system. During the communist era, it was influenced by the Soviet education system (especially in the 1950s), and it included political propaganda, as well as hours of compulsory physical work by school children (usually in agriculture). As of April 2013, there were about 7,200 opened schools in Romania, a sharp drop from nearly 30,000 units in 1996. This is mainly because many schools were brought together in order to form bigger schools and eliminate paperwork. In the same year, 3.2 million students and preschoolers were enrolled in the educational system, 500,000 more than in 2012. Compulsory education Throughout the 20th century, compulsory education has oscillated between 4 years, 7 years, again 4 years, 7 years, 8 years, 10 years, and again 8 years. In the 21st century, it was raised to 10 years, then to 11 years, and then to 14 years. When the communists came into power in 1947, compulsory education was 7 years, but this was not enforced. Originally, the communist regime lowered compulsory education to 4 years, but with a strong enforcement. Next they increased it gradually to 7, 8 and ultimately 10 years. After the 1989 revolution, compulsory education was lowered again to 8 years. The new government cited as reasons the poor quality of education, high strain on the state budget, and inflation of diplomas. In 2003, compulsory education was raised again to 10 years, through Law nr. 268/2003, modifying Article 6 of Law nr. 84/1995. During the 1990–2003 period, there was very little concern for education in Romania, and the generation who studied in this period is quite poorly trained, with illiteracy being higher than the previous generation, especially among the Roma population in rural areas. A new law come into force in 2011. This law came into force after years of political debate regarding not only the number of years in compulsory education, but also how they should be structured. The original form of the law, which would have moved