Publication:
Romania : Education and Skills for EU Integration

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (401.43 KB)
130 downloads
English Text (48.15 KB)
21 downloads
Date
2008-11-11
ISSN
Published
2008-11-11
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
To meet its ambitious EU income convergence ambitions, Romania's labor market will need more and better-educated workers. Producing such workers, however, will be especially challenging, given the projected decline in young people who, traditionally, are the focus of education and training systems for the creation of new skills in the economy. Enrollment in upper secondary education is lower than in many other EU countries, and is mainly a problem of retaining socio-economically disadvantaged students. This policy note is specifically targeted towards linkages between education and the skills needed for labor force development in the context of EU integration. Other linkages worth mention include the need to put in place incentives for more students to enter the medical professions at the tertiary level, in order to meet the forecast personnel shortages in this area. Policy options to boost enrollment in upper secondary should be targeted to the weakest students. Policy measures initiated in the nineties have stagnated over the last years and need to be continued by: Improving the quality and relevance of the curriculum to ensure a competence-based approach and relevance of skills for school graduates, personal development and knowledge economy; and revising the teacher training policies and assessment and evaluation procedures to align them to a competence-based curriculum, as the barometer of change of the education system.
Link to Data Set
Citation
World Bank. 2008. Romania : Education and Skills for EU Integration. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/18913 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Bulgaria : Improving the Quality and Relevance of Education for All
    (Washington, DC, 2009-09) World Bank
    Bulgaria has recently introduced sweeping reforms of its secondary education system to promote more autonomy and accountability of schools for better learning outcomes. Positive results are already showing but more remains to be done to reap the full benefits of the reforms. Per-student-financing and delegated budgets have led to a wave of school closures that had become essential in the wake of a dramatic decline in student numbers. As opposed to the previous centralized system, school-based management with a considerable degree of decision-making power of the school principal has set the stage for schools to better adjust to local needs and opportunities for a better education. External student assessments are now routinely conducted, which have substantially improved the evidence base for education policy-making. However, concerns remain as to the accountability of schools to the local community. While principals are accountable to the municipal authorities for the use of financial resources, parents have little formal ways of holding principals accountable for learning outcomes. The reform was launched in the face of dramatic challenges in terms of unsatisfactory learning outcomes, early school leaving and considerable inequities in the education system. Moreover, Bulgaria s vocational education and training system remains un-reformed, and there are concerns with regard to the quality and relevance, with few formal communication channels to the labor market. The higher education system, meanwhile, is characterized by low participation relative to other new EU Member States, and the system of occupationally-oriented colleges, an important part of higher education across the EU, remains underdeveloped relative to academically-oriented universities. The economic crisis and associated fiscal pressures should not lead to cuts in the education budget. Promoting accountability for learning outcomes and results is the key policy direction for both secondary and tertiary education. Teachers are the key determinant of the quality of education.
  • Publication
    Romania - Functional Review : Higher Education Sector
    (Washington, DC, 2011-05-11) World Bank
    This review provides a discussion of challenges faced by Romania as a results of reforms, policy changes, growth in enrollment, among others, and provides policy options on how to tackle them. The review focuses on the higher education sector as a whole and how it is managed as a system by the Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sport (MERYS). The team assessed how the system is structured, led and managed by MERYS and not how each and every university is structured, led and managed internally. Some internal issues that confront higher education institutions were, however, reviewed since they are common to so many institutions that, by reason of commonality, they deserve to be addressed so that the Ministry can develop appropriate responses. The report includes a large number of findings, conclusions and recommendations. Some of the findings and conclusions require no recommendations. They indicate that the review team is happy with what it found in specific areas and they are included in the report since the team was required to cover these areas and since the team wants to give credit where credit is due. There are other findings and conclusions, indicating areas where improvement is necessary and possible and the team is providing recommendations, but on their own, are not likely to bring about major improvement; then, there are findings and conclusions in areas where the team believes that the potential for the greatest impact lies.
  • Publication
    Bulgaria : Workforce Development
    (Washington, DC, 2014) World Bank
    This report presents a comprehensive diagnostic assessment of Bulgaria's workforce development (WfD) policies and institutions. The results are based on a new World Bank tool designed for this purpose, SABER-WfD. SABER-WfD is part of the World Bank's initiative on Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) whose aim is to provide systematic assessment and documentation of the policy and institutional factors that influence the performance of key areas of national education and training systems. The SABER-WfD tool encompasses initial, continuing and targeted vocational education and training that are offered through multiple channels and focuses largely on programs at the secondary and post-secondary levels.
  • Publication
    Strategic Reform Road-map for the Technical and Vocational Education and Training Sector in West Bengal
    (Washington, DC, 2013-06) World Bank
    This report focuses on one of the key pillars of economic growth - namely, human development, and in particular, on skills development in West Bengal. It examines the current status of skills development, and potential ways forward for making the production of skills in the state more aligned to its economic growth needs. More specifically, the report investigates the characteristics of the technical and vocational education and training system that produces skills, how these skills match up in quantity and quality with what is in demand from employers in the organized and informal sectors, governance and quality assurance systems, emerging partnerships between the government and private providers of skills, and the availability of financial resources for skills development. Based on the findings from primary surveys, secondary data analysis, in-depth consultations with stakeholders, and declared policy priorities, the report provides a strategic framework and a time-based implementation road-map for reforming and reorienting technical and vocational education and training in West Bengal. This task was undertaken at the specific request of the new Government of West Bengal (GOWB) who took office in 2011. The GOWB wanted to know how to improve the quality of vocational and technical education and training in the state, and provide greater access to skill development to more young people. The request was formally transformed into a Non-Lending Technical Assistance (TA) with the Education Unit of the World Bank's New Delhi office. This report is one key output of the TA which covered a range of activities including bringing on board national and international expertise on various TVET issues, consultations with a variety of public and private sector stakeholders in the state, a series of learning and dissemination workshops, and partnerships with organizations who are engaged in this sector.
  • Publication
    Tertiary Education in Colombia
    (Paris: OECD Publishing, 2012) OECD; World Bank
    In Colombia, the beginning of a new century has brought with it a palpable feeling of optimism. Colombians will need new and better skills to apply to new challenges and prospects. The past underperformance of Colombia's education system is both a cause and an effect of a system unable to provide high quality education to all. An "education revolution" has begun and progress is being made. Basic and secondary enrolment, quality and learning outcomes are trending upward. The government's main policy goals at the tertiary level focus on the key challenges: expanding enrolment and improving equity, increasing quality and relevance, and making governance and finance more responsive. To achieve these goals, policy makers and stakeholders must find ways to reach consensus, work together and overcome inertia. Colombia has drifted away from focusing exclusively on the needs of students, the graduates they become, and the society in which they live and work. Restoring the focus on how tertiary education can serve these needs is a good organizing principle for reform. The government developed a proposed reform of Law 30 - the main statute governing tertiary education - and vigorous national debate accompanied its dissemination. Opposition to for-profit education dominated the headlines, but, in the review team's view, other aspects of the proposed reform were and are more important. The dramatic increase in tertiary enrolment witnessed during the last decade has also resulted in a more equitable distribution of access to tertiary education. The goal of enrolling 50% of the age cohort is appropriate and achievable, but it implies new challenges for access and student finance policies. The tertiary system covers the full range of the Colombian economy's needs for skilled manpower, if not necessarily to an equal extent. The government has clear and well-founded plans and aspirations for future tertiary growth and development. The Colombian government and people are well aware that they need not only more, but also better and fairer, tertiary provision - growth in coverage must be accompanied by quality, relevance and equitable access. The Colombian system of propaedeutic cycles is a good step towards allowing students to progress up through the tertiary levels. Colombian tertiary institutions have considerable autonomy, which is valuable in many ways though limiting in others.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Remarks at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-10-12) Malpass, David
    World Bank Group President David Malpass discussed biodiversity and climate change being closely interlinked, with terrestrial and marine ecosystems serving as critically important carbon sinks. At the same time climate change acts as a direct driver of biodiversity and ecosystem services loss. The World Bank has financed biodiversity conservation around the world, including over 116 million hectares of Marine and Coastal Protected Areas, 10 million hectares of Terrestrial Protected Areas, and over 300 protected habitats, biological buffer zones and reserves. The COVID pandemic, biodiversity loss, climate change are all reminders of how connected we are. The recovery from this pandemic is an opportunity to put in place more effective policies, institutions, and resources to address biodiversity loss.
  • Publication
    Media and Messages for Nutrition and Health
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06) Calleja, Ramon V., Jr.; Mbuya, Nkosinathi V.N.; Morimoto, Tomo; Thitsy, Sophavanh
    The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) has experienced rapid and significant economic growth over the past decade. However, poor nutritional outcomes remain a concern. Rates of childhood undernutrition are particularly high in remote, rural, and upland areas. Media have the potential to play an important role in shaping health and nutrition–related behaviors and practices as well as in promoting sociocultural and economic development that might contribute to improved nutritional outcomes. This report presents the results of a media audit (MA) that was conducted to inform the development and production of mass media advocacy and communication strategies and materials with a focus on maternal and child health and nutrition that would reach the most people from the poorest communities in northern Lao PDR. Making more people aware of useful information, essential services and products and influencing them to use these effectively is the ultimate goal of mass media campaigns, and the MA measures the potential effectiveness of media efforts to reach this goal. The effectiveness of communication channels to deliver health and nutrition messages to target beneficiaries to ensure maximum reach and uptake can be viewed in terms of preferences, satisfaction, and trust. Overall, the four most accessed media channels for receiving information among communities in the study areas were village announcements, mobile phones, television, and out-of-home (OOH) media. Of the accessed media channels, the top three most preferred channels were village announcements (40 percent), television (26 percent), and mobile phones (19 percent). In terms of trust, village announcements were the most trusted source of information (64 percent), followed by mobile phones (14 percent) and television (11 percent). Hence of all the media channels, village announcements are the most preferred, have the most satisfied users, and are the most trusted source of information in study communities from four provinces in Lao PDR with some of the highest burden of childhood undernutrition.
  • Publication
    South Asia Development Update, April 2024: Jobs for Resilience
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-04-02) World Bank
    South Asia is expected to continue to be the fastest-growing emerging market and developing economy (EMDE) region over the next two years. This is largely thanks to robust growth in India, but growth is also expected to pick up in most other South Asian economies. However, growth in the near-term is more reliant on the public sector than elsewhere, whereas private investment, in particular, continues to be weak. Efforts to rein in elevated debt, borrowing costs, and fiscal deficits may eventually weigh on growth and limit governments' ability to respond to increasingly frequent climate shocks. Yet, the provision of public goods is among the most effective strategies for climate adaptation. This is especially the case for households and farms, which tend to rely on shifting their efforts to non-agricultural jobs. These strategies are less effective forms of climate adaptation, in part because opportunities to move out of agriculture are limited by the region’s below-average employment ratios in the non-agricultural sector and for women. Because employment growth is falling short of working-age population growth, the region fails to fully capitalize on its demographic dividend. Vibrant, competitive firms are key to unlocking the demographic dividend, robust private investment, and workers’ ability to move out of agriculture. A range of policies could spur firm growth, including improved business climates and institutions, the removal of financial sector restrictions, and greater openness to trade and capital flows.
  • Publication
    Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Fall 2024: Better Education for Stronger Growth
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-17) Izvorski, Ivailo; Kasyanenko, Sergiy; Lokshin, Michael M.; Torre, Iván
    Economic growth in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) is likely to moderate from 3.5 percent in 2023 to 3.3 percent this year. This is significantly weaker than the 4.1 percent average growth in 2000-19. Growth this year is driven by expansionary fiscal policies and strong private consumption. External demand is less favorable because of weak economic expansion in major trading partners, like the European Union. Growth is likely to slow further in 2025, mostly because of the easing of expansion in the Russian Federation and Turkiye. This Europe and Central Asia Economic Update calls for a major overhaul of education systems across the region, particularly higher education, to unleash the talent needed to reinvigorate growth and boost convergence with high-income countries. Universities in the region suffer from poor management, outdated curricula, and inadequate funding and infrastructure. A mismatch between graduates' skills and the skills employers are seeking leads to wasted potential and contributes to the region's brain drain. Reversing the decline in the quality of education will require prioritizing improvements in teacher training, updated curricula, and investment in educational infrastructure. In higher education, reforms are needed to consolidate university systems, integrate them with research centers, and provide reskilling opportunities for adult workers.
  • Publication
    Economic Recovery
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-04-06) Malpass, David; Georgieva, Kristalina; Yellen, Janet
    World Bank Group President David Malpass spoke about the world facing major challenges, including COVID, climate change, rising poverty and inequality and growing fragility and violence in many countries. He highlighted vaccines, working closely with Gavi, WHO, and UNICEF, the World Bank has conducted over one hundred capacity assessments, many even more before vaccines were available. The World Bank Group worked to achieve a debt service suspension initiative and increased transparency in debt contracts at developing countries. The World Bank Group is finalizing a new climate change action plan, which includes a big step up in financing, building on their record climate financing over the past two years. He noted big challenges to bring all together to achieve GRID: green, resilient, and inclusive development. Janet Yellen, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, mentioned focusing on vulnerable people during the pandemic. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, focused on giving everyone a fair shot during a sustainable recovery. All three commented on the importance of tackling climate change.