Romania - Functional Review : Pre-University Education Sector

Abstract

Romania's ability to compete in the global market for goods and services will depend on its ability to transform itself into a knowledge-based economy. This depends on having a highly skilled workforce, which depends, in turn, on the relevance and quality of the education received by its children. The challenge is to bring the level of achievement of Romanian children in key subjects, such as mathematics, science, and reading comprehension in mother tongue - to current levels found in most European countries. Substantial investment of funds in the education sector has not produced the desired results because of a failure to concurrently improve utilization and efficiency. The Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sport (MERYS) has been trying hard to improve education in terms of both relevance and quality. It has considerably increased its investments in the education system in recent years. However, the increase in expenditure did not result in improved learning. In the past four years the Ministry has drafted several versions of a new Education bill containing very ambitious strategies that aim indeed at fundamentally changing the way the education system operates, but this has not yet been enacted into law by Parliament. It is important to note, however, that the implementation of the Ministry's ambitious strategy is dependent not only on changes in the education law and on factors that are within its own control, but also on factors that are beyond its control - particularly general civil service and Ministry of Finance rules relating to the structuring and staffing of ministries and the management of financial resources respectively.