Romania: Education system on the verge of collapse

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Dat zou dus inhouden dat Eurostat cijfers publiceert die nergens op slaan?
Alleen life-long learning en private expenditure blijven achter volgens
onderstaande gegevens. Andere zijn weer beter.

Groet / Cees

PS. De ontslaggolf van leraren kan wellicht verklaart worden door de
ratio 1 leraar op 17 leerlingen?

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/guip/countryAction.do
                           EU27             Romania
Pupils and students      93247.4[2007]   3839.4[2007]

Pupil/teacher ratio in primary education
                             N/A          16.9[2007]

Foreign languages learnt per pupil - ISCED level 2
                           1.5[2007]       2.0[2007]

Share of women among tertiary students - Total - science, mathematics
and computing - engineering, manufacture and construction (%) - Women
among students in ISCED 5-6
                           55.2[2007]      56.1[2007]

Youth education attainment level by gender - Percentage of the
population aged 20 to 24 having completed at least upper secondary
education - Youth education attainment level- Percentage of population
aged 20 to 24
                           78.5[2008]      78.3[2008]

Early school leavers by gender - Percentage of the population aged 18-24
with at most lower secondary education and not in further education or
training - Early school-leavers
                           14.9[2008]      15.9[2008]

Unemployment rates of the population aged 25-64 by level of education -
Annual average - Pre-primary, primary and lower secundary education -
levels 0-2 (ISCED 1997)
                            9.8[2008]       6.5[2008]

Unemployment rates of the population aged 25-64 by level of education -
Annual average - Upper secondary and post-secundary non-tertiaty
education - levels 3-4 (ISCED 1997)
                            5.6[2008]       4.8[2008]

Unemployment rates of the population aged 25-64 by level of education -
Annual average - Tertiaty education - levels 5-6 (ISCED 1997)
                            3.4[2008]       1.9[2008]

Life-long learning by gender - Percentage of the adult population aged
25 to 64 participating in education and training
                            9.5[2008]       1.5[2008]

Private expenditure on education as % of GDP
                            0.67[2006]      0.40[2005]

Antid Oto wrote:
> REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl
>
> Romania: Education system on the verge of collapse
> By Diana Toma
> 25 January 2010
>
> The introduction of free-market relations into the states of the
> former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe 20 years ago has led to an
> unparalleled social and cultural decline.
>
> This is especially clear in Romania, a country that prior to the
> introduction of capitalism had already suffered greatly under the rule
> of the Stalinist dictator Nicolai Ceausescu and the dictates of
> Western banks and financial institutions. The rapid and dramatic
> unraveling of the Romanian education system is symptomatic of the
> decline in all aspects of the country’s social life.
>
> Romania’s education system was expanded substantially after the Second
> World War. Even though Ceausescu increasingly sought to bring state
> schools and universities under the control of his party and the state
> police after assuming power in the 1960s, most Romanians had access to
> a relatively good education.
>
> Romania today, with a population of 21.5 million, has more than
> 500,000 illiterate (and many non-literate) people, 76 percent of whom
> come from rural areas. According to one report by UNICEF last year,
> the drop-out rate tripled in Romania in the 2000-2009 period, with 20
> percent of children giving up school. The main cause of dropping out
> is the high cost of keeping a child in school. Although education in
> the public system is nominally free in Romania, parents must provide
> about €500 per month to keep each child in school and provide the
> necessary material for a study year. Given the low level of wages in
> the country, this sum is beyond the reach of many families.
>
> In addition, one fifth of Romanian children do not attend
> kindergarten, one third of high school graduates do not go on to take
> their graduation exams, and one quarter of pupils are unable to solve
> basic math problems.
>
> The education system in Romania has been subject to a series of
> reforms largely dictated by the political priorities of the party in
> power. No fewer than 15 major changes to the education system have
> been implemented by 13 ministers in the course of 20 years. In today’s
> Romania, school inspectors, school principals and even teachers are
> hired or dismissed according to the whims of the political party that
> has majority at a state or federal level.
>
> Recently, the education sector was hit by a series of strikes and
> protests. The longest conflict took place in November 2005, when a
> general strike lasted for three weeks and ended with the government
> promising to increase teachers’ salaries by about 12 percent. One-day
> strikes in 2008 and 2009 were followed by an attempt to initiate a new
> reform of the education system. Eventually, this reform was annulled
> by the Constitutional Court.
>
> In the course of a series of struggles, ordinary trade union members
> have increasingly come into conflict with the trade union leaderships,
> which share close links to the political establishment in the country.
> Key leaders from the trade union bureaucracies have been lured into
> important official jobs in exchange for party membership. In 2008, the
> CNSLR-Brotherhood (the National Confederation of Independent Unions of
> Romania), one of the leading trade union federations in the country,
> signed a cooperation agreement with the Social Democratic Party,
> thereby making a mockery of its so-called “independence.”
>
> This is not the first time such an agreement has been struck between
> trade union leaders and political parties, to the disadvantage of the
> working class. The step from the trade unions into politics is common
> coin in Romanian political life.
>
> In 1999, a law for the decentralisation of public institutions was
> introduced, which means that the administration of school buildings is
> currently under the remit of local authorities. The municipality owns
> the buildings and is obliged to maintain school infrastructure. In
> fact, the run-down of schools is commonplace. With heating
> insufficient or completely absent, students study in cold classrooms
> and under dim lighting. The government says it can do nothing, and for
> their part the municipalities blame the government for failing to
> provide funds for basic repairs. In this circle of mutual accusations,
> it is pupils and students who suffer.
>
> Most of the above-mentioned reforms of the education system were not
> put into practice, with the result that there are no properly enforced
> national criteria for curricula. Children are instructed on the basis
> of largely outdated and often irrelevant information. This rift
> between theory and practice diminishes the interest in learning.
>
> The declining standard of education in Romania is reflected in the job
> prospects of those studying. Official unemployment rates indicate a
> youth unemployment of around 20 percent for the last decade, and this
> rate has inevitably increased as a result of the economic and
> financial crisis, which has forced Romania to request huge loans from
> the International Monetary Fund.
>
> At the same time, there is little incentive for those with an
> education to join the teaching profession. The average wage of a
> teacher is around €500 per month, and many prefer to find other work
> or go abroad to find a better job.
>
> The educational sector has suffered at the hands of all of Romania’s
> governments during the last two decades, irrespective of whether they
> consisted of right-wing, conservative or social democratic
> administrations.
>
> The current conservative government led by Prime Minister Emil Boc has
> issued an emergency ordinance reducing the number of teachers in
> pre-university education in 2010. The reduction will be done in two
> stages, with the axing of 15,000 jobs by August 31 and a second phase
> involving the loss of 18,000 jobs by December 31.
>
> The current government ran an election campaign promising teachers
> higher wages. The reality following Boc’s election is the reduction of
> wages and unemployment for thousands of teachers. The Boc government
> together with its predecessor regimes bear responsibility for the
> decay of the education system, sentencing hundreds of thousands of
> Romanian children to illiteracy by assigning priority to satisfying
> the demands for cuts laid down by the International Monetary Fund and
> Romania’s international creditors.
>
> http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/roma-j25.shtml
>
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