The equation is simple: education is the most basic insurance against poverty. At all ages, it empowers people with the knowledge, skills and confidence they need to shape a better future (UNESCO).
Yet in Romania the quality of education and, consequently, student achievements are constantly deteriorating.
Poor quality of education
The poor quality of education in Romania has become an undisputed national problem.
Romanian kids have continuously placed well below their European counterparts in international tests, such as PISA and TIMMS. Their scores in Reading, Mathematics and Science are below those of their peers in Bulgaria or Serbia, and in the 2009 PISA test Romania placed among the last 3 countries in Europe, followed only by Montenegro and Albania.
In the summer of 2011, almost half of the students who finished high-school have failed their graduation exam.
Roots of the problem
Teach for Romania has identified two main roots of the problems in the national education system: (1) the poor management of the school system, that leads to (2) low quality of teaching.
The overall quality of the education system is influenced by the educational policy and the management of the school system. While some progress has been made on this front, the lack of a clear vision, the reduced number of people qualified for the job and the incapacity to attract top talent in careers in education continue to pose barriers in the evolution of the education system in Romania.
Teacher quality has been identified as the single most important factor in student achievement(*). Yet in Romania low salaries, difficult working conditions and the general lack of respect for the profession are discouraging the top university graduates from becoming teachers.
Moreover, the best teachers prefer to work in high-rated schools and tend to avoid schools from low-income neighborhoods, with low student achievement or from isolated rural areas. As such, children with the highest needs don’t have access to equal opportunities in education as their socio-economic background determines the quality of the education they receive.