Report: Major changes are needed in the way education policies are financed and evaluated

Education faces more and more problems, despite projects, strategies and investments. Romania must change "radically", at a strategic level, the way education policies are financed and evaluated, and the school performance of students is "among the lowest" in the European Union, reveals the report "Reform of pre-university education in Romania: strengthening the systems of governance, evaluation and support" presented by the General Directorate for the Support of Structural Reforms (DG REFORM) of the European Commission, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Ministry of Education. According to the report: "At a strategic level, Romania must radically change the way education policies are financed and evaluated. In this sense, planning and budgeting at a strategic level is needed to correlate resources with long-term priorities. Also, much more extensive analytical capacities are needed to monitor and evaluate the implementation and results of public policies, as well as to hold the institutions involved accountable". According to the document, although Romania has one of the fastest growing economies in Europe, the school performance of students is among the lowest in the European Union. A large part of Romanian students do not have basic skills, the school dropout rates are high, and the disparities between pre-university education units in the rural environment and those in the urban environment are increasing, the report indicates. "Therefore, the measures introduced by the new law are important to provide quality education to all students and to support and make the country's economic growth more inclusive," the report also says. The document makes recommendations to the Ministry of Education regarding the implementation of the reforms adopted last year through the new pre-university education law, which may be important for the elaboration of secondary legislation and which should transform the system into an efficient and fair one.

The document proposes a perspective that explores four essential areas of educational policies: the evaluation and support of educational units, the allocation of resources for education, the teaching career and the data system and their monitoring.