For almost two decades, Romania has been discussing the same target: 6% of GDP for Education. It’s a threshold that appears in law and government programs but has never actually been reached. In this context, a statement by Oana Gheorghiu – “The education budget is small because no one is fighting for it” – brings back to the fore an essential question: is the problem the lack of money or how the system manages (or not) to transform it into quality education?
What Oana Gheorghiu said
During a debate organized by the students of the Timișoara Polytechnic University, Oana Gheorghiu, interim deputy prime minister, was also asked about the budget allocated to Education.
“I think that the education budget is small because there are no real projects in education and that no one is fighting for this budget. With apologies for the rigor, but I have not seen a leadership made up of 10 people from universities, from this high school and general school environment rise up from the education area, to come and put on the Government’s table: this is the project, this is what we have to do, give us money! Society would fight for them. But no, it doesn’t exist”answered Oana Gheorghiu.
In his opinion, budgets are built according to “history”, and education loses ground in the absence of a collectively assumed strategy:
“So maybe at this level of universities, this working group is created that next year will fight with whatever government there is and will not leave there until… I urge you to do this, you must. The investment in education is the only one that ensures the future of this country”.
6% of GDP target. When it appeared and how much was actually allocated in recent years
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a macroeconomic indicator that reflects the total value of goods and services produced in a country in a year.
In the case of Romania, the idea of allocating 6% of GDP to education has been presented over time as a minimum threshold for modernizing the system.
This target initially appeared around 2007, in the context of political commitments regarding education reform. It was later included in the National Education Act of 2011, but its implementation was repeatedly delayed.
In the updated form of the recent legislation (2023), the objective was transformed into an equivalent mechanism: 15% of the consolidated general budget, which would correspond to approximately the same level of 6% of GDP. And this provision was delayed in implementation.
Data from recent years show relative growth, but no long-term stability:
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2023: 3.2% of GDP (approx. 49.5 billion lei)
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2024: 4.3% of GDP (over 74 billion lei)
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2025: 4.5% of GDP (9.78% increase from 2024 execution)
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2026: ~3.03% of GDP (approx. 62 billion lei, according to estimates)
Is the condition of 6% of GDP enough for a quality education?
Education specialist Gabi Bartic comes with an interesting perspective: if more money were allocated for education, how would it be used?
“Let’s do a concrete imagination exercise. Starting tomorrow, Romania receives 6% of GDP for education. The threshold provided by law, systematically ignored by all governments. About double what it has today. What’s going on?”says Gabi Bartic.
The specialist believes that the debate would first focus on salaries. But this does not mean that the quality of the educational act would also increase.
“It’s legitimate – Romanian teachers are among the lowest paid in Europe compared to the standard of living. But we have done this type of reform before. We did it in health. We increased doctors’ salaries – and it was right to do it. But have hospitals become places where you enter with the conviction that you are in good hands? Have mentalities changed, the relationship with the patient, the responsibility towards the one sitting in the bed? No, or extremely little. And the Deputy Prime Minister knows this, coming from the medical area. Because we gave money without at the same time building a framework in which the responsibility worked differently. We paid the same system, with the same reflexes. The money went to the doctors, not to the patient’s care”Gabi Bartic thinks.
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The parallel with Health continues:
“We risk repeating the exact same thing in Education. We raise salaries — good. But if we don’t simultaneously change the way a teacher is trained, evaluated, supported and held accountable, when appropriate, we pay, in short, better, the same practices. And the child stays in the same place.”
A second line of criticism concerns how money is spent on education, not just its level. Gabi Bartic describes a recurring pattern: investments in equipment and infrastructure made before the system has the capacity to effectively integrate them into the educational process.
“But there’s still money left, 6% is huge. So we’d spend it. And laptops, and interactive whiteboards, maybe a round of building renovations. More colorful walls, stairs with inspirational quotes. Public procurement moves hard, with contested tenders and delays, but in the end they get somewhere. Through warehouses, through chancelleries, through rooms where no one knows exactly how to use them. Not because the teachers are incompetent — but because there was never a serious training program or, alas, of transformation that preceded the endowment. We buy the expensive musical instruments before we know how to play, that maybe we discover some talent. This also happens, but they are happy events, not systemic realities.”
The imagination exercise continues, but the results do not change:
“The school inspectorates — large, expensive structures, with a diffuse role and real power to block any local change — remain intact. What’s more, with bigger budgets, they get even more to administer. Contests for principals continue to be, in many counties, a ritual where the result is known in advance. The evaluation of students remains oriented to the grade, to the label, not to learning. The curriculum — overloaded, many pieces — is not touched, because the curriculum reform is a minefield in which each discipline defends its classes as a territory. Against anyone, even against the student.”
In this perspective, the problem is not that Romania invests too little in education, but that it invests fragmented, without a logic of systemic transformation.
“This does not mean that we must give up the idea that public education must be properly financed and well managed. It means that, in parallel, we urgently need something else: reformed alternatives, built with a more flexible organization, with real attention to the child and to every lei spent, which concretely demonstrate that it is possible otherwise. Schools, model networks, models that exist, are visible, grow — and exert real pressure by example on the big system”. says Gabi Bartic.
Mihai Dimian: A bigger budget is needed, but not from loans
The interim Minister of Education, Mihai Dimian, also recently spoke about the subject of the budget. He claims that, in fact, the percentage of GDP of the allocation is higher than 3%, if the expenses managed by the local authorities are also taken into account.
“At the moment, the way Romanian society works is like this: part of the budget for education comes from the ministry, another part from the local authorities and they intervene in education. For example, the healthy meal. The program is not now in the budget of the Ministry of Education, it is in the town halls. We are talking about 1.5 billion. The investments made in schools are not in the budget of the ministry. That is why the current approved budget provides for 4.08% of the gross domestic product in the chapter education”, said Dimian to Digi24.
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The interim minister said that 6% of GDP is needed, but that at the moment Romania cannot afford it, due to the budget deficit. In addition, added the minister, this must not be done “living off the loan and putting the very students we are trying to educate now to pay these loans that we are making to pay for certain expenses.”
Daniel David: Every year, the budget has to be bigger than the previous year
The former Minister of Education, Daniel David, came with a pragmatic perspective.
“I proposed to the political factor that “Pact for Education and Research”, a pact for a decade of Education and Research, with three simple points. The first point: every year, the Education and Research budget should be higher than the previous year. You see I didn’t say how much because it has to be realistic. You don’t know crisis situations. You can say 6%, but we’ve been saying 6% for 20-something years and we haven’t been able to do that. But if we think more rationally and say <
