The data presented in the European Commission’s latest country report reveal a worrying situation regarding school dropouts in Romania, despite the efforts financed by the National Program for the Reduction of School Dropouts (PNRAS). The program currently supports 2,300 schools, and 45% of schools included in the first wave of funding reported better participation, higher results in national assessments and lower dropout rates.
However, the share of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 who left education and vocational training early increased in Romania to 16.8%, returning almost to the level of 2020.
During the same period, the European Union average continued to fall, from 10% to 9.1%. The phenomenon remains particularly high in rural areas, where the rate reaches 23.7%, while in cities it is only 4.6%. Also, in small towns and suburbs, school dropout reaches 16.3 l%, still strongly affecting the Roma population, the cited document states.
However, the teachers’ representatives draw attention to the fact that the austerity measures promoted by the Bolojan Government only accentuate this crisis.
Marius Nistor, the president of the “Spiru Haret” Education Federation, told Adevărul that it was the European Commission that found that the measures taken by the Bologna Government, through Law 141/2025, hit hard at education employees.
“It’s the same Commission, it’s not another. All the measures on Law 141, plus the chronic underfunding in the education system, lead to this school dropout rate. Because, year after year, this Parliament, with the current parliamentary majority or the previous ones, have done nothing but extend the application of the article regarding the financing of the education system. Either you can’t have a modern education without investing“, declared Marius Nistor.
Teacher: “Teachers, parents and students kept education alive”
For his part, trade unionist professor Alexandru Mihalcea claimed, in an intervention for Adevărul, that the European Commission’s report does not bring any surprises.
“I remember talking to my fellow union leaders about this very topic and telling them that you will see how the dropout data will show the real consequences of the school mergers. In some areas of Romania, the mergers have caused students to walk miles to the new school. Maybe none of them benefit from the settlement of transportation expenses, or maybe in that area this possibility does not even exist.
In the countryside it is very difficult. Moreover, in many cases, in rural areas, teachers had to organize lessons with two classes simultaneously. These were the conditions in which they were able to conduct the classes. So, in certain areas, the governors have turned an already difficult situation in the countryside into an impossible one. Because of this, school dropout will increase even more. The illiteracy rate is also likely to increase.
We do not invest in education, but we are proud of our summits, our Olympiads, our competitions and our students and teachers. But the reality is ridiculous. The governors wanted to destroy this school year, but teachers, parents and students kept education going as best they could. In this situation, we demonstrated professionalism“, said Alexandru Mihalcea.
Parents with children enrolled in school receive a deduction of 100 lei
Decisions that can lead to increased school dropout
Law no. 141/2025 increased the minimum number of students required for an educational unit to have legal personality, from 300 to 500 students. As a result, the Ministry of Education announced that 507 school units with legal personality will become structures attached to other schools, which generated protests among parents and teachers, worried about the loss of institutional identity and the increase in travel distances for students
Also, in the 2025-2026 school year, the scholarship system was changed. The government approved Decision no. 732/2025, which reduces the number of scholarship categories from six to just two: the merit scholarship and the social scholarship. The scholarships for Olympic excellence (which could reach up to 3000 lei per month), the technological scholarships (300 lei) and the scholarships for minor mothers (700 lei) were completely eliminated. The Minister of Education at the time, Daniel David, justified the measure by the fact that the previous scholarship system cost 7 billion lei annually and was “unsustainable” in the context of the economic crisis.
Also, free road transport was restricted by law no. 141/2025, so that only commuter high school students automatically benefit from free county and inter-county transport. Students in primary and secondary education still benefit from this facility only in exceptional situations, such as when they cannot be educated in their home town or when they follow the courses of a special or vocational school.
In addition to these measures that directly affect students, the Government also targeted teachers through certain cuts, weakening the act of education. Starting with the 2025-2026 school year, the didactic norm of pre-university teachers increased from 18 to 20 hours per week. This change was implemented without proper salary compensation and had a direct impact on the workload of teaching staff. In addition, as of September 1, 2025, the rate for hourly payment has been reduced by approximately 50% for all teaching staff, by relating it to the average monthly number of working hours, not to the specific teaching rate. According to the new legislation, the hourly wage decreased to 30-40 lei, from approximately 75-80 lei in the previous year.
On October 23, 2025, the Government of Romania approved the Government Decision that reduces the total number of positions in state pre-university education by 14,048, from 307,900 to 293,852. Although the Ministry of Education initially claimed that only vacant, unoccupied positions would be abolished, the project’s substantiation note stated that the targeted positions were “staffed”. The decision came 20 days after the project had been put up for public debate, without a detailed impact analysis on the education system.
