Romania is at the bottom of the European and world rankings in terms of budget allocations for education, according to the latest Unesco report.
Education in Romania is underfunded. Photo source: archive
Concretely, last year, our country invested in education only 3.3% of the Gross Domestic Product, equivalent to 8.1% of the entire government public expenditure. This lack of capital infusion places Romania 123rd out of 171 in the world ranking in terms of allocations to education in GDP and 156th in terms of overall public expenditure.
Our country is at the same level as countries like Tanzania, and behind countries like Zambia, Anguilla, Palau, San Marino, Paraguay, Benin and Panama.
At the level of the European Union, only Ireland has spent such a small percentage of its GDP on education – 3%. On the other hand, the highest allocations in the EU were made in Sweden (7.6%), Belgium (6.4%) and France (5.4%).
Regarding the allocation from the budget expenditure, Romania is among the last countries in the world in this chapter as well, ranking first after Trinidad Tobago, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Tonga and Pakistan. At the EU level, the highest expenditure on education in relation to public expenditure was made in Estonia (14.3%), Sweden (13.5%), Lithuania, Latvia, Cyprus and Malta (12.7%).
Marian Staș: “The education system, defined by an endemic mediocrity”
Marian Staș, an expert in educational policies, told “Adevărul” that this comparison between the states of the world is extremely welcome. “It accentuates the gross grotesqueness of the situation. First of all, this situation in which Romania finds itself is a proof of hypocrisy, imposture and outrageous and blatant political nonsense. For a very simple reason: if politicians set their mind to do a certain thing, they do it.” said the expert.
Marian Staș refers to the fact that if you want, you can. In education, however, unfortunately, it was not wanted. “It’s about what it means to cultivate this state of mediocrity in the system, because in this way the system becomes controllable, especially since the school is deeply politically enslaved”, consider the specialist.
The fact that Romania ranks only 123 out of 171 in terms of capital infusion in Education does not surprise anyone anymore. It’s not a secret, we all know that education in this area has always been lopsided. But even the money that was allocated was not distributed correctly. “If I remember correctly, about 80% of the education budget goes to salaries. As the system is designed now, it is not channeled on infrastructure development, on the development of serious, healthy, transformational educational projects, but on teachers’ salaries, on human resources, which is not right at all”, eis the opinion of Marian Staș. The expert believes that the budget for Education should have been distributed in such a way as to make way for large transformational projects.
The saving grace: setting clear goals. “If you want, you can”
Specifically, where should the money go? Which areas have priority and should have been supported financially? Marian Staș listed three of the most important directions. “The most important is the transformation of curriculum architecture. That is, the decentralization of the curriculum model, as we did with the pilot schools. Another important project is a teaching career model centered on meritocracy and not on mediocrity, as it is now. Another important project is the training of teachers through undergraduate programs for the teaching profession”, points out the specialist.
But all this needs investments that do not exist. “Under these conditions, two bad things happen. First, political imposture and hypocrisy flourish poisonously, keeping education at a level of underfunding bordering on national security. Secondly, the big, truly transformational projects aimed at bringing the school into the 21st century are being avoided,” consider the expert.
How much money would education need? No number, how bad we are in this chapter. “A concrete objective should be set… 5%, 7%, 8% of GDP… and then this money should also be allocated. This could be a signal of political will. After which it is certainly very important to plan what we do with this money. But, if these amounts exist, strategic projects will also appear to make use of those investments”, considers Marian Staș.
Mircea Dumitru, former Minister of Education: “We must invest in performance and research”
The former Minister of Education, the academician Mircea Dumitru, commented on the situation for “Adevărul” making a reference to the performances that Romanian universities are currently achieving compared to those abroad. “We are no longer among the first 500, among the first 1,000. We are going lower and lower. And here the lack of funds to produce structural changes is clearly visible. In recent years, however, universities have learned to do projects and attract money”.
On the other hand, says Mircea Dumitru, even with the money received, the Romanian school didn’t really know what to do, and the funds were poorly spent. “I would see the money allocated to education used in research, on the one hand, but also in this area of social sciences and humanities. Here the allocated funds are unsatisfactory”, considers the former Minister of Education. In terms of pre-university education, the focus should be on primary and secondary school. Because education starts here. From here, in the small classes, the first and most important thinking skills are formed. “There is also a huge difference in performance between high schools in big cities and those in rural areas. Then there are schools that attract a lot of students at the expense of others. I think that what needs to be done for pre-university education is this convergent and coherent action of homogenization”.
Education is a national security issue, the academician Mircea Dumitru also stated.
