Little over 126,000 Romanian 12th-grade students signed up to take the final Baccalaureate exams in the June-July summer session, the lowest level in over 30 years, according to the Ministry of Education. Romania has seen a significant drop in the number of students due to negative demographic trends and also has the highest school dropout rate in the European Union.

Educational platform Edupedu put together a detailed analysis based on official ministry data from 2019-2022 and found that out of the nearly 152,000 students were enrolled in the 12th grade in the 2021-2022 school year,  of whom more than 40,000 will not be taking their final exams.

This means that over 26% of the graduating class of 2022 will, in fact, not be graduating.

Minister of education Sorin Campeanu recently spoke to B1 TV news channel about this issue, stating that the number of those enrolled in the Baccalaureate is the lowest in Romania's post-1989 history. According to the minister, the COVID-19 health crisis has amplified the existing downward trend.

“Last year, we had over 133,000 applicants, in 2020, we had over 155,000 applicants. The concerns I expressed about the effects of the health crisis we had are unfortunately confirmed. I would like to point out that until 2012 we had more than 200,000 candidates registered for the Baccalaureate exam every year and now we have a little over 126,000,” said Cîmpeanu.

The minister went on to describe the measures that the Government is currently taking to solve this problem: “Measures are underway. There is a national drop-out reduction program for which we have half a billion euros worth of financing available. We have already selected 1,415 schools to take part in the program. One of the measures that urgently needs to be implemented is offering the children healthy lunch meals. A healthy meal can make the difference between sending your child to school or not.”

The healthy lunch program is meant to be launched in September and will be put in place on a national level within the next five years. The Government has earmarked about EUR 1 billion to fund it.

The minister also mentioned that increasing the value of grants for underprivileged students might also stimulate poor families to send and keep their children in school.

The share of early leavers from education (school dropout rate) in Romania was 15.3% in 2021, the highest in the European Union, according to the latest Eurostat report. The EU average was 9.7%.

maia@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos / George Calin)