All lower secondary school students (100%) in Romania learn at least one foreign language and 95.2% of them learn two or more languages, these being among the highest shares in the European Union, according to a Eurostat report.

Under 60% of the 17.6 million lower secondary school pupils in the EU were studying two or more foreign languages in 2015, with Luxembourg (100%), Finland (98.4%), Italy (95.8%), Estonia (95.4%), and Romania (95.2%) having the highest shares.

In contrast, fewer than 10% of pupils were studying two or more foreign languages in Hungary (6%) and Austria (8.8%), according to data from EU’s statistical office Eurostat.

Romania had almost 775,000 lower secondary school pupils in 2015, and 95.2% of them were studying two ore more foreign languages. The most common language among Romanian pupils was English (99.5% of them studying this language), followed by French (83.6%).

In the EU, English was also the most the most popular language at lower secondary level, being studied by nearly 17 million pupils (97.3%). French (5 million or 33.8%) came second, followed by German (3 million or 23.1%), and Spanish (2 million or 13.6%).

More than 9 in 10 corporate Romanians communicate well in foreign languages

The Romanian Govt. plans to keep brilliant students in the country with EUR 3,500 grants

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com