School dropout increased to 17.5 percent in the last five years in Romania, according to a national study conducted by UNICEF in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labor, the National Statistics Institute and the Institute of Education Sciences. However, Romanian authorities aim to lower the rate of students dropping out of school to 14.8 percent by 2014, 12.8 percent by 2017 and 11.3 percent by 2020.

Some 65,000 Romanian children aged between 7 and 10 -representing 8 percent of the total and 50,000 aged between 11 and 14 - some 5 percent of the total were outside the educational system in 2009, according to the study. Some of the most common causes were related to poverty and limited parental education. These negative phenomena are increasing in rural areas disproportionately affect the Roma community compared to the majority population.

According to the study, better training of teachers to work with children facing the risk of school abandonment, improved infrastructure and better participation from the parents are some of the measures that could be taken to improve the situation. Some of the study’s general recommendations include a better data collection on school dropout, an improved school-parents partnership and an increased attractiveness of schools, but also a rational financing of social and educational programs.

The entire All children in school by 2015. Global Initiative on children outside the educational system: national study here (in Romanian).

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

(photo source: Sxc.hu)