One in four Romanian children drop out before highschool completion, obsolete teaching methods to blame

"A major education issue is the fact that we lose a lot of children on the road. The dropout rate by the twelfth grade is 25 percent and 40 percent of eighth graders cannot read or understand a text. In the technical vocational system, 30 percent get a job in the field pursued in school, and 26 percent of the 30-year olds have pursued a faculty. In addition, a very small number pursue lifelong education. (...) A maximum 30 percent of the children get hired in the field they trained for," Talpes said, presenting the conclusions of a survey on the subject. 

According to her, investments are smallest in pre-primary and primary school education, where Romania invests the lowest in the EU, namely 0.7 percent of GDP, compared to the European average of 1.5 percent. Secondary education fares better, with investments at 1.5 percent of GDP, as to 1.9 percent the European average, and in tertiary education we are even above the European average in terms of the investment's GDP share. 

"Why are the children dropping out underway? The teaching methods are the same as in the times of our grandparents. School is no longer attractive to children. All their school activities are not related to the surrounding world, they don't learn from projects, there is no integrated education. Children don't enjoy schooling. We are trailing behind in terms of school attractiveness for children," said the CDR representative. 

She pointed out that there should be tough selection criteria for the teaching staff, who on the other hand should be paid twice the current wages. "By the eighth grade we lose 16 percent of the children, and the worst thing at this point is that almost half of them do not understand a text and are unable to solve a simple math problem," Talpes said. 

As for the teens, 7 percent attend art high schools, such as music, ballet, or pedagogy schools, while others pursue professional and technical education - 49 percent - and 44 percent attend theoretical high-schools. 

Despite the rich professional and technical education system, only few graduates end up working in the industry. These schools should be linked to the economic environment, and children should complete practice stints in companies. This means that all technology high-schools should be dual, that would mean keeping jobs that are very much related to the technology of the future, and all the children who have a penchant for manual activities should battle to be admitted to these high-schools, Talpes said. 

Children should easily enter college from any highschool, but only 33 percent of those who complete high-school also pass the baccalaureate. The dropout rate in college is 38 percent. 

"Practical workshops should be reactivated, but not like in the old days, but at state of the art level, such as traditional crafts and robotics workshops that are highly attractive today. The business environment should be encouraged to get in touch with schools and offer them incentives, perhaps by lowering fees to compensate for all the investments that the business environment would place in schools," the CDR official said. 

On the other hand, as far as the IT&C industry is concerned, despite 7,000 students graduating annually, there is still a shortage of 5,000 employees, Talpes said.

AGERPRES