Romania and the knowledge-based society
A report by the Education Minister shows that pre-university education is inefficient, which poses national security risk.
Roxana Vasile, 20.05.2025, 13:50
Every minister who has temporarily held the position of education minister in the last 30 years or so has wanted to leave a mark on this essential area for the future of the country. Untimely changes, from one year to the next, or medium-term reforms desired by a minister but later abandoned and replaced with others by those who followed have done more harm than good. There have been discussions about the high percentage of functional illiterates among Romanian students, that is, those children who are not able to use their basic skills (reading-writing-mathematical calculation) to engage in activities that they or the community need and cannot develop other skills either.
Now, Romania needs to build a knowledge-based society, because only in this way will life expectancy and well-being increase, says the current interim education minister, Daniel David, a university professor. He presented the ‘Diagnostic Report on Education and Research in Romania. Current Achievements and Implications for New Reforms in the Field’. The reform proposals are based on data, others on European/international best practices, and others are the official’s own reflections. So, according to Daniel David, currently, education is inefficient in pre-university education, generating graduates with poor-quality skills, high school dropout rates and increased functional illiteracy, aspects that become a national security risk. That is why, says the minister, there is a need for a revolutionary and profound reform in the field. Pre-university education must streamline the acquisition of the eight key competencies necessary for integration into the labor market or continuing studies, and for this, a rethinking of school curricula is needed to teach less, but more relevantly.
Minister Daniel David: ʺI think the key element is the curriculum, the teaching methods and the textbook. In relation to the curriculum, we need to teach less, but more relevantly and with greater impact for the skills we want developed in children, so I would like the discussion to go in this direction when we talk about classes, subjects and the curricular load, and the number of classes should not go beyond the logic of an average at European level and we will have to rethink, practically, all programs in this logic.ʺ said minister Daniel David.
As for the higher education system, it should aim to train highly qualified human resources who can maintain and develop their skills through lifelong learning. In the vision of the interim education minister, reforming the status of teachers is also mandatory – teachers should be better paid, but have to meet performance criteria for which they are periodically evaluated. (LS)
