After the communist regime collapsed, the education system in Romania had to cope with several problems. The system was designed to provide skilled workers for an industrialised country, and, during the 1990s, the entire industry underwent a difficult and painful restructuring process. Moreover, every government after 1990 had a different vision of how the Romanian education system should be reformed to best cope with the new realities. Hence, a consistent reform approach could not be enforced, despite a growing need for education restructuring.

The Romanian labour market suffered from the economic restructuring process. Unemployment rates were moderate, but participation rates were quite low and a high share of people were engaged in the agricultural sector. These rates reveal that the Romanian labour market did not provide sufficient employment opportunities despite its strong economic growth in the new millennium.

Unlike other Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, Romania did not embark on retrenchment in the area of social policies until the mid- to late-1990s (Sotiropoulos et al, 2003). Unemployment benefit constituted the central policy measure for dealing with the rising number of unemployed in the course of restructuring. However, despite the introduction of unemployment and social assistance benefits, poverty rates, both in relative and absolute terms, have remained among the highest in Europe.

Education system

Structure of the Romanian education system

Overview of the Romanian education system after the Second World War

Since the 1970s, inspired by models adopted by other communist regimes, Romania reduced the number of enrolments in classical high schools in favour of technical and vocational schools, with the goal of transforming Romania into an industrialised power. By the end of the Ceausescu period, less than 8% of secondary school students were enrolled in theoretical (academic) education, by far the lowest percentage in any post-communist country. The remaining 92% were in different types of vocational programmes (OECD, 2003). The OECD report (2000a) shows that, during the period of 1985/90, the distribution between students enrolled in theoretical and technical high schools and vocational schools was 71% for the former and 20% for the latter, with the remainder primarily enrolled in apprenticeship programmes.

Firms and cooperatives played an important role as ‘sponsors’ for the vocational education and training (VET) system. The enterprises not only supported the school budget, but also helped to define the number of enrolments and the structure of the programmes.