The EFA 2000 Assessment: Country Reports
Romania

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7. Education for the Quality of Life

As mentioned in this report, the insufficient or inadequate education represents obvious consequences on the quality of life. The lack of qualification or the hiring as an unqualified worker generates poverty most of the time. The reduced willing to receipt information-especially from books and newspapers- obstruct the access to culture, science and new technology, also may leads to poverty. On the other hand the family background characterized by a reduced access to education affect the chances of the next generations, too, reproducing the life conditions of the former generations. Additionally these chances are affected by the influences generated by the development level of the provenience areas where children are growing and learning. This fact may amplify the inequity produced by the disadvantageous conditions of the family.

In the following part, as a finalisation of the specialized analysis presented in the former chapters, the education for all will be presented from the perspective of its consequences on the global indicator that is the quality of life. More exactly, we will try to determine the effects on the education for all of a problematic context, as it is the Romania of ‘90s.

Two major characteristics of the last period- social polarization and the increasing poverty degree - affects in a great measure the access of the population to education. This is the cause for the occurrence of a vicious circle: poverty reducing dramatically the access to education and the lack of education is leading to the increasing of poverty. As a consequence of the transition difficulties, resulted a rapid increase of the educational polarization through an important part of the young generation attends higher education while, at the opposite extreme, an increasing proportion of the population abandons primary or secondary school. At the moment, primary and secondary education- compulsory and free- registers a 5% rate of children that are not attending these forms of education, respectively; one child of seven children with ages between 11-14 years is facing this situation.

Youth with a low educational level, unqualified, represents one of the social groups with a high risk of severe poverty. Educational participation decreased, the educational abandon (failure) occurred having a direct contribution to the constitution of an important segment of the future poor people. These poor people originate in the young people with an important deficit of educational and professional training.

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In this respect, the National Commission for Statistics (AMIGO) revealed an important negative correlation between the educational level of certain social categories and the their level of poverty.

Grouping the investigated population on a scale with five levels (quintiles) according to the level of poverty of the household and comparing the two categories-the first including the population from the (extremely) poor area and the second including the population with a (very) high level of the quality of life – from the perspective of the level of instruction, one will conclude that, 60% from the total population with low educational level lives in poverty while only 22% from the population with a low educational level enjoys a decent quality of life. Among population that graduated secondary school or vocational school, more than a half (54%) are situated in the poor areas and only more than a quarter (27%) lives in the decent area. As we may notice, the level of the two indicators advance continually in an inverse ratio comparing to the levels of instruction of the population of the other two categories. This is meaning that the higher is the educational level, the more are the chances for a better quality of life while lack of education risks to lead the individual to the critical zone of poverty.

Concerning the population’s quality of life, the research revealed that, at the level of the entire country almost a half of the population that graduated secondary education (47,4%) lives under the minimal subsistence level. In the same situation are a third of the high school graduates and only 15% of the higher education graduates. At the opposite pole, over the minimum decent standard of the quality of life are situated only 17,5% of the first category of population comparing to 24,8%, respectively 35,1% from the last two analyzed categories.

Certainly, the poverty degree of a family is both determined by the low level of its revenues and by the family member’s number sharing these revenues. The more numerous is the number of children, the more will diminish the part from the revenues allocated to them, leading obviously to the diminishing of the educational expenses. In conclusion, the chances for appropriate education of the children coming from numerous families, situated in the poverty zone are seriously reduced.

A study realized during 1998, in Bucharest, on a representative sample of pupils and graduates of the secondary school and of high school graduates, revealed important differences in terms of formation and fulfillment of the need for education. This study focused differences on the one hand between the children coming from disadvantaged families and families with numerous children, and children coming from families with high revenues and families with few children, on the other hand.

As regards the continuation of studies by the secondary school graduates, only 81% of the children coming from low-income families expressed this option, but only 75% of their total passed the entrance examinations. Comparatively, the children coming from rich families passed the entrance examination in high school in 98% proportion.

The above mentioned research revealed not only a decreasing of access chances for the children coming from poor families, but also the fact that poverty influence educational expectancies of this children. While almost all secondary school graduates coming from medium or high revenues wish to continue their studies, only 81% of the children coming from poor families expressed this option.

Formation and accomplishment of the educational demand of children according to the income level of the origin family in

A similar situation characterizes the graduates coming from the families with many children. Only 83% of the children coming from this category are willing to follow the high school, but only 68% passed the entrance exam, while the graduates coming from families with one or two children succeeded in 89% proportion.

Certainly, adjacent to the life and study conditions-more reduced in the case of poor families, an important cause of chances diminishing is the lesser possibility of these families to offer their children the supplementary paid parallel education. For instance, in Bucharest, only 42% from the families with modest revenues afford to offer their children this opportunity, while three-quarters from the total number of children from the high revenue families were offered parallel education. Concerning the second criteria, the study revealed that two thirds of the children without brothers or having only one brother are preparing through the parallel education system, while only 40% of the children coming from families with many children afford this opportunity.

Extending the signification of the poverty concept, from the narrow level of the family revenues to the social and economical development of the different areas of the country, in the context of diminishing the budgetary resources, we will find significant differences, especially between the rural and urban areas. The environment as well as the social and economic development of the provenience area also influences the quality of life of the population, and implicitly to the quality of education.

The development of the cultural level of the area must be taken into account, in the context of the presence of major differences between rural and urban areas, in terms of access to mass media or other media of culture and information. These differences increase according to the enlarging of distances and diminishing of the possibilities of access and communication in the case of isolated rural areas. The climate and the level of resources influence not only the quality of life of the population from the area, but also the quality of educational offer. The conditions offered to the rural network of education, particularly for the isolated areas- characterized by unqualified teaching personnel, inappropriate equipment, or by the difficulties of access to education of the children and teaching staff- leads to the failure concerning the quality of education. Educational expenses-regarding all types of resources- in these areas is very high.

If we take into consideration the high level of educational failure in the rural areas, reminding the migration process on the town-village axis-occurred after 1990- we will find an increasing of the internal social income for the population of these areas with small chances for a future recovering.

Concerning the effort to increase the chances for education of the population of the rural areas, the most important aspect is represented by the assurance of the basic education for all children of correspondent age, organizing the pre-school, primary and secondary education as close as possible the children residence. The educational chances are assured mainly by the distribution of the educational network, if we mention the proportion of the 82% of the basic education institutions (primary and secondary schools) functioning in the rural areas, attended only by 40% of the school population at the legal age.

Only 18% of the educational institutions are functioning in counties and towns, even if in the urban area lives 60% of the school population of legal age. An important measure in the direction of the universal educational chances assurance is related to the depart from the norms regarding class dimension and organisation of teaching. In this respect were settled classes with a small number of pupils, classes with simultaneous teaching in the areas with a reduced birth rate or in the areas with a numerous ethnic minority population. A similar situation is met in the areas with difficult access to school. The assurance of the basic education for all children categories –disadvantaged groups, rural population, ethnic minorities etc.-represents a necessary step in order to reduce the risks of marginalisation of these groups, even if this leads to the increasing of the educational costs, respectively to the increasing of the budgetary effort.

The aspects mentioned above leads us to conclusions according to, the educational chances of the social groups and persons are not equal. These chances are influenced by some factors like: the level of economic development of the area, environment (urban/rural) particularities, family income level, educational level or social and professional category of the parents, etc. The latter differences does not refer to the educational system offer or to the educational success, but also to the differences in the attitude toward education as well as the differences concerning motivations and formation of the individual’s need for education.

The number of unemployed whit an uncompleted basic educational level, registered a two folds increasing in 1998, comparing to 1997. Unemployed with a reduced educational level represent 6,5% of the total number of unemployed, out of which 4% are in the urban area and 2,5 % are in the rural area. On the other side, in the urban area, the proportion of population without instruction or primary school graduates is only 1,4% of the total population, or of 1,2% if we take in consideration the total employed population. Comparing these proportions will find that the risk of entering in the unemployed population category is considerably higher for the persons without instruction or with a low level of education.

Every analysis realized on the human capital must take into consideration not only the financial support capacity, respectively the possibility to support the educational expenses- according to the number of the members, but also the family influence on their children’s knowledge, qualifications, values and customs. Educational diversity of the family comes, in part, from its social structure, respectively from the social and professional origin, level of instruction, residence environment (urban or rural). These factors influence the educational competencies of the parents.

In the conditions of the worsening of the economic context many families lives in real poverty. This aspect represents an active factor of the social polarization, limiting the educational chances for a considerable number of individuals. A general image on the family’s level of instruction in Romania is offered by a study realized by the National Commission for Statistics, based on the results of the Integrated Investigation on Households. Defining the educational category of the household according to the level of instruction of the head of the family, the classification of the households in conformity to the instruction criteria revealed the fact that two thirds (66,9%) of the Romanian citizens being the head of the family, graduated various levels of the secondary education. Only 7,3% graduated higher education, and a quarter of the heads of the family (25,8%) graduated the primary level of instruction (including those that did not graduate the primary school). Four or five of these households (81%) are situated in the rural area (the head of the family having the status of peasant or pensioned) and only a fifth are located in urban areas.

If the family revenues proved to be a strong factor of social polarization, having influences on the access to education as well as on the attitudes toward education, household expenses represents another criteria of evaluating the quality of life. Household expenses provide information on the influence of the level of instruction on the quality of life. Referring to the main expenses of a medium family (including the value of articles produced in the household), respectively the expenses for maintenance and education, and comparing their proportions within the income expenses of the various categories of family (with primary education level, secondary level and higher education level) was found that:

Educational and culture expenses of the medium family with a primary education level of instruction are 2,8 folds smaller than the educational expenses of the households with a secondary education level and almost ten folds smaller than the educational expenses of the families with a higher educational level.

Maintenance Expenses:

Destined to the procurement of aliments and drinks, represents two thirds from the total income expenses realized by the first category, comparatively with only 57% and respectively 47% corresponding to the other educational categories;

Destined to the maintenance of the house and goods acquisition are 1,1 respectively 1,4 times smaller for the first category of families, comparatively with the other two categories with a higher level of instruction of the head of the family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Within the income structure, the proportions of expenses for the maintenance of the house and goods acquisition do not differ too much between the three categories. The rate of food expenses is the highest in the families with a primary education level of instruction, representing two thirds from the total expenses (comparing to about half in the other two categories). For these reasons it must be emphasized the problem of the access to education for the families with a low level of instruction, which are affording only minimal expenses for educational activities.

Concerning the influence of the family environment on children motivations and their educational demand, the study emphasized that alongside the social-demographic and economic factors (medium income /person) the importance of the social factors related to the instruction level of the parents.

Similarly to the conclusions on the influence of the two above analyzed factor, was found that the educational level of parents affects seriously the educational demand of their children. The results of the investigation proved that only 75% of the secondary school graduates are willing to continue their studies in high school, while almost all of the graduates (94%) coming from the other categories of families are willing to continue their studies. Significant differences were also discovered related to the educational success of these children. Therefore, it may be noticed the influence of the economical and social factors on the educational success of the children, clearly in the disadvantage of the children coming from families with a inferior level of instruction, with lower income and a numerous number of brothers.

If the economical factors will remain dominant for children access to education for the next period of time, an analysis of the evolution in time of the family’s role in children’s education will lead to the discovering of two things. On the one hand will be noticed the decreasing in the intensity of the family’s contribution at child education and on the other hand the increasing of the family’s role in the children social integration. This will be possible by the motivations induced by family, the education for the quality of life and by the long life learning. There are two main aspects determining the diminishing of the educational role of the family.

The first one refers to the position of the woman (as mother and the main teacher of the family), and as a person involved in society and in the production activities. In this situation, since early childhood, the contribution of the formal education will affect her more and more. The generalization of the preparatory group for school will determine the beginning of educational period for all children at the age of 6, transferring to the formal system the role of the teacher of the family.

The second aspect leading to the diminishing intensity of the family environment influence is represented by the speed of the economical and social changes, by the occurrence and development of the modern information and communication methods that will be used by children more and more.

Certainly, this perspective may contribute to the increasing of the social polarization in the disadvantage of the poor families. However, the necessity of understanding and assimilation of information in the case of the families with a lower level of instruction, as well as the child’s interest for the new mass media, may determine the increasing of the motivation for instruction. This may facilitate the increasing role of the educational institutions for the compensation of the insufficient education offered by the family.

The interest of people for the political life as well as the direct implication in its different aspects is also influenced by the population’s level of instruction. Among the means of evaluation for the individual’s interest for the political life, we can mention the interest for the mass-media information or the preoccupation for the vote system, seeing in the latter a way to participate to the construction of his own future. As regards the effective participation to the political life, this objective can be realized through the enrolment-as a member-in the activities of a political party. Studies realized in Bucharest revealed an equal interest for the TV and radio broadcasts, manifested by all investigated individuals.

In reverse order, the habit to read newspapers is clearly influenced by the level of education. It was found that in Bucharest, a half from the investigated subjects that did not graduate the primary school do not read newspapers, as well as a third of the secondary school graduates. Generally, the population segments without instruction is split in two large categories: the category of people that do not read newspapers and the category of people interested by utmost a newspaper.

Finding displeasure expressed by the population toward the activities of the state institutions elected by democratic vote, and asking opinions on possible amelioration, it was found that almost 60% of the persons that did not graduate the secondary school are either uninterested, or do not understand the different vote systems (‘party list’ or ‘uninominal’), or are hesitating regarding the vote participation. The graduates of the secondary school already performed a behaviour similar to the high school graduates or vocational school graduates political behaviour.

It is well known the fact the birth behaviour as well as the family planning behaviour is closely connected to the level of instruction or the general culture degree. In this respect, the data offered by the 1991 census according to that, the country average rate of children born by the women of 15 years old and over was 1,8 children per women. The data shows that women without primary education born, in average 2,7 children comparing to the 1,7 children born by the women which graduated secondary education and only 1,1 children born by women that graduated high school or higher education.

The negative and long-time effects of the past that are still producing sufferance were generated by the imposed demographic policy and by ignoring its effect on a long term. The consequences reflected in the deterioration of the population health state (particularly in the case of the mother and child), and in the deterioration of the maternal and infant mortality indicators, etc.

In December 1989, the legislation forbidding the abortions occurred as a reparatory measure, in a context characterized by the population’s lack of the minimal information concerning the health of reproduction. As a result of this measures, but also because of the demographic changes characterized by the decreasing of marriage’s number and the increasing of the divorces number, beginning with 1990 was registered a severe decreasing in the number of legal and illegal abortions.

Women behaviour in terms of family planning, the familiarization with the contraceptive methods and the avoidance of abortions, is totally different for women with different levels of education- primary level on the one hand and secondary, high school and higher education on the other hand. Research on the behaviour related to the utilization of contraceptive methods proved that a significant number of women, especially those from the rural areas do not know the contraceptive methods. For this reason, the number of abortions and maternal mortality is higher for the less educated population. At the end of 1995, were registered 2.12 abortions to a child born alive. Concerning the maternal mortality- determined by the illegal abortions- it reached an average of 47,5 deaths at 100000 children born alive. Statistics indicates an increased intensity of this phenomenon for the women from the rural area, with a lower educational level. A consequence of the lack of education concerning the contraceptive methods is due to the difference of fertility between the women from the urban area comparing to the women from the rural area, the latter having in average one child more than the former. Also, it was noticed a reversed proportion between the number of children and the level of instruction, meaning that women with a lower level of instruction are usually willing a greater number of children, often worsening their poverty.

Concerning the population’s degree of knowledge related to the problems of the health of reproduction also was noticed the lack of education envisaging the venereal disease. Was detected an alarming increase of the number of HIV infected persons as well as the increasing of the SIDA cases. The inquiries realized by the Sanitary Statistics Center within the over 15 years old population, indicated that a great number of population does not know any contraceptive method for the prevention of the HIV virus infection. For instance, if at the entire sample level, 14%of the young people investigated does know nothing about the contraceptive methods, especially in the rural area, where the educational level is significantly lower comparing to the urban population, their proportion is of 22%.

The proportion of the permanent smokers is 33% within the qualified and unqualified workers and only 24% among officers that graduated high school and higher education.

The proportion of permanent alcohol consumers is over 13% among the workers with and without qualification and only of 5% among the officers that graduated high school and higher education.

Research regarding the state of health of the population demonstrated that the educational level of the population influences the prevalence of morbidity. The studies indicate that the morbidity prevalence known certainly, is of 107 disease per 100 investigated persons with ages over 15 years old. For the people that did not graduated the elementary school, morbidity prevalence is 95 diseases for the secondary school graduates, 76 disease for the high school graduates and 69 for the higher education graduates.

Researches realized by the Institute for the Quality of Life revealed that the low level of education expresses, on the one hand the lack of care for education, present in the origin families of the teenagers committing crimes. On the other hand, it expresses the way a low level of instruction leads to a deviant and criminal behaviour. Investigating the origin background of the analyzed persons, was found that 40% of the subjects were coming from families with parents without instruction, 45% of the teenager’s parents were primary school graduates and only 15% were coming from families with a secondary instruction level. Analyzing from a different perspective the selected sample, more exactly, taking into consideration the educational level of the teenagers in discussion, was found that 66% of this population didn’t graduated the primary school level and only a few graduated some elementary grades.

Education can not solve all these problems. Many of them have social and economical profound causes, needing ample interventions that overpass the singular possibilities of education.

Despite of all, it clearly resulted that the lack of access or an insufficient education is, if not the cause, at least an additional factor of producing poverty, unemployment, juvenile delinquency or civic apathy.

Another conclusion is that education for all is realized through a multitude of means, institutions and educational environments. It is what we call the system of education for all. In this last part of the chapter, will be presented an inventory of the institutions and means composing this system.

Among the extra-school activities that support and complete the school education, we will remind the activities realized within the ‘sports clubs’ and ‘children and pupil’s clubs’. It must be mentioned that these activities, supported by the state are present in all the counties of the country, in schools or special arranged spaces, but predominating in the urban area. From the total of 239 clubs of pupils and children, 214 are developing theirs activities in towns and counties, while only 25 activate in the rural area.

Educational contests on disciplines, artistic activities, (representations and contests of music and dance, pupil’s exhibitions etc) and sportive contests, as well as the artistic, literary or information technology educational camps represents as many extra-curricular educational means.

Educational library, as an institution activates within the educational units, representing the institution where-even not totally- children from the rural area also have access. At the level of the entire country are functioning almost 9600 educational libraries- an insufficient number thinking about the over 13000 basic educational units and the 2000 secondary educational units that use them. In 1998-1999 educational year, the number of the 2883 thousands of readers frequenting the educational libraries represented 62% of the educational population of the pre-university education. The borrowed volumes represented 45% of the total number of existent found of books.

All mass-media- newspapers and reviews, radio and TV stations- participate directly or indirectly to the promotion of the education for all. If for the categories of population with a lower level of instruction, written media present less interest (among other reasons because the lack of abilities for lecture), Radio and TV broadcasts are more accessible.

Without an exact representation of the households’ endowment with radio sets, we appreciate that this media is the most spread in all social categories. Comparing to the written media- with a local spread and a narrower area, particularly in the rural localities-

The great majority of the population has access to the National Radio broadcasts. The activity of this institution is oriented to the informative and entertainment programs in parallel with the cultural and educational programs. Among these we can mention:

The general culture broadcasts like: "Mediateca (History, Philosophy, Religion, Economy), "Cultural Atlas", "Radio University (History, Philosophy, Nature, Art etc)", "Books, Ideas, Manuscripts), "Radio Planet (political culture)", "Traditions and Cultural Values of the Romanian Land", "Radio Theatre";

Literary broadcasts: "Romanian Poesy", "Books Life", "Literary Radio Revue" ;

Long life learning broadcasts: foreign languages broadcast (English, French, Italian, Spanish, and German). "Small Dictionary of Philosophy", "The Winds Roza";

Informative broadcasts, with different themes and of a large interest envisaging the rural population, missions with a juridical character, education for health broadcasts, family planning broadcasts, etc.

Because television is present in more and more families, the interest for the various programs is increasing. The national television –TVR1 and TVR2- includes in its schedule both broadcasts and programs with scientific and cultural content, as well as programs addressed directly to the pupils, parents and teachers. If the informative and cultural programs represent informal sources of education, the programs addressed to the pupils are supporting school with complementary information, or by referring to the managerial aspects of school.

Informal education broadcasts: "ATLAS-International Magazine", "Teleencyclopaedia" ,"Caleidoscop-Satelit", "Fare Game", "Cultural Horizons", "Windows to the World", "Knowledge Universe";

Non-formal education broadcasts, for the completion of the school programs: foreign languages courses (English, French, German, Spanish), "The National Theatre of Television", "Arlechino" (theatre for children), "Nature 2000" (ecological education broadcast), "Medicine for All", "Just a Word to Tell You", "Health is better than everything"(sexual education and sanitary programs), "Who’s the Best" (contests between high schools on the general culture thematic), "Step by Step" (science program for youth), broadcast envisaging persons with handicap- translated for deaf and mutes, broadcasts for children and youth;

"broadcast envisaging school’s life-realized in collaboration with the Ministry of National Education: "School Life", "Baccalaureate ‘98" and "The Entrance Examination ‘98", that permanently have informed the interested population, over the educational year, about the new elements occurred in the evaluation system, according to the reforms. Also, it was presented the new formula of he capacity and baccalaureate exams. During the examination period, the examination subjects were extracted randomly and were realized analyses regarding the course of the examinations and the obtained results

If the national television- by its statute- includes in its broadcast schedule educational programs, private televisions- also participates to the informal way of the education of population through the cultural programs and broadcasts included in their scheme. Among the private posts, PRO-TV includes in its schedule a daily informative and educational broadcast and once a week, a cultural broadcast, called " My Profession, the Culture". This way, the private channels participate actively to the mediatization of various events, presenting political life, developing activities around the disadvantaged children or in the favor of talented children.

The written media met a significant extension during the ‘90s, by the numerous publications occurred at the central and local level. There are still three problems related to this mass media. The first one reminds us that the interest and the role in the cultural development of the press represents especially the mark of the persons with high school and higher education instruction, persons with a lower level of instruction being less interested. The second problem envisages the chances of access at the newspaper information of the rural population (considered disadvantaged). The third problem refers also to the chances of access at the newspaper information for the poor categories of population, limiting the possibility of the newspaper procurement for these families

From the large fan of the available publications, we selected for presentation those publications that brings remarkable educational contributions:

Weakly publications of culture and information for youth and adults, "Cultural and Artistic Truth", "AS Formula", "Screen Magazine", "Cultural and Scientific Magazine", "Halloo, PRO Generation";

monthly publications for children and youth : "World Magazine", "The Bolds Club", "Glow Worm", "PIF", "Abracadabra", " Disney and Me", "Tom & Jerry", "Harababura", "Mister Goe";

Publications with educational character addressed to the pupils and teaching personnel: "Education Tribune", "The Revue of the Primary Education", "The Review of Pedagogy".