Country report

1. STEM education

Although Romania is close to the proposed EU-level targets for higher education in STEM, the number of trained professionals is low, while labour market forecasts predict a high demand for specialists. In 2023, the percentage of Romanian students enrolled in a STEM university programme was one of the highest in the EU (30.9%, EU: 26.9%), just below the proposed EU-level target of 32% by 2030. 37.4% of them were women (EU: 32.2%), also one of the highest shares in the EU, and close to the prosed target of 40%. In part, these high shares reflect a certain historical tradition to study STEM, the importance of the IT sector in Romania, the study offer in higher education and the existence of specialised high schools in mathematics and science, as well as the societal value associated with STEM careers. However, due to low participation in higher education and high dropout rates (see Section 5) there were only 19.0 STEM graduates (ISCED 5-8) per 1 000 people aged 20-29, compared to an EU average of 22.4 in 2023. 4.5% of doctoral students were enrolled in a degree in ICT, compared to the EU average of 3.8% and the proposed target of 5%. Among doctoral students in ICT, 33.1% were women, significantly above the EU average (24.3%) and in line with the proposed target of 33%. Forecasts show that from 2022 to 2035, the growth in employment in high-tech manufacturing and services in Romania will be one of the highest among all EU Member States (Cedefop indicator, 2025).

The VET offer increasingly focuses on STEM. In Romania, 36.0% of pupils in medium-level VET in 2023 were enrolled in STEM fields (36.3% in the EU). Of these, 36.4% were girls, one of the highest shares in the EU (15.4% average in 2023) and even exceeding the proposed 2030 EU-wide target of at least 25%. The National Centre for the Development of Vocational and Technical Education (CNDIPT) intensified the development of new curricula and training standards based on labour market needs, resulting in a greater availability of STEM-related specialisations. New qualifications include: ‘electrician for photovoltaic systems’, contributing to the green transition, and ‘industrial robot operator’, demanded in the field of electronics/automatics (Cedefop, & ReferNet, 2025). Competitions in STEM fields such as robotics (e.g. the ‘First Tech Challenge’) are also gaining popularity.

Romania’s STEM education policies are operationalised by the new education laws and the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). The concept of STE(A)M education, which includes arts alongside science, technology, engineering and mathematics, is one of the 10 priorities of ‘Educated Romania’, the strategic framework for education until 2030. The objective is to increase students’ interest in STE(A)M, prepare and support teachers to teach and assess STE(A)M competences, provide the necessary infrastructure, technology and resources, and support from school management, and develop relevant initiatives and partnerships. Several key reforms and investments under the NRRP target STEM competences, such as large-scale investments in-school laboratories and smart labs, digital skills training for teachers, digitalisation measures and research laboratories for universities, and reform and investments in dual VET (see Sections 4 and 5). Furthermore, the 2023 education laws envisage national programmes for science, engineering and mathematics in higher education and pre-university education. Their aim is to develop laboratories and research centres, multidisciplinary study programmes, collaboration with employers, staff training and retention, as well as support for STEM school laboratories. However, due to budget constraints, their implementation remains to be seen.

Beyond ongoing efforts, structural barriers remain to stepping up STEM education. Lack of basic skills among young people, including in mathematics and science (see Section 3), is a limiting factor. The focus on theoretical aspects and limited practical applications in teaching remain a challenge, worsened by the lack of teacher training in specific pedagogies, such as inquiry-based science learning or project-based learning. Until recently, there was also a widespread lack of science laboratories. While the large-scale NRRP investments underway are equipping schools with the necessary infrastructure for STEM, the need to ensure adequate teacher training persists, alongside the need to improve basic skills and higher education attainment (see Section 5).

2. Early childhood education and care

Participation in ECEC remains low due to insufficient facilities, lack of staff and socio-economic factors. In 2023, enrolment for children aged 3 up to the starting age of compulsory primary education increased slightly to 75.7%, but remains significantly below the EU average (94.6%) and the EU-level target of 96% by 2030. Although education is already compulsory for children aged 4 and 5, in practice, insufficient facilities and human resources are barriers to participation (OECD, 2025). In rural areas, only 57.9% of children aged 3 attended kindergarten (75.3% in urban areas), 67.7% of 4-year-olds (87.7% in urban areas), and 70.2% of 5-year-olds (88.5% in urban areas) (Ministry of Education, 2024). This gap in participation is due to access challenges, including the distance between home and kindergarten, and cultural and socio-economic factors (ibid.). While improving, the participation rate of Roma children is significantly lower, with 40% attending in 2024, compared to 27% in 2021 (Fundamental Rights Agency, 2025). To expand the offer, complementary early childhood education services in disadvantaged localities are being set up with NRRP funding. Furthermore, participation in formal childcare for children under the age of 3 remains low: 11.4% in 2024, below the EU average (39.3%) and Romania’s national Barcelona target of 22.5% by 2030. While the network of nurseries is expanding, including at least 110 crèches financed under the NRRP, the offer remains limited, especially in rural areas.

The unitary system for ECEC (ages 0-6), introduced in December 2022, is helping to improve quality, but several areas for improvement remain. A recent report (OECD, 2025) notes that although unitary quality standards for licensing, external and self-evaluation are in place for nurseries and kindergartens, there is room to strengthen these processes. While policies were introduced to ensure consistency and improve quality in initial education by aligning programmes with the professional competency profiles, their quality and relevance may vary due to the design of accreditation procedures (ibid.). In 2023, a new continuous professional development programme was introduced to reskill existing and new staff to address the shortage of qualified specialists in nurseries. Centre-based opportunities for teachers to learn and develop professionally are envisaged by the new education laws, together with structured mentorship for novice and practising teachers, and peer-learning communities (ibid.). To address some of the challenges in identifying teachers’ and educators’ professional development needs, Romania recently started an ESF+ project and is providing training under the NRRP. The ESF+ project (EUR 23.2 million, running until January 2029), will help to develop the quality assurance framework, improve local capacities, and develop and support the system of initial and continuous training for ECEC.

3. School education and basic skills

Widespread lack of basic skills among young people undermines Romania’s competitiveness. The 2022 OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) reconfirmed that large shares of Romania’s young people do not have the basic skills considered necessary to fully participate in society and succeed on the labour market: 48.6% lacked basic proficiency in mathematics (EU: 29.5%), 41.7% in reading (EU: 26.2%) and 44.0% in science (EU: 24.2%) (OECD, 2023). Only 4.0% of 15-year-olds surveyed demonstrated advanced levels in basic skills in mathematics (EU: 7.9%), 2.0% in reading (EU: 6.5%); and 1.4% in sciences (EU: 6.9%), limiting the pool for innovation and excellence. Moreover, 74% of Romanian 14-year-olds lacked the essential computer and information literacy skills tested in the IEA’s International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS) (EU -22: 43%), far from the EU target of reducing underachievement below 15% by 2030 (European Commission, 2024a). These skills are needed to navigate today’s digital world. International surveys also show that there is room to improve civic competences of Romanian pupils, who would benefit from additional instruction to deepen their understanding of complex civic issues (Schulz et all, 2023). Against this background, in 2025, the Council of the European Union called on Romania to ‘tackle skills shortages by boosting basic skills and labour market relevant skills of the workforce, as well as improving stakeholder engagement and making best use of skills intelligence in education and skills policies’ (Council of the EU, 2025). With ESF+ support, Romania recently began implementing a national programme to improve basic skills, which includes measures to analyse the drivers of underachievement, developing functional literacy learning and assessment standards, training and support for teachers, as well piloting measures in schools with the aim of scaling up at national level.

The lack of basic skills is symptomatic of broader quality challenges linked to teaching. Despite the recent introduction of a compulsory master in pedagogics, teaching quality is impacted by the fact that a large share of schoolteachers received limited pedagogical preparation in their initial teacher education (OECD, 2017), while continuous professional development (CPD) typically consisted of short training courses outside schools, often of poor quality and relevance (OECD, 2025). To improve the situation, the new education law introduced structured mentorship for practising teachers and envisaged a revision of CPD. It further set the expectation for schools to organise learning communities to facilitate collaborative learning among teachers, but in-school teacher appraisal is not currently designed to help teachers improve their teaching practices (ibid.). Furthermore, several teacher-related aspects envisaged by the education laws have yet to be worked out, are postponed or require further consideration. Although Romania has gradually rolled out a competence-based curriculum for primary and lower-secondary education since 2012/2013, changes in teaching practices have been slow to take effect (OECD, 2025). There is a need to further develop resources to help teachers deliver competence-based teaching, provide them with additional support and guidance, and to better align the national evaluation at the end of eighth grade with the curriculum (ibid.). While the curriculum for upper secondary is currently being revised and its implementation will benefit from ESF+ support, further changes to the school curriculum (e.g. focusing on basic skills across all subjects and preventing overcrowding) could be considered (European Commission, 2025). To improve aspects related to implementing curricular reform at local, county and central level, Romania also benefits from the Technical Support Instrument., aiming to develop learning practices and schools’ capacities to promote effective teaching and learning.

Students’ socio-economic background is a strong predictor of basic skills performance, and challenges for Roma inclusion persist. In the PISA test, 57.8% of Romanian students from the poorest quartile simultaneously lacked basic skills in mathematics, reading and science, compared to 9% among their more advantaged peers (European Commission, 2024b). Only 3.7% of students from disadvantaged backgrounds achieved a good level (i.e. PISA level 4) in one of the three subjects tested in the PISA test (OECD, 2023), substantially below the EU average (16.3%). In digital skills, the socio-economic divide is particularly stark: Romania is among the EU countries with the highest percentage point gap, considering parents’ occupational status: 57 pp., compared to the EU average of 40.9 pp. (Fraillon, 2024). Furthermore, students in rural schools scored significantly below those in urban schools (i.e. 119 PISA score points lower in mathematics). Rural-urban disparities have major implications, with almost 42% of students in primary and lower-secondary attending schools in rural areas in 2023. Furthermore, 43% of Roma students are attending schools where most or all are Roma (Fundamental Rights Agency, 2025), which exacerbates marginalisation and learning disadvantages. Nevertheless, implementing the national methodology to identify and combat school segregation may help.

The National Programme to Reduce School Dropout is showing positive results, but Romania still has the highest rate of early school leaving in the EU. In 2024, the percentage of early leavers from education and training among 18-24 years-olds increased to 16.8%, significantly above the EU average (9.4%) and the EU-level target of below 9% by 2030. Early school leaving remains particularly problematic in rural areas (26.3%), but also in towns and suburbs (15.3%), compared to 3.3% in cities. It is also very high among Roma people, although somewhat improving (Fundamental Rights Agency, 2025). Through the National Programme to Reduce School Drop-Out (PNRAS), financed under the NRRP, more than 2 000 schools have already received grants to implement specific educational and social measures to reduce dropout. Results from the first round of projects showed that 45% of selected schools had improved their participation and performance in the national evaluation and reported a reduction in dropout (Ministry of Education, 2025). To support similar measures in primary education, EUR 242 million were allocated under the ESF+. Nevertheless, the need to reach out and re-enrol the large number of out-of-school children remains.

The government programme includes several measures linked to the education system, including with a view to reducing spending. In August 2025, an order was adopted on reorganising state pre-university education, which increases the standard didactic teaching hours for subject teachers from 18h/week to 20h/week, which is in line with the average in the EU/OECD. Additionally, to reduce concentration and avoid fragmentation, schools will be merged and the allowed number of pupils per class will be increased for preparatory classes, fifth grade, and ninth grade to align with other grade levels. For higher education, an increase from 16 to 18h/week was announced to allow universities to stay within their allocated budgets. Academic concentration for higher education and research and development is also envisaged. These measures follow the recent law on fiscal-budgetary measures, aiming to strengthen Romania’s long-term financial sustainability by limiting permanent expenditures in fields such as education, health, and transport and infrastructure.

4. Vocational education and training

Despite the high share of students in VET programmes, challenges persist in ensuring a successful school-to-work transition. In 2023, 61.3% of pupils in medium-level education were enrolled in VET (EU: 52.4%). Measures to encourage participation in VET include providing monthly scholarships for students on the technological track, awareness-raising campaigns, and additional financial support for disadvantaged students (Ministry of Education, 2024). Through the NRRP, vocational schools are being equipped with practice workshops and IT labs. Although decreasing, the rate of school dropout is nearly five times higher for students in technological pathways compared to the theoretical track (Ministry of Education, 2024). Furthermore, only 65.7% of recent VET graduates were employed in 2024 (EU: 80.0%), denoting challenges in readying students for employment.

Ongoing reforms aim to ensure more flexibility and progression opportunities in VET. Starting in 2025-2026, the three-year school-based VET, including the dual form and the four-year technological high school programmes, will merge into a single technological high school pathway. Students will still have the option to obtain a certificate of professional education (EQF level 3) after completing three years, and EQF level 4 qualification and baccalaureate diploma after four years (Cerkez et al., 2024). New legislation also introduces a new dual model of vocational higher education (see Box).

With EU support, Romania seeks to better align VET provision with labour market needs. In 2024, only 7.2% of recent VET graduates had experienced work-based learning during their training (EU: 65.2%). The share of students pursuing dual VET upper-secondary courses increased, reaching 18.8% in 2024/2025 (Ministry of Education, 2024), but this is well below the target of transitioning all secondary VET programmes into the dual system by 2029-2030. A major development contributing to the higher uptake of dual VET is the establishment of the 29 regional dual education consortia (see Section 5). However, challenges remain to significantly strengthen companies’ involvement in VET training provision, especially in rural areas. The roll out of ESF+-funded apprenticeships in 2024 aims to stimulate the creation of new partnerships, while helping 40 000 students to obtain work-based training. Nevertheless, VET policies have yet to be underpinned with skills intelligence and robust quality assurance mechanisms.

5. Tertiary education

Romania is making efforts to overcome some of the structural barriers that limit participation in higher education and constrain attainment rates at the lowest level in the EU. The proportion of Romanians aged 25-34 with a tertiary degree increased slightly to 23.2% in 2024. The figure is nevertheless significantly below the EU average of 44.1% and the EU-level target of 45%. Attainment has not improved over the last decade, including due to high levels of early school leaving (see Section 3), low participation of disadvantaged students and around half of university students dropping out (UEFISCDI, 2022) and emigration. Financial barriers and the lack of coherence between upper-secondary pathways and higher education programmes are key factors behind the high dropout, which is particularly high for those who graduated from VET (OECD, 2025). To address barriers to participation, Romania is implementing the National Programme for Reduction of University Dropout (PNRAU). This includes the ‘First student in the family’ programme, co-funded by the ESF+ with EUR 88 million, which targets students from disadvantaged backgrounds, including Roma. The programme, which already has 10 000 beneficiaries, supports high school students in passing the baccalaureate exam, and supports university students through scholarships, financial support for accommodation and meals, career counselling and remedial education. ESF+ is also helping develop and implement tools to monitor the transition to higher education and dropout rates.

Despite measures to improve quality and labour market relevance in higher education, significant challenges remain for the sector. The introduction of the dual route in higher education (see Box) aims to improve labour market relevance and participation. It is supported by 29 dual VET consortia currently set up across the country, including with funding from the NRRP. Furthermore, the digitalisation grants awarded to 61 Romanian universities under the NRRPs aimed to improve universities’ digital ecosystem, the digital skills of staff and students and facilitate curricular improvements. In addition, the ongoing NRRP investments in students’ dormitories and social infrastructure aim to support learning environments in universities and equity. The ERDF allocated over EUR 86 million to upgrade tertiary infrastructure. Nevertheless, several key challenges remain. For example, Romania still lacks a clear differentiation of tertiary educational institutions both horizontally, by institutional type, and vertically, by quality and prestige (OECD, 2025). While progress has been made in strengthening institutional governance, integrity and leadership capacity in universities remain a concern, while research activities are still underdeveloped and underfunded (ibid.).

The attractiveness of Romanian higher education is limited in EU comparison. In 2023, 5.2% of students in Romania came from abroad (vs EU: 9.2%). 24% of them originated in EU countries and 52.2% in other European countries. At the same time, 7.2% of Romanian students left to pursue (parts of) their degree elsewhere. Among those participating in credit mobility, Italy (14.1%), France (12.4%), and Spain (11.4%) were the most popular destinations, which mirrors the picture for incoming students: most incoming EU students came from France (58.3%), Italy (15.6%), and Spain (14.0%).

6. Adult skills and learning

While improving, participation in adult learning remains insufficient to address growing skills shortages. Between 2016 and 2022, the share of adults (25-64) participating in adult learning increased in Romania (from 5.8% to 19.1%). However, the rate remains among the lowest in the EU (EU: 39.5%) and is significantly lower for those outside the labour market, living in rural areas or having at most lower-secondary education. Meanwhile, the population’s level of digital skills is alarmingly low: less than a third of people aged 16-74 had basic digital skills in 2023 (27.7%, EU: 55.6%). Romania’s transition to a services-based, green and digital economy, besides giving way for new advanced specialisations, will demand that workers across the spectrum adapt to a more technological and rapidly changing working environment. Recent forecasts (Cedefop, 2025) show Romania witnessing a 26% increase in demand for high-skilled workers by 2035, while the share of low-skilled employees in the labour force is projected to decline to 8% (16% in 2021). Considering Romania’s rapidly shrinking working age population, improving lifelong learning is essential to address the needs of the economy, promote competitiveness, and enable sustainable and fair growth.

Romania is actively addressing challenges in the adult learning system under a new strategic framework. The implementation of adult learning strategies developed by the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Education gained momentum in 2024, largely supported by the ESF+. Large-scale upskilling projects targeted at employees (e.g. ‘Keep Up’ and ‘Digital skills for the labour market’) and low-skilled people (‘Basic package for people without/with low level of education’) are being implemented, and have the potential to reach over 100 000people. An individual learning accounts scheme is being piloted for construction sector workers and could be expanded to all occupations depending on its success. The strategies also include plans to roll out micro-credential certifications, improve quality assurance and modernise systems for skills’ recognition and validation. Nevertheless, Romania could benefit from further strengthening inter-ministerial and cross-sectoral coordination in skills policymaking, as well as better stimulating the private sector’s involvement in upskilling and reskilling efforts (European Commission, 2025).