Abstract:

During the last two decades, Romania has been faced, year by year, with critical situations, for which no final solutions have been found. 18.50% of Romanian students have dropped out of school. Romania's objective for 2020 is to limit the school drop-out rate to 11.30%. This phenomenon is even more extended in rural areas. This is also where we notice the smallest number of graduates from secondary education, who choose to further their studies at a higher level. Less than a quarter of the graduates in rural areas take University or postgraduate courses.

We can see that the students in Romanian schools no longer enjoy studying. The school does not cultivate their creativity, it does not encourage them to discover their skills, it does not attract them with new technologies. Romanian school and most of its teachers subscribe to obsolete ideas on education, the school curricula have remained the same over the years, there is a lack of material resources,and teachers focus mainly on contents and less on how to make it attractive for the students, in order to facilitate the learning process.

The studies and reports issued during the last 5 years reveal the state of Romanian undergraduate education, but fail to point to the required strategies to improve the education system, to adapt it to the present needs of a transforming society, digitised and internationalised.

This article presents, in an empirical analysis, several education alternatives that appeared in a public context –mainly private initiatives, other than the ones in the public education system. Suggested to limited or broad communities in the state mass education as well as in underprivileged groups, their main objectives include contributions and improvements to the education provided by traditional schooling, training and developing the youths' personality, changing their mentality in the direction of a continuous improvement of individual performance, taking responsibility for themselves and for society as a whole.

The research methodology aims to identify and analyse the information provided by the online environment by various specialised websites, concerning the educational models alternative to the centralised Romanian education system. The absence of this information from the main page of the dedicated Ministry made the research more difficult, showing at the same time the limited intentions of state institutions (Ministry, inspectorates, schools) to make their efforts compatible to those of other public bodies that are interested in the progress of youth education.

Such educational initiatives have not been in place in Romania for too many years – some have proven to be successful while others failed. In time, they promoted free initiatives and the involvement of the community, especially of the parents, in school life and in the lives of their own children. Their existence in Romanian education proves that decentralisation and autonomy are critical elements for quality learning. Another relevant aspect is strategic leadership, which is the basis for insuring quality in education services.

Keywords:

Education models, education alternatives, quality in education, strategic leadership.