Abstract:

The current system of pre-university education in Romania, subject to many changes in the post-communist period is still looking for its way. Most of the decisions are taken at the central level, the system is underfunded, there are not opportunities and tools to motivate teachers and the local authorities do not perceive that education is their responsibility. Although the Ministry of National Education has outsourced some functions (assessment, curriculum development, quality assurance) retains many decision-making powers applied in the territory by the 42 county school inspectorates with a decisive role in the management of schools in the 42 regions.

The Government expects medium-term administrative changes regionalization of the country (in the future there will be only 8 regions) which requires significant changes in school system. In this context, academia is concerned to find the best rate for transfer of competencies to local authorities to safeguard the equilibrium of a social system as complex as that of education.

This research highlights the perception and aspiration of stakeholders on various aspects of undergraduate education towards regionalization and decentralization. Thus, respondents revealed the need for changes to the paradigm of learning (content, tools, methods, management) and mentality (organizational culture, training, personal development, social cohesion).

How to reflect these changes in the management of the school unit, school board or institutions with an important role in the education system?
The current model of management education is essentially a government in which the exercise of power is achieved by imposing decisions from central to local levels.

On the school as a modern public service focused on more responsibility towards stakeholders, flexibility and responsiveness, we can define a way of the institutional leading – governance - which is a leading that correlates, through a number of rules, the human actions and the material factors to ensure success. In line with the views of the interviewed stakeholders, this type of leadership can be held by one form or another, by a school – community partnership set.

In this context, the concrete problems of education governance in Romania can be grouped in four categories:
1. Setting national system of education and training (structure, resources, etc.).
2. Defining Operating toolkit (such as decentralization) in the context of autonomy and individual freedom
3. Assuming the values and objectives of quality assurance
4. Compatibility between objectives, resources and results.

Processing investigations indicates concern and willingness to engage stakeholders in the school development. A first set of conclusions, useful to decision makers from education and training, highlights:
- Performance cannot guarantee without providing education governance.
- A strong government is not needed but competent governance is needed (from heads to leaders).
- It is necessary to move from coercion to consensus agreement by consent.
- In ensuring good governance skills are not enough, knowledge and awareness are needed.
- In terms of governance, a position and not imitation should be assumed.

Keywords:

Education, government, governance, stakeholders, accountability.