Abstract:

The positioning of a large number of indicators that describe the quality of education below the levels registered in the European Union, determines a priority for Romania to know the weaknesses of the education system, aspects that can be highlighted and the results of the research presented in this study.

The main objective of this research is to outline an image of the Romanian education system in the rural area from the perspective of the following coordinates: the accessibility and the degree of absorption of the European funds, which reflects the institutional and administrative capacity of the education system to attract financial resources in order to improve rural education. These issues were analyzed in an exploratory research based on secondary data from official reports regarding education.

The research started from the hypothesis that access to quality education in Romania is unequal, and the acquisition of basic skills is limited in the rural areas, this situation being caused by the decrease of the number of functional education units, at the same time with the significant reduction of the population in rural areas. Another working hypothesis is that the distribution of European-funded projects between the development regions of Romania is not a balanced one, and a very small number of projects are implemented as a partnership leader by the schools, this aspect being probably a consequence of the lack of experience of the school managers in the disadvantaged areas, as well as the lack of administrative capacity. The results of the research confirm these hypotheses, based on them being able to develop strategies for the development of educational programs aimed at improving the rural education system by applying the principles of sustainability. This could lead to an increase in the quality of education in the rural environment and a decrease in the discrepancies between the rural and urban areas in Romania, and beyond.

Keywords:

Educational system, rural environment, accessibility, degree of absorption of European funds.