Illiteracy in Romania Analysis based on the results

Illiteracy in Romania Analysis based on the results and statistics of The 2011 Population and Housing Census, made public by The National Institute of Statistics and on other recent national and European reports. Wroclaw, Poland , 2014

baseline illiteracy = not being able to read or write

lliteracy percentages in Romania, by regions. IAȘI ALBA DOLJ VRANCEA

Illiteracy percentages in Romania, 2011 • The national illiteracy percentage in Romania in 2011 was 1. 36%. • The percentage of illiterate women was almost double than that of illiterate men. (1. 74% compared to 0. 94%). • There were three times more illiterate people in rural areas than in urban ones. (2. 15% compared to 0. 70%).

Illiteracy - percentage distribution by age range • • > 75 years old 70 -74 years old 30 – 35 years old 25 – 29 years old > 5, 4% 2, 31% 1, 35% 1, 54% Percentage of school drop outs 16, 5 % - 18 %

FUNCTIONAL ILLITERACY

Functional Illiteracy = not being able to use reading, writing and digital skills in day-to-day situations.

Functional illiteracy • The 2008 yearly report regarding the state of • education compiled by The Ministry of Education, Research and Innovation (MERI) shows that internal and international evaluations reveal that students keep getting lower and lower grades. • In the context of a continuous lowering of the efficiency of learning, linguistic researchers point to the fact that according to EU statistics, over 50% of Romanian graduates are "functionally illiterate" and are not able to understand a text, while in Finland, the percentage of those not able to understand a text is of only 4 -5%.

Functional illiteracy The yearly report concerning community systems of education made public in July 2012 by the European Committee (EC) places our country on one of the last places regarding the criterion of knowing to read.

Functional illiteracy The criteria on which the evaluation was made are: graduating from university early school-leaving the level of understanding and interpreting the texts read the number of graduates from Maths, Science and Technology participation of adults in lifelong-learning activities

Graduating from university Barely 11% of the Romanians aged between 25 and 65 can take pride in having an uppereducation diploma and that represents half the EU average.

Early school-leaving • One in 5 Romanians only managed to finish 8 grades. The percentage of youngsters leaving school after finishing the eighth grade places Romania in Top 5 of the European states that have to deal with early school-leaving.

PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), 2012 • According to PISA 2012, published on December 1, 2013, over 40% of Romanian students have difficulties to read and understand a text and can only solve elementary math exercises. The study, which was conducted on 510, 000 students aged 15 in 65 countries, shows that Romanian students are least motivated of the children who took part in the research, far away from everyone else. With over 40% of students who are at risk of functional illiteracy, Romania is almost last in the EU, followed only by Bulgaria.

The understanding and interpretation of texts read • One of two Romanian teenagers aged 15 has difficulty reading and understanding a text. 43. 8% of Romanian teenagers are functionally illiterate, percentage of almost two times higher than the EU average (24%).

The number of graduates in mathematics and science Percentage of pupils aged 15 with poor results in mathematics and science in 2012, according to the latest PISA results is: • 44. 5% - Mathematics • 43. 9% - Science

Adult participation in lifelong learning activities • Only 1. 3% of Romanians working age were not confined to a diploma, following various stages of qualification.