EDUCATION: Romania’s Emigrating Youth

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Marian Chiriac

BUCAREST, Feb 21 2000 (IPS) - Young people in Romania are like the youth in any other European country. They are attracted to racy, trendy things such as fashion, fast foods, the latest computer programmes or hit songs.

The one way in which they may differ is that, unlike many other European youth, students in this Southeastern European country bordering the black Sea, between Bulgaria and Ukraine, have no intention of utilising their skills within their country. They are constantly looking for a way out.

According to a poll published recently by the Ministry of Education, 65 percent of students aged between 15 and 30 plan to emigrate after graduating.

It said the students were willing to emigrate because they felt there were not many chances to progress and achieve in Romania once they had graduated, given the state of the economy.

Most of the students who expressed the desire emigrate hail from the state universities (67.5 percent), but those from the private universities with the same goals are not much less (61.4 percent).

What can I expect to do in my country?” asks Mihai Teodor, 23, a student with the Construction Institute in Bucharest. “I’ll finish my studies this summer and if I am lucky enough to find some work, I’ll earn 1,500,000 lei (75 US Dollars) per month. This is not enough to live on and it is better for me to just leave the country.”

Teodor’s situation is typical of most of the Romanian students.

Even the over-gifted teenagers have problems. Romanian high- school students have recently been in the news for winning important medals at the international Olympics for Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry.

However, poverty does not allow them to hope for careers at an international level.

The country’s economy is struggling. Following the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in 1989 to 1991, Romania was left with an obsolete industrial base and a pattern of industrial capacity wholly unsuited to its needs.

In February 1997, Romania embarked on a comprehensive macroeconomic stabilisation and structural reform programme, but reform subsequently has been a stop-and-go process.

Restructuring programmes include liquidating large energy- intensive industries and major agricultural and financial sector reforms.

“The incredibly high percentage of those willing to emigrate proves the youth’s feeling of frustration as regards to their future and the future of the country,” says Ion Mihailescu, University Rector and Professor of Sociology.

He says the access to superior education is continually decreasing with every year for the youth from the rural areas, for those with low incomes and for the ones whose families have a low education.

Most of the students, approximately 66 percent, come from the urban areas, 23 percent from the capital Bucharest and only 10 percent from the rural areas.

The secretary of state within Ministry of National Education (MEN), Mihai Miroiu, says the results of the poll should provide warning bells to the country’s leadership.

“We need to find another way of social support for the deserving youth coming from poor families to allow them to get a proper education and to try and find ways of keeping our youth here,” Miroiu said.

He said that scholarships were still available but that these were given to those academically gifted students with low incomes.

However scholarships stand at only about 800.000 lei (30 US Dollars).

However, educationalists say that despite the problems the level of knowledge among the young Romanians is high. The school system in Romania, which includes 12 years compulsory education, has also contributed to these results.

Official statistics show that over 70 percent of the Romanians aged between 20 and 24 have graduated from college or university. There are 8,7 percent university graduates in cities compared to 1,1 percent in countryside.