Eurostat and OECD data show Romania’s education crisis: record school dropout rates and poor results

Romania has the highest rate of early school leaving in the European Union, according to Eurostat data, while PISA results indicate major difficulties among students. In 2024, 15.5% of Romanian young people aged between 18 and 24 left education and training early, 6.4 percentage points above the EU average and well above the European target for 2030.

According to the PISA data presented, 52% of 15-year-old Romanian students do not reach the minimum level of proficiency in mathematics, compared with 35% at the OECD level. In reading, the percentage is 48%, while in science it is 46%. In terms of digital computational skills, 57% of students are below the minimum threshold.

The gaps are even larger between rural and urban areas: 84% of students from villages have poor results in mathematics, compared with 34% in cities. At the same time, the number of unqualified teachers increased to over 6,300 in the 2026-2027 school year.