Who Failed Who? A Review of the Policy Initiatives that Target the Reduction of Early School Leaving in Romania
Who Failed Who? A Review of the Policy Initiatives that Target the Reduction of Early School Leaving in Romania

Summary/Abstract: Romania’s national European target for 2020 was to reduce early school leaving rate to 11.3%. Unfortunately, we missed the target, taking into consideration the fact that in 2023 the rate dropped only to 16.6%. However, progress has been observed, with a 5.3% improvement over an eight-year period (for example, Romania recorded a 19.1% rate in 2015, which decreased to 16.6% by 2023). Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyse the key policy initiatives targeting the reduction of early school leaving, with a particular emphasis on several supply-driven factors, with a strong focus on several supply-driven factors that include the scarcity of second chance opportunities programs, the lack of effective communication among various stakeholders within the school community, such as parents and families, and not at least the notable disconnection between the education options available and the demands of the job market. The research was conducted by searching publications across the following databases from January 2010 to July 2023: PubMed, Web of Knowledge, Educational Resources, Information Centre and Scopus. As a comprehensive search, the following keywords were used for the abstract, title and keyword sections: early school leaving prevention, dropout prevention, educational attainment, retention rates, second chance education, reintegration programs, and policy frameworks for reducing early school leaving. The findings revealed that, although progress has been made in reducing early school leaving, several areas still require improvement. These include the need for more coherent and structured policy initiatives, as well as a stronger emphasis on follow-up mechanisms to better assess the impact of these policies.

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