The Risk of Dropping Education for Romanian High School Students. Structural Factors and Educational Policies

AbstractTo what extent Romanian high school students consider education a key factor for success, and what are the factors that predict dropping out of school and chances of graduation? To answer those research questions we conducted a sociological survey on a representative sample (N=2654) of Romanian students 14 to 18 years of age. The findings show that beyond demographic variables such as family income, parents’ education, rural/urban residence; the presence of materialistic values is a good predictor for dropping out of school (positive correlation) and intention to enroll in university (negative correlation). Finally we underlined the importance of gender factor that emerged from the analyses, which indicated a general trend toward the feminization of the higher education system