The analysis of these variables in comparison with the European state of affairs reveals several problems: underfunding over a long period of time (the lowest funding among the European Union countries), as well as lack of or sharp decrease in infrastructure investment (over two thirds of expenditure goes into paying wages). Another significant indicator is expenditure per student, among the lowest in the EU in recent years. Public expenditure covers over 90% of financing, at all levels.

Other indicators in this subfield refer to facilities and equipment, a prerequisite for quality education. The aspects concerning the facilities are presented summarily, because they have limited relevance for system diagnosis. Although quantitative data is available about the number of schools and the number of facilities within schools, there is no information about their state (buildings, computers/internet connection) or their effective use. The indicators refer, for instance, to the number of schools by several classification criteria, such as residence or development region, as well as the number of school labs.

The main indicator selected for this field refers to the net average monthly earnings in education, compared to earnings in other fields. The existing data suggests, firstly, that teachers are not motivated financially, because the net average monthly earnings in education are visibly lower than net average monthly earnings in fields such as Information and Communications, Financial Intermediaries and Insurance or Public Administration. This explains the fact that talented graduates do not wish to become teachers.

To have a clear image of the teaching staff in Romania, we have selected four secondary indicators: percentage of teachers working part-time, by education level, average class size, ratio of pupils to teachers, distribution of teachers by age groups. Our country continues to be among the European countries with the highest pupil-teacher ratio: the average number of pupils per teacher is high at all levels, while the average age differs on education levels (with a balanced distribution on age groups).

Secondary indicators were mainly selected following the relevance and availability criteria, the final list including: school population size and distribution, enrolment rates by age groups (% of total resident population in the same age group, a synthetic indicator available in the National Institute of Statistics database, that adds more information to the gross and net enrolment rates), drop-out rates by educational stages, sex and residence, effective transition rate from primary to lower secondary general education (a significant aspect, showing the percentage of children who have completed primary school) and, finally, a synthetic indicator, expected school years.

The national strategies for Europe 2020 identify three important indicators: early leavers from education and training, age group 18-24, percentage of pupils with low performance in PISA, tertiary educational attainment (% of total population aged 30-34). The indicators are relevant because they reflect three significant aspects of education system exits. While early leavers rates indicate the percentage of young people with low training levels (who, in the medium turn, are threatened by unemployment, poverty and exclusion), tertiary educational attainment speaks about that segment that will have a well-grounded professional career. Finally, the percentage of pupils aged 15 with low performance in PISA is indicative of the state of the educational system at a sensitive point, secondary school completion, and allows comparison with other countries.

Among secondary indicators are: population aged 25-64 by educational attainment level, sex and regions (offering an image of the active population by instruction level) and the activity rates of adult population (aged 20-64) by educational attainment level.

The main indicators that we selected are: employment rates of graduates aged 20-34, 1-3 years since graduation, but also the reverse of integration, young people aged 15-34 neither in employment nor in education and training. Both indicators are important, reflecting to what degree the educational system has real results in integrating graduates on the labour market, transitioning towards adult life.

Regarding secondary indicators, three of them refer to lifelong learning: participation rates of adults (aged 25-64) in education and training, participation rates of employed adults (aged 25-64) in lifelong training (by regions) and the labour market insertion rates of the unemployed participating in lifelong training.

Among secondary indicators are two indicators that refer to mobility as an important part of training, outbound and inbound internationally mobile students and the net flow of internationally mobile students.

The main tendencies identified are: since 2008 the labour market insertion rates of young graduates have dropped from a position where Romania’s mean was similar to the EU’s (78%). In what regards lifelong learning in adult population, official data places Romania last in the EU. Finally, the tendencies of temporary migration for studying demonstrate a positive evolution: since 2000, the number of internationally mobile students has tripled.

Within this subfield we have selected a main indicator taken from the European system of indicators, which refers to government expenditure for recreation, culture and religion (% of GDP). The indicator is relevant because it shows the level of public expenditure for cultural institutions, which also reflects the importance attributed to this field by the state.

The secondary indicators refer to two relevant aspects for the importance of culture within society. The first aspect is synthesized by three indicators, and speaks about human resources in culture, by means of the following significant indicators: cultural employment by educational attainment level, and cultural employment, by activity. The second aspect, synthesized by means of three indicators, refers to the facilities and institutional support for the cultural field.

Three main indicators have been selected for this subfield, taken from the European system of cultural indicators. The first refers to the turnover of enterprises in the cultural sectors, which measures both the volume of cultural production in a country, as well as the dynamics of cultural goods. The second refers to the intra and extra-EU trade in cultural goods as percentage of total trade, which is relevant for the potential of cultural industries, but also for the dynamics of cultural exchanges between a country and other EU member states. Finally, the third indicator refers to the number of cultural consumers of events, cinema and visitors in museums.

Cultural goods inevitably enter the trade circuit, are sold and bought, on a market of symbolic goods. The contribution of the cultural and creative sector to GDP can be expressed by the import/export balance of cultural goods (movies, books, visual arts, antiquities, traditional products, media products, etc.). That is the reason why the indicators mentioned above can give an image of the cultural production and scope of cultural life.

The secondary indicators focus on the volume and diversity of cultural production: number and average size of enterprises in the cultural sectors by activity type, annual production of books and booklets and the national film production. Persons participating in cultural activities (% of total population) is a secondary indicator that shows the people’s interest in the cultural field and their participation in cultural activities. Finally, another secondary indicator refers to the cultural consumers on the Internet (% of total population), by activity type.

It is important to notice that under the impact of new communication technologies, a new type of consumer has appeared, with hybrid cultural practices, combining several types of activities for free time spending. These are consumers anchored in the new technological and media habitat (computer, tablet, mobile phone, etc.), who participate simultaneously to unmediated cultural activities (read books and magazines, listen to classical music, go to theatres, etc.)