A longitudinal analysis of the Romanians' opinions regarding the quality of their education from 1990 to 2010

We are analyzing comparatively the population's answers regarding the quality QE of the education in Romania. The current study was based on 13 national representative samples which have been constructed during 1990-2010 at the Research Institute for Quality of Life - Romanian Academy. The proposed statistical models analyze the behavior of categorical variables of ordinal type which are attached to the answers of the interviewed persons for question QE. In this context we have used the classical stochastic order between the variables for the comparison of the population's opinion in different years of the studied period. In order to measure some sociological phenomena of inequality or polarization we have used indicators that are specific to ordinal type variables. Using the Euclidean metrics we obtained a classification of the years 1990-2010 regarding the answers to the question QE. We remark a relative instability in time of the population's opinions regarding the quality of the received education, which recommends more coherence in the promotion of educational policies. The application of three statistical models has conducted in the end to obtaining similar results.