TEACHING STAFF AND SCHOOL POPULATION: MAJOR TRENDS IN ROMANIA'S PRE-UNIVERSITY EDUCATION SYSTEM

The functioning of each educational system, at all levels, is based on a qualitative human resource for the coherent implementation of strategies. Teachers represent the essential resources for the effective implementation and realization of educational policies and classroom objectives. The shortage of the HR within the educational system reduces the performances of pupils. In this paper we aim to investigate the evolution of indicators that illustrate the human resources involved in the educational process in Romania, namely teaching staff and school population. Therefore, we conducted an empirical investigation, collecting data on human resources in education that were subject of statistical processing. The conclusions show that the trend of declining school population is more pronounced than the trend of reducing teaching staff, educational expenditures for the pre-university education system have decreased, and the average number of teaching staff per school has increased due to the merging of several schools, especially in rural areas, as a result of the increase in school population.