The national report International Civic and Citizenship Education Study – ICCS launched on Wednesday by the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences of the University of Bucharest shows that Romanian students are below the ICCS 2022 average (508) obtaining a score of 470 in the assessment of knowledge and civic thinking, Romania thus ranking 16th out of 20 participating countries.

According to the study, approximately a quarter of Romanian students are at level D of competence or below (compared to 14.2% ICCS 2022 average), and approximately one fifth are at level A (compared to 30.6% ICCS 2022 average).

From the point of view of civic involvement in school and community, most Romanian students (86%) voted for the election of the class representative in the Student Council, compared to the 78% average of the countries participating in ICCS 2022. At the same time, less than a third of Romanian students (28%) have a high and very high interest in politics and social issues, compared to the ICCS 2022 average of 30%.

More Romanian students (55%) than the ICCS 2022 average (37%) declared that they are part of volunteer groups that help the local community.

Regarding confidence in state institutions, voting and participation intentions, most Romanian students (7 out of 10) believe that democracy is the best form of government, but only 4 out of 10 students have high trust in the Government and Parliament, compared to 5 out of 10 ICCS average. Romanian students’ voting intentions are more optimistic than the ICCS 2022 average, over three quarters of them declared that they would vote in at least one type of election in the future.

Similar to the students from the other participating countries, at least half of the Romanian students expect to participate in legal and political civic activities in the future (contact the elected representative, participate in peaceful marches/protests, collect signatures for a petition).

To a greater extent than the ICCS 2022 average, Romanian students believe that in the future they will get involved in environmental protection activities, and almost 9 out of 10 students believe that they will encourage others to get involved as well.

Romanian students have a strong sense of European belonging: 97% of them declare themselves European, 94% are proud of Romania’s membership in the European Union, both percentages are higher than the ICCS 2022 average (95% and 91%, respectively).

The majority of Romanian students support freedom of movement within Europe: 96% of them believe that the freedom of European citizens to work anywhere in Europe is beneficial for the continent’s economy and only 30%, compared to the ICCS 2022 average of 4%, believe it should be limited to a certain measure the rights of Europeans to work in the European space.

AGERPRES