The Status of Public Sector Secondary Level Teachers in Romania as an EU Democracy

The purpose of this chapter is to bring attention to the status of teachers in EU countries and the way it influences the status of democracies, using Romania as a main case study. Democracy, liberalism, and European Union values and principles are presented as interacting in order to lay the grounds for today’s society mindset, to which we all need to adapt. Teachers develop critical thinking, media literacy, civic engagement, and tolerance. With individualism, their role is that of supporting everyone to find their place, but also to relate to the others. In Romania, the economic and political conditions have led, in 2025, to discussions over measures about lowering salaries and increasing working hours in pre-university level schools, lower-secondary and upper-secondary levels, in the public, not private, sector. Discussions consider that teachers’ work is undervalued and underfunded, even if their work means intellectual and emotional effort and plays a role in promoting democratic values for students. Romanian online social media includes discussions about the role of teachers in society, focusing on their vocation, but also on their need to be supported financially by the state. EU initiatives support teachers through programs such as Erasmus+ and the European Education Area, which ensure professional development and international collaboration. Teachers support the values of the EU, among which values associated with democratic societies are at the core. Sustainable education funding, higher salaries aligned with EU standards, reduced bureaucracy are proposed policy solutions, emphasizing that investing in teachers means investment in democracy.