EDUCATION AS BASIS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The main objective of the article is to present the level of education in some selected countries, and to explain how education determines a sustainable growth. Education is the main factor to achieve both economic and employment growth. At the same time, education plays an important role for a sustainable improvement of the standard of living in the world. Supporting education is also one of the aims of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Goal 4), but education appears in a number of other SDG targets too. The countries that allocate the most capital for education are Norway, Denmark, Sweden, United Kingdom, Belgium, Finland (over 6.7% of GDP). The share of GDP allocated for education in Romania is only 2.7. This directly affects both the physical conditions for carrying out educational and research activities in school units and the qualitative level of the educational act. The Pearson correlation coefficient (r) between the real GDP/capita (VAR01) and share of GDP for education (VAR02) for our study is 0.694, which again underlines the close correlation between the allocation of funds for education and research and the level of development from a country. The Pearson correlation coefficient (r) between supporting education from GDP and top 100 universities is relatively low (r = 0.287), reflecting an insufficient correlation between the two variables. As a result, the education system in a country must be adjusted and supported both financially and through the adoption of viable policy decisions that will ensure increased performance in the educational system.