BestJobs survey: Only 8% of Romanian parents prefer online learning, most want schools to reopen

Most Romanian parents would like their children to return to in-person classes in the new school year, according to a survey by local recruitment platform BestJobs. Meanwhile, the online/at-home only option would be the least desired.

The new school year starts on September 13 in Romania.

About 76% of the employees who participated in the survey prefer in-person classes for their children. Only 8% would choose the online/at-home option for safety reasons, while the rest said they would agree with a hybrid system, alternating virtual learning and in-class learning.

41% of parents worry that online classes could lead to learning gaps due to a lack of direct student-teacher interaction. At the same time, 36% of them fear that schools have not taken proper hygiene measures and that the risk of COVID-19 infection is still high. Thus, parents believe schools should be better prepared for the new school year, as the pandemic is no longer a new thing.

So far, only a third of the employees who took part in the survey said they had been informed about how the new school year will start. 66% are still waiting for the start of school to have all the necessary information about how their children will learn.

Online learning also forces parents to make changes in their lives. For example, 58% of them said that, as they know from last year's experience, they will need to dedicate more time to help their children with homework, which will reflect on their professional life. At the same time, 28% said that they would have to work from home to take care of their children, and 19% would have to hire a nanny or get help from family members because remote work is not an option.

According to the same survey, 61% of the employees whose children start school on September 13 have already purchased the necessary school supplies, at least partially, while 20% are waiting for the teaching staff to tell them what supplies to buy.

When it comes to the budget, 44% of parents plan to spend between RON 500 and RON 1,000 for school supplies, 34% expect to spend less than RON 500, and 22% have allocated over RON 1,000.

The survey was conducted between August 23 and September 6 on a sample of 1,044 internet users in Romania.

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Virgil Simonescu)