EDUCATION ROLE IN THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF ROMANIAN RURAL COMMUNITIES

Currently, the knowledge capital and the human capital are key factors in any economic and social development policy. In our view, education should not be missing from any sustainable development strategy of Romanian rural communities. In this regard, it is first necessary to increase investments in education so that this could shift from its current state of predominantly theoretical to that of predominantly practical (applied, creative). The paper presents the current situation of the Romanian educational infrastructure in the rural area, the problems existing in this area in terms of education and the solutions that can be found and implemented. The results showed that the role of education in the sustainable development of Romanian rural communities is known and accepted by all local regional and national stakeholders. According to the official surveys conducted nationally, almost half of the Romanians consider education as the main factor meant to restart the engines of national economy.