Gender Differences in Educational Options. The Case of Framework Plans Established in Romanian Pre-University Education

This article explores high school students' perspectives on the framework plans for high school education in Romania, which have recently been the subject of public debate. Consulting students on any important detail of the instructional and educational process has become a common practice in our country in recent years, initiated by the Ministry of Education. How students perceive the impact of the proposed changes on their educational path becomes an essential component of sociological studies and educational sciences. The results presented in this article refer to a representative sample of students from Hunedoara County, on which County Center for Educational Resources and Assistance (CJRAE) Hunedoara conducted an in-depth research in February 2025. We have insisted in this article on the differences in perception between students according to their gender, to identify whether there are significant statistical differences. In our analysis, we also considered that students' perspectives may be influenced by additional variables, such as year of study, class type, quality of teaching methods, and school culture, which could further accentuate gender differences. The research hypotheses focused on: (1) gender differences in students' level of awareness, understanding, and perceived usefulness of the proposed changes to the curricular framework plans and (2) differences by academic track (and gender) regarding proposals to increase study hours. The research revealed not only the gender differences between the requests for extension of the respective classes but also, surprisingly, the tendency of students to have more hours from dominant curricular areas in other study tracks.