A new strategy for curbing school leaving
The Government has adopted a new strategy aimed at curbing school leaving in Romania.
România Internațional, 04.06.2015, 14:15
The Romanian Government on Wednesday adopted a strategy to reduce the number of young people who drop out of school after completing the secondary school cycle. AT EU level, Romania has one of the highest early dropout rates, 17.3% in 2013, placing Romania in 5th place after Italy, Portugal, Spain and Malta. The strategy is designed to gradually reduce the number of young people aged between 18 and 24 years who graduate eight grades and who dont opt for any further form of tuition of vocational training.
According to the document, early school leaving is typical especially of vulnerable categories, such as young people in rural communities, children with underprivileged backgrounds, Rroma people and other ethnic nationals, as well as students who had to repeat a year or left school altogether. The authorities have warned that early school leaving has serious social and economic consequences. Young people who leave school are more prone to risks associated with unemployment and end up earning less money once they find a job. Estimates regarding the future skills of Europe show that only 1 in 10 jobs will be available to a person who leaves school early. The strategy has four sections and six representative programmes, including mechanisms, pre-emption, intervention and compensation measures.
The Government wants to ensure access to schooling or vocational training to every child of up to 16 years of age, or until he or she graduates the 10th grade. Section one is focused on access to quality education for all children, by means of two programmes. The programmes are designed to increase access to the care and early education of children, expanding early education services to children under 3 years of age, and ensuring quality elementary and secondary education services.
Section two is aimed at making sure that all children complete compulsory studies. This phase is focused on developing warning and early intervention systems to identify children who are more likely to leave school, as well as on developing pre-emption measures and solutions, including “The Afterschool School programme. Section three is aimed at reintegrating school dropouts into the national education system via “The Second Chance programme. And finally, the last section is aimed at developing proper institutional support by creating an environment conducive to the implementation, observation and assessment of the strategy.
