Putting an end
\nto school dropout, though an emergency for Romanian education, has not seen any
\nprogress in the past years. Quite the opposite, EU statistics show a growing
\nnumber of students are leaving the system, at a rate which in 2016 stood at
\n18.5%, higher than in the previous years. The worst situation is in the
\ncountryside, where children abandon school in larger numbers than in cities.
\nThe gaps between the rural and the urban areas have also been highlighted in a
\nstudy titled Investing in rural education, launched this autumn by World
\nVision Romania.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gabriela Onofrei, one of the foundation’s managers told us more
\nabout this situation:<\/p>\n
Data
\nprovided by the Education Ministry show that there is a 24% gap between the
\nrates of participation in the education process in rural and urban areas
\nrespectively. One out of ten schools in the rural environment does not manage
\nto see all its pupils graduating to the fifth grade, and half of them lose most
\nof their students after 8 grades. The highest school dropout rate is registered
\nin high schools, with only less than a quarter of them not being faced with
\nthis problem. Some 40% of the pupils who drop school after graduating from the
\neighth grade remain in their communities and work for their families.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Unfortunately,
\nrural education is faced with other, equally big problems. For instance, a
\ncomparison between the results of the 2017 national evaluation, an examination
\nthat all 8-grade graduates must take before joining high-school, show that the
\naverage performance level in rural areas is lower than in the urban areas. In
\nfact, this is exactly when problems get worse, right before high-school. The
\ndrop-out rate grows dramatically because high-schools in rural areas, which are
\nsignificantly less, are also located far from student’s homes. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Here is Gabriela
\nOnofrei again: <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
It’s
\nquite difficult for a child who lives in a rural area to get to high-school,
\nand the study also covers the situation in which children must take a very long
\nand difficult road in order to get to school. More than 18% of the respondents
\nhave said that school is too far, and the average duration of a trip is 90
\nminutes. There are also significant differences between the children’s school
\nperformance, and the number of those who get grades before 5 is three times
\nbigger in rural areas than in the urban ones. Also, the number of average
\ngrades above 8 is 20% higher in urban areas.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In order to
\nencourage children to keep going to school, World Vision is running a project
\ncalled I want to be in the 9th grade, which has been implemented
\nfor ten years now. Over this period, some 1,300 children benefited from
\nfinancial support, granted by sponsors, in order to stay in school. Another
\nprogramme is Bread and Tomorrow, which ensures a warm meal and homework
\nsupport for children in primary school. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Another problem in
\nrural education is the scarcity of staff. Many teachers have to travel long
\ndistances in order to get to their schools. Also, the gaps in terms of
\nqualification are big as well, as most teachers that have a PhD degree or the
\nfirst level of qualification are based in towns and cities. Ema Barba, a
\ncommunication officer with the Teach for Romania programme told us more:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Statistically speaking, 96% of the children born in the rural areas will never
\nget to college. Also, if we speak of the Roma population, the percentage is
\neven higher, 99%. Also, human resources are limited as teachers hardly choose
\nto go and work in rural schools. That is why we see that there are many gaps
\nthat need to be bridged. It’s important for this teaching posts in rural areas
\nto be occupied, for children to benefit from the right education.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In order to
\nimprove the situation, the Teach for Romania programme, part of the
\ninternational network Teach for All, runs projects aimed at attracting and
\nintegrating teachers into the rural education system. And it appears that there
\nwould be enough teachers willing to do that, given the big number of applicants
\nand trainees that have completed the programme. <\/p>\n
Ema Barba: Currently, there are 66 teachers in our programme. We already have two
\ngenerations of graduates, people who took part in the programme for two years
\nand are now active in various civic engagement activities. We are currently
\npresent in 70 schools in 12 counties. Last year we had 1,000 candidates who
\nwanted to be trained by the Teach for Romanian programme. We were happy to see
\nthat so many people, who could literally do anything they wanted in various
\nother fields, chose to become teachers in the public education system,
\nespecially in disadvantaged areas.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The program has
\nfour stages, of which the first two are preparation and training, and the third
\nteaching proper, for two years. The last stage starts at the end of this two
\nyear period of teaching, when the Teach for Romania educators and teachers can
\ncarry on their work in the education system or can choose related fields, in
\nwhich they can also support the reform of the Romanian education system. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Putting an end to school dropout, though an emergency for Romanian education, has not seen any progress in the past years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":142467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42997],"tags":[43653,43652,43654,36131],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-142466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-today","tag-gabriela-onofrei","tag-school-drop-out","tag-teach-for-romania","tag-world-vision-romania"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n