According to great Romanian scholar and founding
\nfather of Romania’s modern education, Spiru Haret, ‘the way school looks today,
\nthe way the country is going to look tomorrow.’ In the past years however, Romania’s
\neducation system has been facing numerous challenges and the present pandemic
\nhas deepened these issues. School in the countryside is currently bearing the
\nbrunt of the present situation.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
BookLand, a non-profit organization, has set out to
\nimprove this situation and offer children in the countryside a chance to
\nhigh-quality education. Besides a roving book fair, cultural camps and various
\nconferences for the young people, the aforementioned organization has also got
\ninvolved in the restauration of several schools fitting them with equipment
\nnecessary in the education of students. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Mihaela Petrovan, founder of BookLand, has told us more about the accomplishments, challenges
\nand future projects of this organisation. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
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<\/p>\n
Mihaela
\nPetrovan: \u02baI believe in education, I believe that education is beneficial to the Romanians’
\nstate of health. And I am not exaggerating. We, the team of BookLand, are a
\nbunch of honest, hard-working individuals who kept our word and even went the
\nextra mile to fulfil our pledges. Last year for instance, we pledged to refurbish
\n10 schools and ended up refurbishing 14 instead. Why schools and why in the
\ncountryside? Well, I can say I have a great passion for books and education in
\ngeneral. I was born in the countryside, in a village, and I am proud of that.
\nGrowing up in a village is what gives me power, strength…And this passion for
\neducation somehow comes naturally to me. I want to tell that we got the idea to
\nhelp and get involved from the teachers of a certain school who called us and
\nasked for help with some activity. It was not complicated to write in excel
\nthat a certain school needs doors and windows or roof or desks or whatever…What
\nwas complicated was to go to certain companies and ask them to provide
\nmaterials and skilled workers. Suchlike restoring activities cannot be
\nperformed by drones or robots. What you need is workers. And that was the great
\nchallenge, to find enough money for this activity. \u02ba<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
But Mihaela Petrovan and her colleagues from BookLand didn’t give up and in spite of
\nthe funds shortage, they managed at first to refurbish one school, then another
\none and another. Companies and enterprises got more and more involved in this
\nproject and eventually schools have each been allotted close to 31 thousand
\neuros on an average. Within a year and three months 14 schools have been
\nrefurbished.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The most important accomplishments? One school has a
\nnew roof while another one has a brand new heating system. Here is Mihaela
\nPetrovan again.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Mihaela
\nPetrovan: \u02baWe focused on Romania’s poorest regions and we went to the country’s
\nmost disadvantaged region, Moldova, which in spite of being inhabited by great,
\nhard-working people didn’t have the chance like Transylvania to attract
\ninvestment. I was born in Transylvania but we have chosen Moldova because it is
\nthere where our efforts are needed most. Of course we also worked in southern
\nRomania, because here we have some of the oldest schools in the country, some
\nof them in dire need of restoration. Some of these schools were built 100 years
\nago. You cannot ask performance from students forced to learn in schools that look
\nlike barns, schools that are falling apart. And it’s a pleasure to take lessons
\nin a school where everything is new and smells fresh, not of mildew and
\ndampness. If we respect our children, they are going to show respect to the
\ncountry as well. \u02ba<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
According to statistical data posted on Bookland’s
\nFacebook profile, 82% of Romania’s schools were built before 1970, 16% before
\nthe anti-communist revolution of 1989 and only 2% after 1989. Some of these
\neducation facilities still have toilets outside, no running water or sewerage
\nsystems. Due to poverty, oftentimes, only 77 out of 100 village children go to
\nschool and 21% of the rural population benefitted only from primary education. Only
\n4.74% of these people graduated from faculty and over 42% of the students
\nfailed the baccalaureate exam. Also 40 out of 100 rural households do not have
\naccess to the Internet and that’s very sad because due to the present pandemic,
\nRomania has resorted to online education. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Here is Mihaela
\nPetrovan with more on the issue. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Mihaela
\nPetrovan: \u02baIn some places one can see school maintenance out of nothing, so to
\nsay. Those people did real miracles like covering teacher desks in cloth so
\nthat the holes may not be seen. It’s
\nheart-rending! Nowadays you cannot teach people without Internet connections.
\nThere were schools without blackboards, they simply had a couple of painted
\nboards. Students lack these mere facilities and we are talking about online
\neducation, tablets and so on. Let’s be honest, we are a bunch of ignorant
\nhypocrites if we don’t care about education in the rural area, as most of us
\nare coming from there. Village children don’t have the education facilities of
\ntheir city counterparts and that’s not fair. We are not criticizing anyone but
\nstarted to do something, because we believe we can. And anyone can do what we
\nare actually doing!\u02ba<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Bookland intends to refurbish 20 schools in rural
\nRomania this year and also wishes to accomplish something else. Here is again
\nat the microphone Mihaela Petrovan. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
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<\/p>\n
Mihaela Petrovan: \u02baOur dream this year is to conclude some partnerships and build the
\nfirst reference-school for Romania; built from scratch, after the Finnish
\nmodel, a school as all the schools in Romania should be, of course adjusted to
\nour Balkan traditions, with our teachers and a curricula proposed by
\nus…everything for free… <\/p>\n
\n
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Schools in Romania’s rural areas are facing many challenges<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":86545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42997],"tags":[34589,43833,34799,32515],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-143708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-today","tag-mihaela","tag-petrovan","tag-rural","tag-school"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n