Travel-sick & no sandwich but students relish chance to stay in school
Eight-year-old Paula loves to learn. Until recently she used to attend the Ticu village school within walking distance from her home. But the government decided to close the village school in the fall of 2010 due to financial constraints, giving students no choice but to commute ten kilometres to the centre of the commune to attend school.
Now Paula and another 12 primary school students from Ticu village, in North West Romania make the daily trip on their own.
Very often children take turns in going to school, because there is only one pair of shoes for all of themPaula is very shy at school. When she talks, it’s barely above a whisper. She misses her first grade teacher who was replaced by a different teacher at the new school. She has to spend around seven hours in school, often without a sandwich for lunch because her parents are too poor to provide lunch for her on a daily basis. Paula feels sick in the stomach every morning when she travels on the school bus, yet she is brave enough to start all over again day by day, because she loves learning.
Paula is one of the 45 children in the Ticu area who were supported by World Vision to continue their schooling. At the beginning of the fall they received shoes, clothes, school supplies, and back packs from the organisation.
“Families from this area live in total poverty. They rely on picking mushrooms and berries in the woods. There are three to four children in a family, and it is difficult to dress them all and send them to school. Very often children take turns in going to school, because there is only one pair of shoes for all of them”, explains the school manager of the commune, Mr. Felician Graur.
“World Vision’s intervention solves an important issue for the students and parents. Now I am optimistic about their presence in school”, he added at the beginning of the school year.
Six months later, the good news is that all of Ticu’s primary school students continue to go to school.
“We really didn’t have the money to buy our children clothes and shoes. You helped us when we were in great need”, says 29-year-old Emilia, Paula’s mother, talking about the school supplies and clothes received from World Vision.
Ticu village lies on a range of hills, in an isolated area; there is no transportation and people cannot commute to the centre of the commune, where the railway station offers a connection to the city. Ticu used to be a mining community in the past, but the mines were closed years ago. The only people who benefit from a constant income are the former miners, now retired people. Young families earn their bread from working for these people. They cut wood, work the land, and do whatever is needed in a country-side homestead.
We really didn’t have the money to buy our children clothes and shoes. You helped us when we were in great needDue to its special structure - which made it so good for extracting kaolin - the land is almost infertile for agriculture. People only manage to cultivate potatoes and onions for their own consumption.
“We work during summer and autumn for the people in the village and we are paid with potatoes, onions or beans. We don’t have our own land. It is much better if we get paid with food than having to buy it; food is very expensive”, explains mother Emilia.
The only cash the family has comes from the children’s State allowance of around US$40 per month. They used to have the equivalent of US$65, but the extended social allowance was also cut off by the State because of the economic crisis.
What does this mean for the family in practical terms? There is no money to buy medicine for the children when they need it. When the children are sick, their mother gives them herbal tea, made of plants picked from the field. Sometimes she borrows medicine from neighbours to cool down a high fever or to relieve pain.
After paying for utilities the remaining money buys only a few basic items such as flour, oil, and bread from time to time, which is why the family also is so grateful for the food packages provided by World Vision. Paula also needed some dental treatment and the family was financially supported with the costs of the treatment.
When the children are sick, their mother gives them herbal tea, made of plants picked from the fieldEven though Paula’s parents are very poor and can barely put food on the table for their three children, they encourage their daughter in her endeavour to learn. Their other daughters, aged five and three attend kindergarten in the same building that used to house the school.
“They must go to school. We can’t let them without school”, says Emilia. School means hope for a better future for Emilia. Both she and her husband are unemployed because there are simply no job opportunities in the village.
Emilia hopes that the girls will break through this pattern and in the future live in a place where jobs are available.
Background info
Many other small schools from rural areas were closed and merged all over the country because of financial cuts. In each of the 13 communities where World Vision works in Cluj County there is at least one kindergarten or school that was closed because the number of pupils was too low for the institution to function on its own.
The decision was seen as controversial by teachers, parents and the wider public. On one hand it offered better learning conditions in better school buildings, in the centre of the communes; on the other hand it exposed children to school drop out.
World Vision saw the high risk of school drop out as a consequence of this measure and decided to pay special attention to helping parents to send their children to school. Thus, some 237 primary and secondary school students received clothes, shoes, payment for transportation and school supplies, while another 538 students received backpacks and school supplies. Schools and kindergartens which opened their gates for the increased number of students needed more supplies and they received notebooks, pens, pencils but also educational books, maps, dictionaries and other useful tools and educational supplies.
Although the State offers transportation for the students, in many cases the road infrastructure is very poor, means of transportation are old and do not have enough room for all the children. Many students still need to walk several kilometres to reach the point where transportation is available from which they have to, commute.
There are no drop out statistics available yet, but the results will be seen in the years to come.
School drop out is not new to the rural areas. In the last years children have been exposed to early school drop out due to poverty. The difference is that until now school drop out meant high risk of not following high school, while now specialists are talking about the high risk of failure to follow secondary school, and even primary education.
Now Paula and another 12 primary school students from Ticu village, in North West Romania make the daily trip on their own.
Very often children take turns in going to school, because there is only one pair of shoes for all of themPaula is very shy at school. When she talks, it’s barely above a whisper. She misses her first grade teacher who was replaced by a different teacher at the new school. She has to spend around seven hours in school, often without a sandwich for lunch because her parents are too poor to provide lunch for her on a daily basis. Paula feels sick in the stomach every morning when she travels on the school bus, yet she is brave enough to start all over again day by day, because she loves learning.
Paula is one of the 45 children in the Ticu area who were supported by World Vision to continue their schooling. At the beginning of the fall they received shoes, clothes, school supplies, and back packs from the organisation.
“Families from this area live in total poverty. They rely on picking mushrooms and berries in the woods. There are three to four children in a family, and it is difficult to dress them all and send them to school. Very often children take turns in going to school, because there is only one pair of shoes for all of them”, explains the school manager of the commune, Mr. Felician Graur.
“World Vision’s intervention solves an important issue for the students and parents. Now I am optimistic about their presence in school”, he added at the beginning of the school year.
Six months later, the good news is that all of Ticu’s primary school students continue to go to school.
“We really didn’t have the money to buy our children clothes and shoes. You helped us when we were in great need”, says 29-year-old Emilia, Paula’s mother, talking about the school supplies and clothes received from World Vision.
Ticu village lies on a range of hills, in an isolated area; there is no transportation and people cannot commute to the centre of the commune, where the railway station offers a connection to the city. Ticu used to be a mining community in the past, but the mines were closed years ago. The only people who benefit from a constant income are the former miners, now retired people. Young families earn their bread from working for these people. They cut wood, work the land, and do whatever is needed in a country-side homestead.
We really didn’t have the money to buy our children clothes and shoes. You helped us when we were in great needDue to its special structure - which made it so good for extracting kaolin - the land is almost infertile for agriculture. People only manage to cultivate potatoes and onions for their own consumption.
“We work during summer and autumn for the people in the village and we are paid with potatoes, onions or beans. We don’t have our own land. It is much better if we get paid with food than having to buy it; food is very expensive”, explains mother Emilia.
The only cash the family has comes from the children’s State allowance of around US$40 per month. They used to have the equivalent of US$65, but the extended social allowance was also cut off by the State because of the economic crisis.
What does this mean for the family in practical terms? There is no money to buy medicine for the children when they need it. When the children are sick, their mother gives them herbal tea, made of plants picked from the field. Sometimes she borrows medicine from neighbours to cool down a high fever or to relieve pain.
After paying for utilities the remaining money buys only a few basic items such as flour, oil, and bread from time to time, which is why the family also is so grateful for the food packages provided by World Vision. Paula also needed some dental treatment and the family was financially supported with the costs of the treatment.
When the children are sick, their mother gives them herbal tea, made of plants picked from the fieldEven though Paula’s parents are very poor and can barely put food on the table for their three children, they encourage their daughter in her endeavour to learn. Their other daughters, aged five and three attend kindergarten in the same building that used to house the school.
“They must go to school. We can’t let them without school”, says Emilia. School means hope for a better future for Emilia. Both she and her husband are unemployed because there are simply no job opportunities in the village.
Emilia hopes that the girls will break through this pattern and in the future live in a place where jobs are available.
Background info
Many other small schools from rural areas were closed and merged all over the country because of financial cuts. In each of the 13 communities where World Vision works in Cluj County there is at least one kindergarten or school that was closed because the number of pupils was too low for the institution to function on its own.
The decision was seen as controversial by teachers, parents and the wider public. On one hand it offered better learning conditions in better school buildings, in the centre of the communes; on the other hand it exposed children to school drop out.
World Vision saw the high risk of school drop out as a consequence of this measure and decided to pay special attention to helping parents to send their children to school. Thus, some 237 primary and secondary school students received clothes, shoes, payment for transportation and school supplies, while another 538 students received backpacks and school supplies. Schools and kindergartens which opened their gates for the increased number of students needed more supplies and they received notebooks, pens, pencils but also educational books, maps, dictionaries and other useful tools and educational supplies.
Although the State offers transportation for the students, in many cases the road infrastructure is very poor, means of transportation are old and do not have enough room for all the children. Many students still need to walk several kilometres to reach the point where transportation is available from which they have to, commute.
There are no drop out statistics available yet, but the results will be seen in the years to come.
School drop out is not new to the rural areas. In the last years children have been exposed to early school drop out due to poverty. The difference is that until now school drop out meant high risk of not following high school, while now specialists are talking about the high risk of failure to follow secondary school, and even primary education.
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