Education in Romania
ROMANIA - Just 25% of Romanian students in rural areas went on to high-school in 2007 – a drop from 37% in 2005 according to a report by the Presidential Commission for Analysis and Policies Ellaboration in the Area of Education and Research. This staggering statistic is a real concern for development agencies such as World Vision and should the downward trend continue, could spell disaster for Romania’s rural communities. Rural students are often prevented or discouraged from proceeding through to high-school due to:
- A lack of qualified teachers who may have only completed high-school and who teach subjects for which they are not qualified.
- A lack of educational materials available for teaching.
- Poorly equipped classrooms with old desks and few computer labs.
- A lack of centralised heating and running water systems.
- Limited professional orientation possibilities in rural areas.
- Lack of transportation to schools, which means most rural children walk many miles to their village school, made particularly tough during winter periods.
Most of Romania’s qualified teachers are discouraged and de-motivated to perform their jobs in rural areas over the long term due to low salaries and difficult teaching environments.
Living conditions in rural areas are often harsh and teachers prefer to live in towns which means a daily commute over long distances, often made problematic due to infrequent transportation. High teacher turn-over in rural areas also affects the quality of teaching and impacts students’ performance and future opportunities.
Parents’ limited financial resources- often stemming from susistence agriculture, also severely restrict childrens’ access to high-school or University that would enable them to engage in better paid and secure employment.
While school is mandatory up to the 10th grade (age 16) in Romania, 8th grade graduates have to pass a high school entrance exam, called “capacity exam” that qualifies them to continue onto high school. If students fail the exam, the secondary school graduates can go to a vocational school. Many rural students however are ‘forced’ to find work and few will ever go onto further study.
Yet there are many diligent and talented rural students from families of limited financial means – children that will thrive in high-school, vocational school and university if only given the chance.
It is for these students that World Vision Romania started the first scholarship project in 2001 with funding from World Vision Taiwan. The project initially supported 30 rural students to continue high-school studies.
Currently, World Vision Romania supports more than 350 rural children through scholarhsip projects funded by World Vision Taiwan, corporations and individual Romanian donors.
The project encourages students from rural areas to excell and achieve good school performances in different areas of their interest by supporting them to continue secondary, high-school and vocational education in urban areas.
Scholarships are provided in the form of material support and/or services granted to each student. They are personalised and designed based on an individual intervention plan according to the student's needs, identified at the beginning of the project and re-evaluated during the school year.
In 2008, through the local marketing & fund-raising campaign launched in March, World Vision aims to attract 1,000 Romanian individual donors to support 1,000 Romanian children to continue high-school studies. The campaign is called, “I want to be in the 9th grade” and involves a range of media, Internet and public relations initiatives.
In addition to scholarship projects and through support offered within World Vision’s community development projects, rural children are offered education seminars, computer classes, school contests and donations of books for school libraries, etc.
Last year, thousands of children in World Vision’s projects benefited from education activities organised within community development projects.