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Description
The necessity of the project stems from the high level of early school leaving, in particular from the 8th to 9th grade, in the communities targeted by the project and the low capacity of local communities to address the situation. The general objective of the project is to increase the social inclusion of children, young people and families at risk by promoting inclusive education, developing programs complementary to the educational process, training of teachers and specialists from local public institutions and Community development. The project aims at an integrated approach, both at the educational and Community level. In the short to medium term, 945 target group children and young people aged 7 to 24 will develop their personal and social skills and competences, receive support in the completion of school activities, they will receive advice and participate in extra-curriculum activities; 100 teachers will undergo a training program and will receive support for the implementation of the new assimilated knowledge and 250 parents will participate in joint activities with the children, teachers and other members of the communities concerned.
Summary of project results
The project started from the vision that school dropout, which is, in most cases, the effect of factors external to the school or the education system, can only be combated through an integrated approach and not only from a strictly educational perspective. The communities from Bacau and Neamt Counties, that were involved in the project, both urban and rural, are characterized by several factors that cause children, directly or indirectly, to drop out of school. Among the main causes of school dropout are high levels of poverty, alcohol consumption among parents, migration of parents in search of work, lack of sex education (resulting in early births), juvenile delinquency, disorganized families, and exploitation of children through work or different addictions as well as the fact that parents keep them at home to take care of younger siblings. There are also causes directly related to the learning environment at school, such as the fact that teachers are too strict, sometimes violent, do not get along with some colleagues or the fact that the distance between home and school is too great.
Also, from discussions with teachers and representatives of NGOs, it emerged that the real school dropout rate is higher than the officially declared one, there are students who do not attend school regularly but, for various reasons, the situation is tolerated, perpetuating the dropout phenomenon and the hesitation in making decisions to stop this phenomenon.
The project aimed to increase the degree of social inclusion of children, young people and families at risk by promoting inclusive education, developing complementary programs to the educational process, training teachers and specialists from local public institutions, community development and by strengthening the relationship of partner NGOs with public authorities and local educational units.
Through the project, socio-educational services were developed for children and young people from the communes of Nicolae Bălcescu, Răcăciuni, Filipeni and Mărgineni (Bacău County) and from Roman Municipality (Neamț County), by running a complementary education program in the day centers of the partners and in the school units in the targeted localities. In order to combat the causes of school dropout such as repeated and frequent repetitions, bullying, involvement in illegal activities, the quality of relationships with family, teachers and colleagues, insufficient integration in the class collective, the specialists of the partner organizations organized activities with groups of children in each of the ten partner schools.
Support services have been developed for the members of the communities involved, parents/legal guardians, representatives of the town halls, social workers, and other members of the communities - aimed at developing parenting skills, improving the parent-child relationship, but also parent-school-authorities and developing community spirit. Support services were developed throughout the project. The activities carried out were aimed at reducing excessive alcohol consumption in the communities involved, both among children and young people, as well as among parents and other members of the communities, combating other addictions (drugs, gambling, energy drinks), preventing domestic violence and violence from the community, health education, with a focus on sex education, including among parents.
The project also aimed at increasing the level of training of teachers from the schools involved in the project, regarding inclusive education by offering training and support programs, using both formal and non-formal methods, with an emphasis on education methods non-formal. Among the results obtained are the increase in the level of integration of children from vulnerable groups in school; the transfer, to teachers, of new modern methods of working with children so that everyone can reach their potential; the acquisition, by teachers, of the skills regarding the inclusion of parents in decisions concerning the school; receiving, by the teachers involved, the support from the experts in the project team.
1686 children and young people from the target group, aged between 7 and 24, developed their personal and social skills and abilities, received support in carrying out school activities, counseling and participated in extra-curricular activities; 130 staff teachers went through a training program and received support for the implementation of the new assimilated knowledge and 456 parents participated in joint activities with children, teachers and other members of the targeted communities.
The level of inclusion of children from disadvantaged backgrounds as well as the graduation rate of secondary education and the number of children attending high school has increased, and the communities targeted by the project are better prepared to address the situations of children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The partnership concluded by the 3 organizations led to an increase in the number of beneficiaries, to the development of the partner organizations, to an increase in the results obtained in the long term, as well as to the creation of links between decision-makers (public authorities) in the targeted communities, which, in the long term long, leads to the reduction of the problems faced by the beneficiaries targeted by the project.