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Description
“Our investment in inclusive education!” offers an integrated package of educational, psychological, social, pedagogical, occupational, non-formal education and leisure time services for increasing the degree of school and social involvement of 650 children and young people (the main target group). The beneficiaries aged between 3 and 18 years, at risk of drop-out/ leaving school early and/or with Special Educational Needs (SEN), will be selected from 3 rural communities (Iasi county) and an urban community (Botosani county).
The activities of the project include: developing educational activities in 4 schools (school after school); providing professional counseling/ orientation for 90 young people from the rural communities involved (Iasi county); ensuring pedagogical support/ therapy for 100 children and young people with SEN from the two counties; providing psycho-social support for 300 children and young people; developing leisure time/ personal development activities.
The project also aims to offer support services for 140 parents (80 parents of children/ youth at risk of drop-out and 60 parents of children with SEN) and to develop abilities in the field of integrated education for 125 teachers (100 selected from the 4 schools involved in the project and 25 from the North-East region of the country). The project proposes a sustainable partnership and a correlated intervention addressing child / youth - family - school - community that could be a model for other rural communities with the same issues.
Summary of project results
The project aimed to address the problem of school drop-out and early school leaving as one of the main challenges of the educational system of Romania. According the local data, in the two counties from the North-Eastern part of Romania (Iași and Botoșani), the number of pupils had declined sharply, and in the school year of 2018 – 2019, school drop-out rates were specifically high in 11 communes.
The statistics are particularly alarming, as children with disabilities and special educational needs (SEN) represent a large proportion of the vulnerable group at very high risk of school dropout. According to the Strategy on reducing early school leaving in Romania, the factors that determine early school leaving intervene on two levels – factors that influence the student/ family regarding the demand for education and factors that influence the supply of education. The first category includes: low family income levels, low territorial accessibility to educational services in isolated rural areas, involvement of children in seasonal work and caring for younger siblings, parental migration from some communities abroad (leading to temporary withdrawal from school), parents'' level of education, especially the mother''s level of education, children with disabilities and special educational needs, poor health, early marriage and/or pregnancy, other personal reasons, poverty, limited employment opportunities, and low parental participation in education in most rural/suburban communities.
In this context, the proposed activities for implementation aimed to increase the participation in the educational process of children and young people aged between 3-18 years by intervening holistically in education. This was achieved through activities and services addressed to both children and social and educational services for parents (parental education groups aimed at developing parenting skills as well as raising awareness about the importance of education) and services for teachers (training courses for teaching staff).
The project provided the target groups with a comprehensive package of integrated services for both children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) and those at risk of early school leaving, as well as their parents. Additionally, teachers benefited from training aimed at improving classroom teaching methods and interactions with the young people and children in the target groups.
The activities and services for young people focused on both increasing school and social participation and boosting self-esteem and included:
- After-school activities;
- Counseling and career guidance for graduating students;
- Psychopedagogical and recovery support;
- Personal development and leisure activities;
- Educational camps.
The families of the students benefited from parental education services, social services, and crisis intervention.
Teachers participated in thematic training sessions relevant to the project''s objectives.
The project proposed a series of integrated approaches and methods, provided by multidisciplinary teams formed at the partnership level, through direct consultation with the beneficiaries from the two main target groups of the project – children and young people at risk of dropping out/ early school leaving and those with special educational needs.