2-INSTALACION DE CALEFACCION:

Some of the key success factors which emerge from this case study are as follows:

 Flexibility in the curriculum content and delivery;

 Contrast with mainstream school culture, curriculum and pedagogy;

 Relationships, communication, caring, extra support from existing staff, even if limited resources, being “like a family”;

 Holistic approach to curriculum delivery;

 Students feel like it is their space and they belong there;

 Different expectations of behaviour – less rigid, with support from the youth mediator role

 Creative and practical skills focus; and

 Understanding of students’ personal situation/ needs.

Expert local opinions are divided on the important question of the potential for transferring lessons from the good practice example of the Second Chance Education School in Portugal. A professor of education concludes that it is a "very interesting example of guidance and practices that are relevant to education". The conclusion of the councillor for education is more muted, as he believes that the way in which mainstream schools are structured does not permit teachers to address the complex needs of a minority of students who do not fit in, while catering for the rest of the class at the same time. In the meantime, the school itself is already sharing good practice with local mainstream schools (as well as international second chance education providers), and has identified the need to build on this joint work.

The opportunity for the key interviewees and stakeholders to take part in a further workshop at the next stage of the study would certainly shed further light on how far these partners can make the most of their experience and expertise to support students before they abandon school.

This school appears to have successfully innovated, and creatively found itself a place on the edge of the education system, being well respected yet without having guaranteed sustainable funding. Operating on a relatively small scale, it has found ways to respond to the needs of disadvantaged young people who have nowhere else to go. Its uniqueness and difference form the mainstream is a key part of its attraction, which cannot necessarily be replicated in large mainstream settings. However, there are two main possibilities for transferring the lessons from their experience: mainstream schools applying some of the same important principles themselves to help engage students, and secondly, working directly in cooperation with second chance education providers. It is important to recognise that ESL may be prevented in some cases through adapting initial education provision, but for those whose reasons for dropping out lie outside the school, more intensive support with wider issues beyond education is needed.

8.0 _Romania

Country Romania

Name of 2nd _chance

provision Nicolae Iorga School

Level of education Primary and lower secondary education

Type of institution Public primary and lower secondary school

Location (city and

borough) Cluj – Napoca (Cluj county, Iris neighbourhood) Background information: country context

The Romanian school system is controlled nationally by the Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sports (hereafter referred to as Ministry of Education). The Ministry is responsible for drafting the legal framework (National Law of Education, National Curricula etc), overseeing all public and private schools programmes, administering all the public schools, EU alignment policies, administering some EU educational funds etc. At the county level, the School Inspectorates are the official representatives of the Ministry of Education, and all activities happening in public schools need to be approved at this level. The NGOs act as partners, implementing a large number of educational projects that are supporting the mainstream school system or that are complementary, through non-formal and informal education. The curriculum is approved at the level of the Ministry of Education, and the schools have little space for flexibility. The place to be flexible is in the “optional subjects” area of the curriculum, which exist at all educational levels and consists of one subject per school year. Most teachers engaged with young people at risk do not receive special training.

The school system is structured as follows1_:

According to Eurostat data he ESL rate dropped in Romania from 22.9% in 2000 to 17.5% in 2011, with the most visible reduction between 2005 to 2008, within a background of sustained economic growth and several measures aimed at reducing ESL1_{. Despite this change, the ESL rate remains one of the highest in the EU. The}

most cited reasons for this are: precarious economic situation of the families, low educational achievements in the family and thus lack of parental models, low trust in the benefits of completing compulsory education and migration. Specific reasons quoted for the Roma communities include: early marriage and an alternative “home- based” educational model2_.

The drop in the ESL rate can be explained macro-economically through an improvement in the overall Romanian economy, but also through a number of different policies and projects implemented across Romania by the Ministry of Education and other third sector organisations (such as the Soros network, UNICEF and Save the Children). These programmes include: second chance education schemes, incentive-based measures (offering free food and school supplies at school through the Milk Croissant and Apple Programme), initial environment– influencing measures (school mediators: social workers intervening in the families to support school attendance, Parent’s School), and academic and social support centres (School After School national programme, Summer Schools, Day Care Centres).

1 _{Abbott, Denis and Avraam, Dina. (7/06/2012). Există progrese în reducerea ratei de abandon școlar timpuriu}

și în creșterea numărului de absolvenți în Europa, dar este nevoie de mai multe eforturi. Retrieved from:

http://ec.europa.eu/romania/news/07062012_reducerea_ratei_de_abandon_scolar_ro.htm

and Commission of the European Communities. (2011). Progress Towards the Common European Objectives

in Education and Training: Indicators and Benchmarks 2010/2011. Retrieved from:

http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc/report10/report_en.pdf

2 _{Voicu, Bogdan (coord.). (2009) . Abandonul şcolar timpuriu: cauze şi posibilitati de prevenire . Retrieved from:}

Second chance education has existed in Romania since 1999 and is provided through initial education schools. If initially an initiative of civil society (Education 2000+ NGO), since 2001 it has been taken on completely by the Ministry of Education, and recognized by national legislation as an official programme working towards ensuring equal access to education and reducing the number of people who do not have qualifications equivalent to compulsory school leaving certificate (10 years of initial education). The programme covers the entire country, and is offered in about 150 schools to more than 10000 students.

Second chance education is open to people over 14 years of age, who have either never entered the school system or left the school system before completing the compulsory 10 years of schooling. It has two main components: “primary” and “lower secondary”. The primary second chance component covers the years 1- 4 of the mainstream education system, and the “lower secondary” component covers the years 5 – 10 of the mainstream education system, additionally offering a professional education certificate. The framework allows for the programme to be offered in Romanian or one of the national minorities’ languages (Hungarian, Romani), but all the participating schools use Romanian. The curriculum is specially designed, fulfilling the learning objectives of the national curriculum but organised differently.

The curriculum is structured in modules. For primary second chance, the curriculum is divided into 4 years of study, equivalent to grades 1- 4 of the mainstream education system and includes 4 compulsory curricular areas (Language and Communication, Mathematics and Science, Humans and Society, IT and Counselling) and other optional areas Arts and Sports. For the lower secondary second chance, the curriculum is structured in 4 years but covers the equivalent of grades 5- 10 of the mainstream education system. It includes the same curricular areas as the primary second chance, plus Arts and Sports, among the compulsory curricular areas and in addition includes a professional education certificate.

The curriculum for the second chance programme is flexible in several ways:

 Timing: Students can enter the programme between October and February. They decide the timetable together with the school (either morning or afternoon or weekend).

 Duration of the programme: The modularisation of the programme allows students to learn at different paces. For example, a student can finish in four or two years, depending on his or her personal experiences, abilities and capacities. The module structure also offers the possibility of advancing more quickly in one subject while taking more time in another one.

Background information: locality context

Although exact statistics were not made available for this study, Cluj is considered to be one of the counties with the lowest ESL rates in Romania, with the municipality of Cluj-Napoca being one of the main educational centres in Transylvania. The reasons for ESL in Cluj are very similar to the ones quoted at the national level. (poor families, troubled families, children sent to work, children working in the household, early marriage, lack of trust in the benefits of the educational degrees, migration etc). The School Inspectorate, which is the local official educational authority responsible for the entire county, implements key programmes and policy priorities which exist at the national level, including policies in relation to ESL. The School Inspectorate

coordinates several programmes aimed at decreasing ESL rates across the entire county. Among these there are: the second chance programmes, “Milk, Croissant and Apple”; “School after School” and “Summer School Programme to Prevent School Leaving”. Additionally, the School Inspectorate encourages the work of NGOs, especially when they bring extra resources into the system (funding for books, equipment etc; meals for the students; or sponsorships for different school events). The Save the Children Alliance, the Soros Foundation, World Vision, the Cluj Napoca Patriarchate, the Foundation for Children and Families, ProTin and other organisations are all NGOs which run projects aiming at reducing the ESL in the Cluj - Napoca municipality.

In the context of this background of support from the School Inspectorate to provide second chance education, the possibilities for cooperation with NGOs, and also the needs observed in the school and community by the leadership of the school, the Nicolae Iorga school started to offer the second chance programme in 2000. It was one of the schools in the pilot second chance programme. Iris, the neighbourhood where Nicolae Iorga school is located, is one of the poorer areas in Cluj-Napoca, a former industrial area where many factories where closed, leaving a trail of unemployment and poverty. The participants in the second chance programme come not only from this neighbourhood but from different parts of Cluj - Napoca town and Cluj county.

History / background to developing the initiative

Second chance education is provided through initial education schools. The second chance programme was founded in 1999 by the organisation Education 2000+ (part of the Soros network) in cooperation with the Ministry of Education. It was taken over by the Ministry of Education in 2001. The programme was recognised by national legislation as an official programme working towards ensuring equal access to education and reducing the number of people who do not have qualifications equivalent to compulsory school leaving certificate (10 years of the initial education). While the pilot project of Education 2000+ was funded by the Norwegian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, later the second chance programme was funded through PHARE (Programme of Community aid to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe) and POS-DRU (Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources Development). Most infrastructure in the second chance programme has been developed and improved since the programme was set up (especially regarding curriculum, legislation, qualifications of teachers and experts). The Ministry of Education report published in 2007 provides a good overview of this evolution.1_{. While in 1999 the pilot project had}

a little more than 300 students in 11 different schools, in 2004 the number of students was over 7500 in 150 schools and in 2011 there are more than 10000 students enrolled in the programme. Since 2001 the programme has been open to people who have either never entered the school system, or left the school system at primary or lower secondary levels and have passed the maximum age to re-enter the system. The curriculum of the programme is flexible in several ways:

 Timing. Students can enter the programme between October and February. They decide the timetable together with the school (either morning, afternoon or

1 _{Copoeru, Lucia. Pop, Viorica. Vermeulen, Paul. (2007) . A Doua Sansa: Raport de monitorizare si evacuare}

a programului “A doua sansa” in Romania. Retrieved from: http://www.acces-la- educatie.edu.ro/index.php/articles/c44

weekend).

 Duration of the programme. The modularisation of the programme allows students to learn at different paces. For example, a student can finish in 4 or 2 years, depending on his or her abilities and capacities. The module structure also offers the possibility of advancing more quickly in one subject while taking more time in another one.

The key changes in the programme are:

i. Ownership and Management. It started as a civil society initiative in partnership with the Ministry of Education, and then the second chance programme went on to be completely owned by the Ministry of Education from 2002 onwards. The management was also shifted from school level, to the School Inspectorate, Teachers’ Association, Ministry of Education and partly also remained in the individual school

ii. The target group focus. The programme initially targeted Roma people who had not completed compulsory education, but is now open to all ethnic groups. Also, while the initial pilot phase was limited to youth (up to 24 years of age), now it does not have an upper age limit.

iii. The funding sources. It started with a small amount of funding from the Norwegian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The programme then received funding from PHARE and ESF (Human Resources Priority Area) which guaranteed a substantial financial base for programme activities, equipment, teacher and expert training, influence from legislative initiatives and a curricular framework. Currently this funding has ended, and the second chance programme is funded from the Ministry of Education budget, which already poses financial challenges to the schools that are implementing it.

iv. Mainstream qualification achieved. The programme initially offered only lower secondary certification (equivalent to years five to eight) and a limited range of professional qualifications, in 1999. Currently it offers complete compulsory schooling certification (years one to ten) plus professional certification in over 50 different domains. Nicolae Iorga school implemented a literacy programme called “Alphabetisation” offering primary level education. It was funded by the Soros Foundation. This programme was later integrated into the second chance programme providing primary education.

v. Flexibility. The programme grew in flexibility in many directions. The duration of the study developed from being fixed at three and a half years to being flexible. The schedule changed from evening classes to daily lessons. Decisions are made together with the student about which schedule to choose (morning, evening, weekend etc). The curriculum used to be mostly an adaptation of the mainstream curriculum for the needs of young learner. Currently it has been completely reformed taking into account the competencies of learners, and is modularised and adult-oriented.

vi. Assessment. Learner assessment also changed from the classical assessment of grades to a more complex system. The latter includes an initial assessment at the start of the programme (valuing previous knowledge), a mixture of grades and credits for the lower secondary programme and descriptive grades (good, very good, sufficient etc) for the primary level. The assessment consists of three main components: grades throughout the module (30%), portfolio (20%) and final examination (50%).

vii. Pedagogical base. From 2001 to 2007, the manuals, the Teacher Guides, the Student Guides and the Evaluation Guide have been produced and revised. The interviews identified that there is still room for improvement but the progress made from 2001 to 2007 is evident and extremely beneficial. These materials are one of the most frequently cited elements for potential “transferability”.

Many of these changes happened in the PHARE funded period (2001- 2007),

and can be viewed in the project Report to the EC1_.

The second chance programme has been implemented in Cluj – Napoca from the very beginning, as the town was among the national pilot group in 1999. The School Inspectorate has been engaged not only as participants in the training programmes organised by the Ministry of Education and international experts but also as authors of the school textbooks and the methodological guides. Luminita Chicinas from the School Inspectorate has been trained as a local expert and has co-authored some of the second chance manuals. Another school inspector Lucia Copoeru has been actively engaged in the implementation of the PHARE projects.

The second chance programme started in Nicolae Iorga school in 2000, one year after the pilot programme was initiated nationally through the Education2000+ project. Currently the second chance programme is well established nationally and also at Nicolae Iorga school in Cluj-Napoca.

Target groups

The participants in the second chance programme at Nicolae Iorga range from 14 (the minimum age for entering the programme) to about 54. The percentage of those who are aged 14- 25 has been quite constant since 2008 at close to 30%. During the first years of the programme, participants were mostly from a Roma background. The percentage changed, with some years even having a majority of Romanian students. Currently about 70% of the students come from Roma families. The percentages of women and men are fairly equal with small annual variation.

The students normally come to the programme because of their own interest, some having been guided by social service institutions (Day Centres, Centres for Delinquent Youth etc). They enter the programme mostly to obtain the compulsory education certificate which they need to get jobs with legal contracts, outside the black market. Another reason cited, especially with younger males in the programme is obtaining the drivers’ licence. In Romania it is compulsory to have primary education to be able to obtain a driver’s licence. Once in the second chance programme, students find the environment motivates them to stay, both in terms of personal relationships (especially with the teachers as they appreciate the support, respect and understanding) and in terms of student needs being recognised and accommodated (through real life examples, a flexible schedule, and recognition of their life experiences).

Most second chance students are enrolled in the lower secondary programme with the majority having graduated five or six years before leaving school. Among those who are enrolled in the primary programme, some never went to school, and some completed one or two years at school. There are also interesting cases of elderly students, who graduated in primary education (even one who had completed eight

grades) but who do not have competencies for the primary level. These cases are a