We contribute to
reducing absenteeism and
the risk of school dropout

Why?

Because in the rural communities that we serve, 1 in 5 children drop out of school by the end of 8th grade. We work in schools that start with 8 full groups of 1st graders and end up with one single group of 8th graders, a classroom with many empty desks.

What do our Teach for Romania fellows do?

They build a welcoming, pleasant environment at school, they show children why school is relevant for their further development, develop good relationships with parents, spend hundreds of hours in the community with the school mediator to bring students to class and motivate parents to get involved and advocate for their children’s education.

Two years ago, Răducu was also on the verge of dropping out of school.

His physics teacher Mihaela Bucșa went around the village to persuade parents to allow their children to go to high school. That’s how she won over Răducu, now in 10th grade. The boy took over her model when the pandemic came and the teacher couldn’t get hold of the children. He soon became the education ambassador of his village.

CONTACT

Green Court C building, Gara Herăstrău Street, no. 4C, Bucharest

office@teachforromania.ro

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Bogdan, the student who learned to read at 18 and got a driving license

Bogdan is 18 years old and will start 8th grade in September. He has repeated a few years of school, but he has never given up easily. Half a year ago, Bogdan had difficulty recognising all the letters of the alphabet and couldn’t write or read fluently. Bogdan has no special learning needs, no dysgraphia or dyslexia, he simply missed the time when he should have learned to read and write. The rest is just inertia. And years of him sitting at a desk, but being invisible. Until last year. In the first semester, when schools went online, Bogdan didn’t attend any classes. He had problems with his internet connection, he didn’t have a tablet and it was difficult for him to log into class anyway.

In the second semester, when school reopened, he started coming to class again. His biology teacher, Andrei now a Teach for Romania alumnus, realised that Bogdan couldn’t read. He asked him if he wouldn’t mind staying after school to work together, and the answer was yes, even though sometimes staying after school wasn’t so easy, as Bogdan had already been working on a building site for a while.

Andrei had been coached and supported by his colleagues at Teach for Romania and our friends at the New Horizons Foundation on what to do in such situations: they assessed Bogdan, built an action plan together, they met regularly and practiced reading and writing. In July, Andrei also organised a summer school where Bogdan was the first to arrive on most days. When they started working together, Bogdan had the literacy level of a preschool student. Now he reads and has just taken his driving test. It was a dream come true.

Bogdan’s story is not unique. At the beginning of the last school year, Teach for Romania fellows teaching grades II-VIII had, on average, 4 students in the classroom who could not read and write and 6 students with difficulties in reading comprehension. The literacy problem in Romania is far from being solved. For children who are now in school, whatever grade they are in, there is a need for patient, well-trained teachers, who understand that there’s no use in blaming past teachers or the social status of the family and who want and know how to help children who need to learn to read and write better. Children who have been robbed of years of schooling for simply not being taught at the right time. We have what it takes to make this happen and we must do better. What we desperately need instead are trained teachers who are able and willing to be more involved in making learning relevant for students, by adapting lessons to their needs, regardless of what the curriculum requires of them. These children are real, they are waiting at a desk in a remote school for their teacher to show up for them, teachers who will see them, who will listen to them and who will do everything in their power to support their growth.

This is our big challenge and where we most invest in. We continue to work with future generations of Teach for Romania fellows, with teachers in the public school system who want to do more for their students, and with our friends in the NGO sector who want to invest in each child.

We contribute to
reducing absenteeism and
the risk of school dropout

Why?

What do our Teach for Romania fellows do?

În urmă cu doi ani, și Răducu era pe punctul de a renunța la școală.

Two years ago, Răducu was also on the verge of dropping out of school.

*Bogdan is 18 years old, and in September he started 8th grade.

"Over here no one takes their children to kindergarten. Why should I?”

When you’ve had enough,
remember your ‘why’

Mihaela Bucșă: How do you talk about a better future in a community where no one remembers the last student who went to high school?

Cristina a intrat în scenă cu greutatea codului „Dv2”, care m-a anunțat: e ultima șansă să repete clasa a III-a.

We contribute to reducing absenteeism and the risk of school dropout

Why?

What do our Teach for Romania fellows do?

NEWSLETTER

În urmă cu doi ani, și Răducu era pe punctul de a renunța la școală.

Two years ago, Răducu was also on the verge of dropping out of school.

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*Bogdan is 18 years old, and in September he started 8th grade.

"Over here no one takes their children to kindergarten. Why should I?”

When you’ve had enough, remember your ‘why’

No child left behind! Mrs Diana and her student Nicolas

Bogdan, the student who learned to read at 18 and got a driving license

I'm here to teach: two students guided by Miss Bianca, first in their families, to read and write.

The biggest impact: she was the first and only one to teach us that making mistakes is normal and important in our learning

Mihaela Bucșă: How do you talk about a better future in a community where no one remembers the last student who went to high school?

Cristina a intrat în scenă cu greutatea codului „Dv2”, care m-a anunțat: e ultima șansă să repete clasa a III-a.

We contribute to
reducing absenteeism and
the risk of school dropout

When you’ve had enough,
remember your ‘why’