We support diversity
and fight segregation

The problem

We talk more and more about equity in education and about helping children from disadvantaged backgrounds to value their potential and become functional citizens of Romanian society. However, we cannot talk about such topics while teachers do not have the skills and the framework to carry out intercultural learning activities, while the curriculum does not include aspects of the culture and history of the Roma minority or contexts of interaction with the communities we serve, and while the important relationship between parents – school – students and the entire community is precarious.

The solution

Together with Roma Education Fund, we created a plan based on 3 main objectives to reach in the following 3 years:

creating and disseminating a curriculum that facilitates activities addressing topics such as education and intercultural diversity.

growing basic skills for active citizenship, a non-discriminatory treatment and interculturality for over 700 participants in the project (professionals in the education field, NGO specialists, parents, students, teachers and principals) from 7 counties.

submitting two public policy proposals to the Ministry of Education and Research in order to ensure equity in education and the quality of education for all children, regardless of ethnic origin or their mother tongue.

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 support diversity
and fight segregation

The problem

The solution

*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.

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

We support diversity and fight segregation

The problem

The solution

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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.

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

We support diversity
and fight segregation

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