Ovidiu Rom’s Proposals for Strengthening Draft Education Law of 18.03.2010

Ovidiu Rom’s concern with the new legislation is that the law does not directly address the declining rates in literacy and school attainment and does not provide a strategy for reversing these negative trends. Poverty related issues need to be tackled by a coherent and comprehensive policy, which includes integrated social and educational measures and is implemented by an inter-ministerial strategy. Meaningful reform requires that there be a clear delineation of the responsibilities of the administrative authorities and school authorities involved. A re-evaluation of the teaching profession in terms of training, remuneration, and social status, with special emphasis on serving poor and rural populations is also needed.

There is indisputable evidence that good early education is an essential prerequisite for success in school. The parents’ role is crucial, but for populations with a history of multigenerational poverty, focused proactive government support of early education is the only viable means to reversing the decline in literacy and the increase in school abandonment.

Art. 14.(1) Duration of compulsory education and Art. 24.(2) Access to preschool education

Our proposal: (1) Kindergarten should be accessible to all from the age of 3, beginning in 2013 and (2) kindergarten made compulsory for five year olds, beginning 2011. (Thus, compulsory education would increase to 11 years, beginning with kindergarten at age 5.)

Rationale: Long-term school success depends on the child’s early cognitive development. Study after study shows that the return on public investment in high quality childhood education is substantial. Optimally, children as young as age 3 should be included in pre-school education. Making early childhood education available FOR ALL should be a major goal of the new law. This is especially important for children from disadvantaged families who receive less intellectual stimulation in the home. When children start school behind, they stay behind. Children who get a good start are less likely to need “special education” and are more likely to graduate. When those children become adults, they are more likely to hold jobs and earn higher salaries, less likely to commit crimes, less likely to be on welfare.

The international research is clear that the money spent on quality early education saves taxpayers significant expense in future costs.

Art. 72: regarding parents’ responsibility for their children’s school attendance. The new law designates fines for parents in breach of contract or not sending their children to school at all.

Proposal: (2) The State, through the local authorities, supports poor families who cannot cover their children’s schooling costs by providing an integrated school, family, and social protection package. Concrete support measures will be enumerated in secondary legislation (and detailed in the Family Social Code, and the Social Protection Code respectively).

(3) The family protection measures in the integrated package will be financed from the national budget, with funds being specifically allocated for them. The social protection measures will be financed from county budgets.

Current paragraphs (2) and (3) in the draft proposed law become paragraphs (4) and (5) respectively.

Rationale: Fines imposed on parents living in extreme poverty, or homeless, or without papers, do not work. The most effective method of getting young impoverished children in school is door-to-door recruitment and the provision of school essentials like shoes, clothes, and school supplies. This can be implemented as public-private partnerships. Local authorities should be accountable for having every child age 5 or over in school — but how they accomplish this should be decentralized, with local civil society and business involvement encouraged to play a part. Punitive measures should only be invoked for intractable cases.

Art. 78: Teacher evaluation and remuneration

Proposal: Include new paragraph (7): Significant incentives for teachers working in rural and poor urban areas.

Secondary legislation needed to provide specifics.

Rationale: A mechanism is sorely needed to motivate good teachers to work in schools in rural and impoverished urban areas. It is not only transportation that prevents many children from going to high school; it is also because many do not pass the entrance exam – which is a direct result of their inadequate preparation. Only half the children in Romania graduate from high school. This adversely affects their potential productivity as adults.

Art. 303.4: Directing 2% of taxes to one’s own children’s education expenses

Proposal: Eliminate this provision entirely.

Rationale: This is a regressive measure that helps the children of high earners more than the children of low earners, who actually need economic support far more. It does not serve the public interest and it allows citizens to direct part of their taxes to special interests.

New article: to address the declining trend in the national literacy and school attainment rates

Proposal: (1) The Ministry of Education develops a National Strategy for Combating School Abandonment and Illiteracy. This will be a framework program for all public schools at both pre-school and school level. It will be revised every four years.

(2) Local authorities, in cooperation with schools in the affected areas, and in consultation with civil society organizations, and the local community, will develop action plans for implementing the National Strategy, with programs tailored to local needs. These will include compulsory summer schools and school-after-school programs, in accordance with provisions in art.44 for communities with high illiteracy and school abandonment rates.

(3) The state, through the local authorities, will take specific measures to include children of low income families in pre-school programs.

(4) The Ministry of Education will elaborate a National Strategy for informing parents and legal guardians about school enrolment procedures and deadlines, and about their rights and obligations in ensuring their children’s access to education.

(5) The implementation of this National Strategy will be decided at the local level, by local authorities, in cooperation with school inspectorates and local representatives of the Ministry of Labor, Family, and Social Protection, in order to best suit the needs of the local community.

(6) The Ministry of Education will support initiatives of central and local authorities, and of nongovernmental organizations for expanding the network of community-based school mediators.

(7) Community-based school mediators will be eligible for performance-based bonuses paid by the Ministry of Education. Performance evaluation standards and bonus allocation methodology will be specified by Government Decision (HG).

Rationale: The new law should specify how it will address the continuing DECLINE in Romania’s literacy rate. This issue deserves a separate article in the law – and a specific nationwide strategy. Some of these provisions are currently mentioned in various articles of the new law but no picture emerges of a strategy for including disadvantaged children, who make up a sizable percentage of Romanian children. No successful educational reform in this country can be achieved leaving this large and growing segment of the population unaddressed by a national strategy.