2008 Policy Paper

A Proposal to Raise the Educational Attainment
of Romania’s Poorest Children, July 2008

From 2001 to 2008 the primary school drop-out rate almost tripled and for grades 5-8 the drop-out rate quadrupled in Romania. This paper proposes a national strategy to reverse this trend. The situation is largely a result of the disproportionate number of impoverished Roma children who start school late and drop out early. On average, children of Roma descent spend six and a half years in the formal education system, whereas the overall Romanian average is eleven years. In rural areas, all children are at risk for dropping out after eighth grade, but school abandonment in primary school is largely a problem among Roma children.

Our recommendations are based on the authors’ direct experience working with impoverished children and families in Romania as well as a review of recent research on minority education reform in the US. We also review the Romanian laws affecting children and schooling – and find that Romania’s legal framework is comprehensive and largely adequate to the task of providing equal opportunity of education. The measures we advocate are enforcement of current legislation and country-wide expansion of proven strategies in order to reverse the current negative trend in educational attainment.

Unfortunately, there is a commonly held belief that the crux of this problem is that Roma are not interested in formal education. Our experience successfully recruiting and teaching impoverished Roma children disproves that assumption. When the obstacles are removed and incentives provided, Roma families do send their children to school.

Ovidiu Rom sets forth twelve specific measures, with 2008 estimated cost breakdowns, which we believe are necessary in order to start raising the educational attainment of Romania’s poorest children.

• Among the measures we advocate are:
• National summer school preparation programs for all low-income children age 5 and above;
• Free school materials, uniforms and hot lunches for children from low-income families;
• Incentives in the form of food coupons to low-income families for early enrollment, 80% attendance, parent attendance at monthly parent-teacher meetings, etc.
• Enforcement of education and children’s rights legislation;
• Accountability of local administration for the enforcement of current legislation;
• Withholding of central government, or EU, funds for non-complian

The fact that in Romania almost one out of four children under age 18 is Roma should make clear why this is an issue that requires attention at the highest levels – and action on the ground throughout the country.

NOTE (April 2011): In a report to the Minister of Education, Daniel Funeriu in March 2011, the authors updated their recommendations based on evidence, from both personal experience in the field and the international literature, that the process of integrating margin and economically deprived children must begin in PRESCHOOL.

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