In the context in which Romania is still facing the phenomenon of segregation in public schools, Teach for Romania and the Roma Education Fund Romania Foundation launch the project “Less segregation, more diversity”.
The project is based on two documents issued by the Ministry of Education and Research – Order 1540/2007 on banning school segregation of Roma children and Methodology of school segregation in pre-university education in 2019 – through which the Ministry proposes, as educational policy, ensuring equity and improving quality in education for all children, including those of Roma ethnicity, equal access to all forms of education without discrimination based on ethnic origin or mother tongue.
There is no action plan for the application of the methodology and, implicitly, Ministry of Education and Research cannot provide support to schools, therefore we are now struggling with an increased school dropout for Roma students, and the poverty rate, segregation and ethnic discrimination are contributors to this statistics, especially in rural and interethnic communities.
Schools are not equipped to respect the framework, professionals do not have the skills and the necessary framework to carry out intercultural learning activities, the curriculum decided by the schools does not include aspects that reflect the culture and history of the Roma minority, nonviolent interaction and acceptance of diversity in the community, the parent-school-student-community relationship is precarious.
Developing skills of active citizenship, non-discriminatory treatment and interculturality for education professionals, both from the NGO environment as well as from public institutions, students and parents;
We create, test and disseminate an accredited curriculum for teachers, a curriculum of activities for primary education students, as well as for those of lower secondary degree education, which would facilitate the development of school and community activities on the themes of intercultural education, intercultural diversity, ethnicity-based discrimination, Roma ethnicity specifics, equity, and segregation. 14 teachers and 210 students will be trained and have access to the activities proposed in the developed curriculum; and will have acquired competences on themes such as cultural diversity, ethnicity-based discrimination, Roma ethnicity specifics, equity and segregation;
We endow the schools involved in the project with educational resources regarding the culture and history of the minorities and we will undertake formal and informal educational actions inside the schools and community; the activities will contribute to the consolidation of the relationship community-school-parents-students;
We recommend public politics towards the National Ministry of Education and Research and organize a series of public consultancy actions regarding intercultural education and equity; the goal of these consultancy actions is to collect information from relevant parties regarding the observance of minority rights in the school environment.
We diminish the split between the Romanian and Roma communities through community actions in 7 regions, on international Roma people’s day – 8 of April
We form a campaign of communication and pro-diversity education addressed to the general audience.
