Advocacy event on School After School and career counselling educational programmes

  • 06/06/2023
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    • Advocacy event on School After School and career counselling educational programmes

    HEKS/EPER Romania Foundation and Diakonia Sf. Gheorghe Christian Foundation organized an advocacy event on Friday, May 26, 2023, regarding the School After School and Career Counseling educational programs. The event was attended by Mr. Peter Makkai – Secretary of State in the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity, representatives of ISJ, AJOFM, AJPIS, DGASP and CJRAE from Covasna county, principals of the collaborating schools from the projects implemented in Covasna county by the two foundations, representatives of other NGOs and representatives of the media.

    During the event, the two projects implemented in Covasna county were presented, the activities and results achieved so far, the challenges they encountered, the current legislation on School After School and career counselling educational programmes as well as proposed recommendations.

    Diakonia Sf. Gheorghe Christian Foundation has been running School After School programmes in Covasna county for over 10 years, and since 2015 with the financial support of HEKS/EPER Switzerland Foundation. In this school year, 515 children from 18 localities benefit from this program, with the involvement of 34 teachers. As this school year is the last year of the project, the main challenge is the financial support of the programme. The programme enjoys broad local support, including financial, from local authorities (County Council and local councils), parents, businesses and individuals. On the other hand, the situation regarding financial support for the programme at the national level is unclear. The legislation in force (LAW No 186 of 20 August 2020, respectively OUG 6/2021, approved by Law 323/29.12.2021), which provided the financing of the School After School programme by the State, namely the development and approval of the implementing rules, has not been applied so far. According to the new law (Law on pre-university education): “The financing of the “School after School” programme may be done including through non-reimbursable external funds or from the budgets of local public administration authorities, in accordance with the applicable legal provisions.” This provision needs further clarification:

    – The fact that “funding of the School After School programme can be done through…” does not provide any guarantee/assurance that funds will be allocated;

    – For the situation where local public authorities financially support the School After School programme, it is necessary to clarify all costs associated with the School After School programme that can be financed by local public authorities: hot meal, materials for activities and salaries of teachers involved in the programme.

    The second project implemented in Covasna county is “Labour-market inclusion for disadvantaged young adults in Romania”. The project addresses the transition from 8th grade to professional education on the one hand while on the other hand strengthening the links between employers, job seekers, school inspectorate and professional schools in order to improve the quality of professional education to enhance the employment perspectives of young graduates of professional schools.

    During the event, the study “The Career Counselling System in Romania. Empirical and legislative analysis, with focus on Covasna, Mures and Sibiu counties:” was presented. The study was carried out last year in the framework of the project, by Cognitrom team. This study includes research on the legislation regulating the school counselling activity, an empirical analysis of the career counselling process, focusing on Covasna, Mures and Sibiu counties and a series of recommendations. Discussions focused on the number of students allocated to a school counsellor and other issues related to counselling activity. According to Law No 133/2020 supplementing Article 83 of the National Education Law No 1/2011, a school counsellor is allocated a maximum of 600 pupils and a maximum of 300 pre-school pupils. On the other hand, the average number of children per school counsellor in the 3 counties included in the study varies between 900 – 1000/1. There is also a major discrepancy in terms of access to and quality of career counselling services offered to children in rural versus urban areas, with only 14% to 21% of the existing psycho-pedagogical assistance offices being in rural areas (14% – Sibiu, 17% – Covasna and 21% Mures).