Ovidiu Rom and Education Ministry open applications for disadvantaged kids programs

Ovidiu Rom and the Education Ministry have opened the application sessions for all mayors in Romania for funds helping support the preschool and kindergarten education of poor children. This is the second year of the program, called Fiecare Copil in Gradinita (Every Child in Kindergarten).

The qualifications for applying are to have at least 50 children between age 3 and 6 who were not regularly attending kindergarten, a qualified school mediator, a social worker willing to be an active part of the project, a local team willing to implement the methodology.

“The National Education Law is proposing, for the first time, generalizing preschool education as a solution to the problem of school abandonment. But national policies also need to be correlated with local ones. That is why I am glad to see the positive response local communities had to our call last year. We’re expecting an important number of applications this year as well,” said State Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Oana Badea.

Read more about

Elena Jianu, Eltra Logis, takes the spotlight at Real Estate & Construction Forum & Awards 2024

read more

The Fiecare Copil in Gradinita initiative was launched in July 2010 and is currently assisting 1,300 children and their families in 19 communities. Results were surprising. The percentage of perfect attendance was almost double compared to attendance in the previous year and grew constantly every month, rising to 84 percent in March.

Ovidiu Rom allocated approximately EUR150 for each child 3-6 whose family qualified for social benefits or met other poverty criteria. These funds covered educational resources as well as monthly food coupons to the families whose children had perfect attendance. Ovidiu Rom also provides teacher training in modern methods and strategies for working with disadvantaged children.

In order to identify all eligible children, the project is based on door-to-door recruitment. Daily attendance is carefully recorded by teachers and monitored by local coordinators. A member of the Ovidiu Rom team visits each school at least once a month and spot checks attendance records. The local coordinator distributes monthly food coupons to parents of children with perfect attendance at the end of each month.