About the project

„Alege școala pentru un viitor mai bun” (Choose school for a better future) was a project of the Bistrița-Năsăud County School Inspectorate (ISJ), implemented in partnership with the Inceptus România Association from Cluj-Napoca. Its aim was to prevent early school leaving among children from rural areas or of Roma ethnicity.

The project ran from 2018 to 2021 in three schools in the county, involved as associate partners:

  • “Ion Pop Reteganul” Lower Secondary School Reteag (associate partner 1);
  • „Petru Rareș” Lower Secondary School Ciceu-Mihăiești (associate partner 2);
  • Budești Lower Secondary School, Țagu unit (associate partner 3).

Funding came from the Human Capital Operational Programme (POCU) 2014–2020, Priority Axis 6 “Education and skills”, under the “School for all” programme.

Objectives

The project had three specific objectives:

  1. increasing access to and participation in quality pre-school education for 111 children from Reteag, Ciceu-Mihăiești and Budești;
  2. increasing attendance and improving the quality of education in primary and lower secondary education for 238 pupils from the same localities;
  3. training 65 teachers to work with children at educational risk.

Activities

For five school semesters, children, parents and teachers from the three schools took part in:

  • Summer Kindergarten, for pre-school children, using active and participatory methods;
  • After-School Programme (Școală după Școală), for primary and lower secondary pupils, with a hot meal and lessons to consolidate learning;
  • psychological counselling for children and careers guidance for pupils in grades 7 and 8;
  • Parents’ School, parenting education seminars on the family climate, positive discipline, the child’s emotional development and the parent–child relationship;
  • teacher training: an accredited IT skills course, a programme for kindergarten teachers on active and participatory methods, and seminars on cooperation, communication, empathy and values-based education;
  • nine conferences on social inclusion, equal opportunities and non-discrimination, held between July 2018 and April 2021, the last two online.

Some of the activities took place online during the pandemic.

Results

The data below are taken from the project’s final dissemination report.

Project results, across the three schools
Indicator Result
Children and pupils in the target group at our school 207
Pre-school children supported in the three schools 193
Primary and lower secondary pupils supported 276
Teachers and support staff in the target group 63
Teachers certified in IT skills 54
Training seminars for teachers (8 in each school) 24
Parenting seminars 150
Parents enrolled in the project 247

At our school, the target group included 62 pre-school children, 70 primary pupils and 75 lower secondary pupils.

The report concludes that the project achieved its overall objective, through interventions to reduce and prevent early school leaving in the three schools.

The dissemination report

The final dissemination report can be consulted at the school’s school office. We do not publish it in full on the website, as it contains personal data of the people who took part in the activities.