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May 7, 2003
World Bank OK's $60 Million for Rural Education in Romania
The
World Bank on May 6 approved a $60 million loan for Romania to
improve the quality of education in rural areas.
The money will support professional development of teachers, improved
teaching conditions including facilities and materials, broader
community participation, and decentralization of school management.
"This
project is about equity. It means that we will support the Government
to provide well trained teachers and teaching materials to students
in rural areas, and therefore increase the students' chances to
continue their education at colleges or universities," said
Ana Maria Sandi of the World Bank.
Following
is a press release with details of the project and background
information on recent educational reforms in Romania:
ROMANIA:
WORLD BANK HELPS IMPROVE RURAL EDUCATION
WASHINGTON,
May 6, 2003 - The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors today
approved a $60 million loan for a Rural Education Project in Romania,
which will address significant equity issues in the education
sector by helping rural students benefit from improved access
to quality education.
This
objective will be achieved through professional development of
teachers and principals of rural schools; improving teaching conditions
in rural schools both with respect to adequate minimum facilities
and providing basic teaching-learning materials; promoting school-based
innovation programs and community participation; and improving
the policy-making capacity of local and central education authorities/agencies.
"This
project is a natural extension of our previous projects in Romania.
Adequate educational systems should provide good education in
an efficient as well as equitable way. This project is about equity.
It means that we will support the Government to provide well trained
teachers and teaching materials to students in rural areas, and
therefore increase the students' chances to continue their education
at colleges or universities," says Ana Maria Sandi, team
leader for the project.
"To
facilitate a good quality education in rural areas, the project
will provide for additional professional motivation to attract
and train teachers in rural areas to adequate standards."
The
project will support broader community involvement in education
management, working not only with education authorities, but also
with local councils, parents, and community representatives. It
will aim to support decentralization by increasing the capacity
of schools and local authorities to develop their own school improvement
plans and to improve school management. Thus, the project is encouraging
democratic school governance and is strengthening school-community
linkages.
The
project is focusing on rural student achievement as the main measure
of its success. Outcomes of this project will be measured in terms
of rural students achievement reflected in assessments and examinations,
reduction of the gap between the scores of the students from urban
and rural areas, increased school completion rate, and increased
transition rates to upper secondary and tertiary education.
The
four components of the project are:
Component
1: Improve Teaching and Learning in Rural Schools. This component
will develop professional competences of rural teachers and improve
basic education conditions in schools. Since education inputs
have a significant effect on students' achievements, this component
will focus on teachers, textbooks and teaching/learning materials
and school utilities. Under this component, the following elements
will be implemented: (i) school-based professional development
for teachers through various training schemes including mobile
units and distance learning; (ii) career development opportunities
for teachers; (iii) basic education condition in schools; (iv)
textbooks and teaching-learning materials.
Component
2: Improve School-Community Partnerships. This component will
empower rural schools and communities in order to develop a broad
collaborative environment supportive of education. The component
will both improve the governance of schools and increase the contribution
of schools to communities by encouraging and enabling schools
and local authorities to work together to identify priorities,
to diagnose problems and to formulate and implement solutions.
Local Education Councils (LEC) will be set up at the level of
each commune, involving the mayor and representatives of: the
administrative councils of all the schools from the commune cluster;
the local council; and local firms and other local organizations.
This component will include an outreach and behavior change, communication
and sensitization activities through which schools and communities
will be assisted by facilitators in discussing education needs
and in preparing their own school improvement plans, as well as
school improvement projects. The LECs will be involved in managing
planned activities including mobilizing community resources.
Component
3: Strengthen Monitoring, Evaluation and Policy Making Capacity.
The overall objective of this component is to ensure the sustainability
of the project by strengthening capacity in leadership and decentralized
educational management at the local level and increasing the institutional
and analytical capacity at national and local levels for policy
analysis, formulation and planning. These objectives will be achieved
through establishing the National Education Indicators Set; improving
the National Education Data Base; and preparing a National Assessment
of Basic Education.
Component
4: Strengthen Project Management Capacity. This component will
provide support for project implementation, including project
monitoring and evaluation, and will ensure that all stakeholders
and the public at large are informed about the project.
For
more information on the Bank's work in Romania, visit www.worldbank.org.ro
Background
information: Romania and Rural Education
Early on during its transition to a democratic society and a market
economy, Romania embarked upon comprehensive educa tion reform.
Although this is a long-term process, progress is already visible.
The Bank is assisting Romania in all three major areas important
to education systems -- quality, efficiency and equity -- through
consecutive projects and sector work: the Education Reform project
(1994-2002), the Higher Education Reform project (1997-2002),
the School Rehabilitation project (1998-2004), the Education Policy
Note as well as the present project.
Romania
has attained better access to basic education than countries in
other regions at similar levels of income. Gross enrollment rates
are high: in 2001, 95.8% of children 7-14 years-old had enrolled.
There are 12,549 schools in the system (grades 1-8), with 84.4%
of them located in rural areas; 2,376,700 students are enrolled,
45.66% of them attending rural schools. Student-teacher ratios
are typical for the region, averaging around 14.6. However, public
expenditure for education is low, averaging 3.2 to 3.7 percent
of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) during the second half of the
1990s.
The
average public expenditure in education was 5.2 percent of GDP
for the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
countries in 2000. Despite universal access to schooling, a significant
fraction of children are not successfully completing basic education.
High dropout rates are a serious concern since research shows
that in order for children to obtain even modest benefits from
education, they need a minimum of 5-6 years of schooling. Romania
has performed unexpectedly poorly in international assessments.
In 1995, it ranked 25th out of 38 countries participating in the
Third International Mathematics and Science Study. >From a
rural vs. urban perspective, the scores were lower in rural areas.
Contacts:
Bucharest: Dan Petrescu (40 1) 210-1804, dpetrescu@worldbank.org
Washington: Miriam Van Dyck (1-202) 458-2931, mvandyck@worldbank.org
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