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TWINNING LIGHT CONTRACT

RO2002/IB/OT-02 TL

Access to Education for Disadvantaged Groups

FINAL REPORT

Reporting period: 24 September 2003 – 23 May 2004

Submitted by:
Gesellschaft für Versicherungswissenschaft und –gestaltung e.V. (GVG),
Ms Christa Burbat, German Project Leader
CONTENTS

1. Identification ......................................................................................................... 3

2. Executive Summary ............................................................................................. 4

2.1 Modifications of the twinning light contract during the project implementation . 5
3. Background .......................................................................................................... 6

4. Summary of the Twinning light activities during the reporting period ................... 7

4.1. Overview .......................................................................................................... 7


4.2 Assessment of state of play of inclusive education in Romania ....................... 9
4.3 National Action Plan for ensuring access to appropriate education for all
children with Special Educational Needs ....................................................... 10
4.4 Identification and dissemination of examples of good practice in inclusive
education ....................................................................................................... 12
4.5 Implementation of a National Conference ...................................................... 13
5. Evaluation of the Twinning Light Project............................................................... 14

6. Conclusions and Recommendations .................................................................... 15

7. Annexes................................................................................................................ 18
1. Identification

Twinning light Project N°: RO/2002/IB/OT/02-TL

Title of the Twinning light Project: Access to education for disadvantaged groups

Project execution duration: 24 September 2004 – 30 April 2004

Period covered by the report: 24 September 2004 – 30 April 2004

Submitted by: Christa Burbat, German Project Leader, GVG

Place, Date: Cologne, _________________

Signature: _________________________

Endorsed by: Mrs Liliana Preoteasa, Romanian Project Leader, MERY

Place, Date: Bucharest, ________________

Signature: _________________________
2. Executive Summary

The overall objective of the present twinning light project was to support the Ministry of
Education, Research and Youth in implementing the strategy related to inclusive education
and in establishing an inter-institutional system for identification of special educational needs
in order to ensure their legal right of access to education.

Specific objectives should be


- to elaborate instruments for identification of children with disabilities and to design the
legal, institutional and educational framework that will ensure them the needed
educational support and/or inclusion in mainstream education;
- to enable responsible bodies from different institutions in charge of protection and
education of children to use the designed instruments;
- to elaborate a national plan for ensuring access to appropriate education for all children
with disabilities;
- to identify and disseminate examples for good practice in inclusive education;
- to design the legal, institutional and educational framework that will ensure them the
needed educational support and/or inclusion in mainstream education;

All objectives have been achieved, although, as compared to the Terms of Reference, the
relative weight of the single activities had to be readjusted. In the course of the project, the
elaboration of the National Action Plan gained more and more importance since the
assessment period revealed a series of issues which had to be addressed therein.

During the project period 19 special and mainstream schools in five counties (incl. Bucharest)
were visited by the experts. There were talks with the headmasters of the school, the teachers,
parents as well as with the respective school inspectors. Furthermore, discussions with further
institutions involved in inclusive education as e.g. the National Authority for Child Protection
and Adoption, Unicef, RENINCO, the Houses of Teachers were held and contributed to a
complete picture of the existing situation. The situation of special needs education in the
special schools and the mainstream schools as well as the legal framework for special needs
education was assessed. The results of the assessment were included in the inception report.
On the basis of the assessment activities, the National Action Plan for Access to Education for
Children with Special Educational Needs has been elaborated in co-operation with the
Ministry of Education, Research and Youth. Besides the presentation of universal policy
elements related to Special Needs Education and common principles of education of children
with SEN in Romania, the NAP focusses on recommendations in the following fields:

Inclusion and integration in mainstream schools


The model of the resource centre
Early identification – early intervention
Access to education for children with severe and multiple disabilities
Identification of children with SEN
Teacher training
Legal framework
The role of the parents

A National Conference organised by the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth, was
implemented in the final phase of the project. At the conference, the Draft National Action
Plan was presented and discussed with the participants. Furthermore examples of good
practice in Romania were presented.
After the conference a Guide of Good practice for the inclusion of children with special
educational needs was compiled, printed and handed over to the Ministry of Education,
Research and Youth in order to be distributed to school inspectorates and schools. Besides
criteria for good practice in inclusive education the Guide includes good practice examples
from Romania as well as from European Member States, Switzerland and Iceland.

2.1 Modifications of the twinning light contract during the project


implementation

During the execution period of the twinning project, three side letters were signed and
submitted to the CFCU and the EC Delegation. The Side letter N°1 included the replacement
of one short-term expert, some minor changes in the allocation of funds for the activities as
well as the integration of costs for the audit.
The Side letter N° 2 became necessary in order to extend the execution duration of the
project. This extension has been notified since the Draft National Action Plan had to be
presented and discussed on a Conference which couldn‘t be implemented before 5-6 April
2004 (which would have been beyond the execution period of the project). On the basis of the
results of the discussion at the Conference, the National Action Plan was finalised. Therefore
a prolongation of the execution period until 30 April 2004 had been requested.
The Side Letter N° 3 became necessary in order to integrate the costs for printing the guide of
good practice which originally was not foreseen in the budget and to increase the translation
costs in order to translate the guide. All three side letters have been notified in time, i.e. before
the modification taking place. The modifications notified did not include substantial changes
and contributed to a better achievement of the guaranteed results.

3. Background

Accession to the EU and therewith the harmonisation of Romanian law with the acquis
communautaire confronts Romania with the necessity to improve the access to education for
disadvantaged groups.
In the National Programme for Accession of Romania to the European Union, under the
chapter regarding human rights and the protection of minorities, measures like the following
ones have been envisaged:
- Restructuring/closing of large old-style child protection residential institutions,
including those for handicapped children by creating alternative social services;
- Continuation of the process, started in 2001, of integration of children from the special
education system into regular schools and, at the same time, prevention of unjustified
entrances into the special education system, when other forms of education,
responding to the special needs of the child, are available;
- Development and promotion of programmes for handicapped children, aimed at
encouraging their integration into social life, as well as their integration in common
schools and kindergartens.

The situation of the education of children and youths with SEN has changed and further
developed since the late nineties. The legal framework for integration and inclusion of
children with SEN has been created. New schools have been established in different counties
in Romania, existing schools took over new tasks and developed integrative structures and
offered access to education for children and youths with SEN. Partly, this development led to
good results – however, as regards contents and structures the implementation of integration
varies considerably from county to county and also from school to school.

The results of the present Twinning light project will help to further develop as well as to
standardise procedures and practices of inclusive education in Romania. The examples of
good practice identified within the frame of the project can serve as pilot projects and help to
further spread inclusive education in Romania.

4. Summary of the Twinning light activities during the reporting


period

4.1. Overview

The twinning light project officially started with the signature of the Twinning light contract
by the German Twinning Partner GVG, i.e. on 24 September 2004.
The activities and respective missions which were implemented during the project period
were oriented towards the achievement of the guaranteed results laid down in the Terms of
Reference. Thus, the project implementation can be divided up into the following main
activities:

(a) Assessment of state of play of inclusive education in Romania


(b) Elaboration of recommendations for improving the legal, institutional and educational
framework for identification of children with disabilities including monitoring system
(c) Elaboration of a training module for the identification of special eduational needs
(d) Elaboration of a design model for resource centres
(e) Elaboration of a National Action Plan for ensuring access to appropriate education for all
children with disabilities
(f) Identification and dissemination of examples of good practice in inclusive education
(g) Implementation of a National Conference

The following list gives an overview of the missions implemented within the frame of the
project. In the subsequent paragraphs, the results of these activities are described in detail. As
the National Action Plan includes the results of the work done under the a.m. points b)-d),
these activities will not be listed separately in the subsequent paragraphs.
Inception Phase:
1) September 2003: Preparatory meeting with German team – planification of activities
and assignment of tasks; Fact-finding mission (Burbat, Garbe-Emden)
2) October – November 2003: Assessment of institutional and legal framework for
identification of SEN (Burbat, Gers); Assessment of existing situation in special and
mainstream schools (Hölscher, Eckhardt, Oertel, Lenz)
3) December 2003: Elaboration of inception report

Elaboration of a National Action Plan for Access to Children with Special Educational Needs
The National Action Plan includes the results of most of the activities implemented during
project:
1) December 2003 - January 2004: Elaboration of recommendations for improving
the institutional and legal framework for identification of children with special
educational needs (Burbat, Lenz)
2) December 2003 - February 2004: Recommendations on instruments and
methodology for identification of children with SEN; Elaboration of training
modules (Gers, Hölscher, Schöler)
3) February 2004: Design of a model for resource centres and elaboration of criteria
for the selection of special schools to be transformed into resource centres (Gers,
Lenz)
4) February - March 2004: Recommendations on ensuring access to children with
severe and multiple SEN; Finalisation of the National Action Plan (Burbat,
Hausotter, Gers)

Implementation of a National Conference


April 2004: participation in the National Conference (Burbat, Hausotter, Schöler,
Oertel, Garbe-Emden)

Elaboration of a Guide of Good Practice


April 2004: elaboration of criteria for good practice, compilation of good practice
examples from Romania and EU Member States (Burbat, Hölscher)
4.2 Assessment of state of play of inclusive education in Romania

During the assessment phase 16 schools (mainstream and special schools) in the counties
Arad, Timisoara, Suceava, Iasi and Bucharest were visited. The experts met with the
respective headmasters and teachers of the schools and had additional meetings with
representatives of the respective school inspectorates, child protection directions and NGOs.
Furthermore, the existing legal provisions regarding special needs education have been
translated and analysed. The main outputs of the assessment can be summarised as follows:

Integration and inclusion of children and youths with SEN in mainstream schools
has been the concern of politics as well as of many teachers, schools and parents.
Almost one third of all children and youths with SEN in Romania attend
mainstream schools (in the term 2003/2004: 11,493 out of 38,792). They are mainly
children and youths with a low or medium extent of SEN whose integration appears
possible without the schools taking construction measures or providing particular
equipment. In cases where children and youths with severe and multiple SEN
attend special schools or mainstream schools this has often been made possible with
the support given by NGOs. Good models have been devised and likewise the legal
provisions for the further development of integration and inclusion have been set.
Those good examples have been an incentive for numerous other schools to strive
for integration and inclusion as well. However, there are also difficulties that need
to be tackled:
Teachers of mainstream schools are not sufficiently prepared for integrative
teaching; they are not trained in teaching in the frame of differentiated and
individualised lessons. A co-operation in lessons between itinerant teachers and
teachers of mainstream schools does not take place.
A considerable number of children with severe and multiple handicaps does not
attend school at all. For lack of transport facilities, lack of equipment and social
services the integration in mainstream schools is considered to not be possible.
The responsibility for the identification of special educational needs is with the
Commission for Child Protection of the respective county (sector in Bucharest).
The Commission takes a decision on the basis of the results of the Specialised
Public Service of Complex Evaluation, a department that consists of paeditricians,
neuro-psychiatrists, psychologists, psycho-pedagogues, social workers, logopedics
and physiotherapists. Up to now, the teacher of the child to be assessed is not
involved in the identification of the special educational needs. Also the parents
have no influence on the decision taken by the Commission although they are being
consulted.
The analysis of the legal provisions has showed that the legal foundations do in fact
exist, e.g. in the Romanian Constitution and in the Law on Education (Nr. 84 / 7
Chapter IV/1995). All opportunities for and preconditions of the integration of
children with SEN in mainstream schools have been regulated sufficiently and in
concrete terms in the regulation 4653/8.10.2001 “The Methodology of Organising
and Functioning of Educational Services for Deficient Children/Students Integrated
in the Public School, by Itinerant Teachers“ and in the regulation 4747/19.02.2002
“Regulation for the Organising and Functioning of the Pre-University Educational
Units“.
The identification of SEN is being regarded from a rather medical deficit theory
point of view as opposed to an SEN point of view. The paradigm shift towards a
positive view of SEN including the necessary support, that has been made in the
European countries over the last decades, has not been taken into account yet in
Romania.

The results of the assessment phase are outlined in the inception report which was elaborated
by the German Project Leader, agreed with the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth
and submitted to the EC Delegation and CFCU.

4.3 National Action Plan for ensuring access to appropriate education for all children
with Special Educational Needs

The National Action Plan for Access to Education for Children with SEN comprehensively
describes and justifies the needs and possibilities for the further development of the system
for Special Needs Education in Romania and makes concrete proposals for its
implementation. The NAP will serve as a basis for the further development of the system in
order to respond to paradigm shift focussing on the needs of the child with SEN.

The NAP presents a comprehensive concept which is divided into the following issues:
- inclusion and integration in mainstream schools
- model of the resource centre
- early identification and early ntervention
- transition from school to vocational training
- access to education for children and youth with severe and multiple SEN
- identification of SEN
- training for teachers
- legal framework
- the role of the parents

The analyses and recommendations of the a.m. issues have been elaborated by the experts
after they had visited the schools and involved institutions. The recommendations were
intensely discussed with the involved persons and closely co-ordinated with the
representatives of the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth. As the NAP includes very
detailed recommendations, this document itself should be referred to (annex 1). In the
following, only some crucial outcomes of the NAP are mentioned.

The overall objective of the NAP is to establish a school system which offers access to
education in mainstream schools for all children and youth with SEN. A basic principle for
integrative education is the elaboration and the application of the individual education plan.
Furthermore, parents are to be involved in the decisions concerning the education of their
children with SEN. In order to successfully educate children and youth with SEN in
mainstream schools, the mainstream schools and the special schools have to closely co-
operate. Special schools are to support the work in mainstream schools and further develop to
resource centres.
Joint teaching of children and youths with and without SEN demands profound restructuring
of the work at school. This means e.g. restructuring of teaching methods, of the lesson design,
of school life, of performance assessment and also of the assessment criteria. It is therefore
necessary to provide intense further training for teachers.
Working with individual education plans makes necessary accurate and extensive analyses of
the children’s learning behaviour and of their particular individual needs. As a result, the
procedures for identification of SEN have to be expanded and the school or pre-school
teachers working with the respective child and knowing their learning behaviour have to be
involved. An appropriate report of the respective teacher is to be taken into account when
identifying SEN.
Early identification and early intervention as well as the transition from school to vocational
training are part of the child’s education.

The framework conditions such as transport systems and infrastructural requirements that are
in accordance with the educational needs of the children secure the school’s work – and often
make it possible in the first place.

Safeguarding of the continued or newly developed steps will be achieved by amending or re-
elaborating parts of the legal framework.

Steps are being taken for the implementation of this overall concept. They include preparation
by the government and the ministries as well as concrete planning on county level, based on
the existing structures. Decentralised implementation involving all those affected is
recommended. Thus structures, opportunities and difficulties in the counties can be better
included and taken into account. Responsibilities arise in a direct way and influences and
consultation can take place immediately.

For further details, please see the NAP which is attached as annex 1 to this report.

4.4 Identification and dissemination of examples of good practice in inclusive


education

Complementing the National Action Plan a Guide for Good Practice has been elaborated. It is
to be made available for the schools and offer them concrete help for the basic development
of good practice in inclusive school work. Furthermore, it can provide helpful suggestions for
the planning of modifications and further development and promote their implementation.
The guide includes concrete examples of good practice from schools that do apply inclusive
practices in Romania. In addition, there are examples of inclusive school work in the
European Union, Switzerland and Iceland. Furthermore, an analysis of the examples from
Romanian schools based on the good practice criteria and a list of the pedagogic and
organisational steps which a school will have to take in order to develop and realise a concept
in terms of good practice and inclusive work is presented.
The school visits, in particular those made during the assessment phase, had showed that there
is a significant number of schools, kindergartens and other institutions supporting children
and youths with SEN which align their work with inclusion and integration and which have
developed new and individual ways of pedagogical work of their own. These concrete
examples are to inspire the own developments. In co-operation with the Ministry of
Education, Research and Youth criteria for good practice were elaborated and, using these
criteria, the good practice examples from Romania were analysed and compared. Thus
facilities can be provided helping to establish contacts and collecting differentiated
information for schools that wish to change their working methods. The schools presented are
to become pilot schools passing on their experiences throughout the country by using their
contacts and making visits.
The schools from the other European Countries whose work is regarded as good practice can
only undertake such a task in exceptional cases. Including them in the guide is aimed at
calling the attention to other countries as well, offer helpful suggestions and point up how the
work of the Romanian schools can be correlated with those of other European countries.
700 copies of the Guide for Good Practice have been printed in order to distribute them to the
school inspectorates and schools in Romania.

4.5 Implementation of a National Conference

The National Conference was implemented on 5 and 6 April 2004. Nearly 180 persons
attended the conference: Besides representatives from the Ministry of Education, Research
and Youth, representatives from the school inspectorates, the County Councils, the National
Authority for Child Protection and Adoption, the Child Protection Departments of the
Counties, the Houses of Teachers, mainstream and special schools, NGOs (e.g. RENINCO)
had been invited. Initially, the National Conference was planned to present a guide of good
practice in inclusive education. Since it was not feasible to finalise the guide for the
conference, it has been decided that the MERY presented a collection of good practice
examples of Romania; the guide of good practice has been finalised afterwards. Furthermore,
the main focus of the conference was laid on the discussion of the National Action Plan. After
the presentation of the Draft National Action Plan, the plenum had been divided up into 6
working groups which discussed different issues of the NAP. It can be summarised that the
National Conference contributed to the dissemination of the National Action Plan and of good
practice examples in Romania.
5. Evaluation of the Twinning Light Project

All Guaranteed Results of the project have been achieved. They are listed here below in
detail:

The analysis of the existing situation in special schools and in mainstream schools that
have integrated children with SEN has been provided by means of the inception report.

The design of the model of the resource school and the elaboration of criteria for the
selection of the special schools to be transformed in resource centres has been elaborated
and submitted to the MERY (annex 1).

The National Action Plan for access to education for children and youths with SEN has
been elaborated and submitted to the MERY (annex 2). As stated above, the National
Action Plan includes a series of recommendations with respect to the identification and
selection of children with SEN including the inter-institutional and legal framework, the
training and further training on identification and selection of children with SEN for
teachers as well as on integrative classroom practices, the model of resource centres, the
access to education for children with severe and multiple SEN, early intervention etc.

Recommendations for a system of monitoring the identification and selection of children


with SEN as well as the school participation, the support and the performance of the child
have been provided (annex 3). The elaboration of a comprehensive monitoring system
which also includes issues like school quality and system development would exceed the
possibilities of a twinning light project.

Recommendations for the methodology and the instruments for identification and
selection of children with SEN have been elaborated within the frame of the National
Action Plan.

Recommendations for training modules and contents on identification and selection of


children with SEN as well as on inclusive education for teachers have been elaborated
within the frame of the National Action Plan. As stated above, it is to be pointed out here
that the German experts consider it necessary that the teachers working with the child will
be more intensely involved into the identification of children with SEN by drafting reports
on the development of the child which will be submitted to the Department for Evaluation.
Against this background these teachers have to be trained in diagnostics of SEN.
Furthermore the NAP includes the recommendation to implement information and
awareness workshops for the persons which are responsible for the decisions with regard
to the identificaton of SEN (members of the Child Protection Commission, school
inspectors).

A National Conference for disseminating good practice has been organised and
implemented in co-operation of German experts. Unfortunately the Guide of Good
Practice could not be finalised for being distributed at the Conference so that the
participants received a draft version. The Guide of Good Practice was finalised and
submitted to the MERY for further distribution to the School Inspectorates and Schools
after the Conference at the end of the project.

6. Conclusions and Recommendations

Conclusions and recommendations have been integrated in the Inception Report, the National
Action Plan and all single results of the project. They are aimed at pointing out how the
necessary further development for the improvement of special needs education in Romania
can be achieved.

The recommendations differ as regards their scope and complexity, but they all follow the
same key principles and aims. They are also oriented towards changes in terms of the system
and the structures, however, the main focus lies on the design in the frame of the existing
system. Key political decisions as e.g. the orientation towards the increase of integration and
inclusion of children and youths with SEN (NAP, 4.1) urgently require the set-up of
supporting measures. The latter are mandatory in order to successfully continue and extend
the beginning changes which have been made possible through the existing legal framework
and the initiatives of the relevant authorities.
The implementation of the recommendations worked out within the frame of the twinning
light project can only be successful if all involved authorities and institutions co-operate
closely. In particular, the co-operation between the National Authority for Child Protection
and Adoption and the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth on the national level on the
one hand, and between the Child Protection Commission and the School Inspectorates on the
other hand has to be improved. Different ways to solve difficulties have to be verified by
respecting the key principles. E.g. within the frame of the administration of boarding schools
and the allocation of children and youths to these boarding schools, the decision should
adhere to the key principle, that children and youths with SEN diese (NAP; 4.5.1) should live
with their families.

The recommendations are closely related to each other and form a network. Therefore, the
single recommendations cannot be regarded nor implemented in an isolated way.
To demonstrate this network, in the following the key recommendations are once again
highlighted:

- Identification of SEN (NAP; 4.7)


It has been recommended to introduce some improvements in the procedures for identification
of SEN in order to respond to the shift of paradigms and to support the individual pupil with
regard to their strengths and potentials (this shift of paradigms is also expressed by the term
special educational needs). The recommendations include enhanced emphasising of the
pedagogic evaluation and the elaboration of an individual educational plan with participation
of the teachers working with the respective child. The IEP will become a constitutive part of
the identification of SEN. One instrument to achieve this aim will be an amendment of the
Regulation 1205/2001 on the identification of SEN. However, in order to internalise the
changed attitude and to fulfil the new tasks, it is necessary to provide for in-service further
training for the teachers at mainstream schools and at special schools and to sensitise the
members of the Child Protection Commision for the necessity to put more weight on the
pedagogic evaluation and to involve the teachers working with the child.
- Further training of teachers (NAP; 4.8)
The recommendation to provide for further training of teachers is the conclusion to be drawn
with regard to a variety of contexts. As stated above, the in-service further training is a crucial
element for the improvement of the procedures of identification of SEN. The same applies to
the further development of the pedagogical work if and when the inclusion of children and
youths with SEN in mainstream schools and their class integration is to be successful. There
is a need for further training for all involved persons including headmasters and school
inspectors. Further training has to be designed in such a way that – in addition to information
and training – it motivates to form, revise and open up the own attitude towards the shift of
paradigms. Without further training it is hardly possible to successfully implement the
recommendation to provide for access to education for children and youths with multiple and
severe SEN.

The resource centre concept (Annex N° 2 / NAP: 4.2)


Formulating the resource centre concept implies the recommendation to establish a supporting
network which - embedded in the counties – will be able to realise comprehensive special
needs education for pupils with SEN. The establishment of resource centres as well as the
work in it is only possible when all institutions involved (school inspectorates, mainstream
and special schools, county council, child protection commission) co-operate closely. The
responsibility for special needs education and the adequate and necessary design will – within
the national framework – be decentralised and given to the county level. This will affect
infrastructures in the county that will support and stabilise the network of special needs
education. To which extent, in what time frame and of which quality the establishment of
such networks will succeed, last but not least depends on the public’s awareness of the
necessity for integration and inclusion of children with SEN.

The issue of how to build up the necessary awareness in society that children and youths with
SEN - regardless of its type and extent - should be integrated, has been raised consistently
during the assessment phase, in meetings with persons working in special needs education and
during the discussions on the recommendations. Concluding from these discussions as well as
from the results of the twinning light project the organisation and implementation of a vast
campaign at national level in order to strengthen the role and the acceptance of people with
impairments in all fields of society is highly recommended.
7. Annexes

• National Action Plan for Access to Education for Children with Special Educational
Needs
• Model of Resource Centre
• Monitoring System

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