Tackling early school leaving in Romania

The Commission supported two successive projects, implemented in cooperation with the World Bank, which developed an early warning methodology for early school leaving and piloted it in 10 Romanian counties. The central administration and schools were supported to develop their capacity for prevention, intervention, and compensation for early school leaving.

Context

The projects were launched following successive country-specific recommendations on improving the inclusiveness of the Romanian education system. They contribute to the national reform agenda (notably the National Reform Programme and the strategic framework for education). The early warning mechanism has been embedded in the Romanian Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), which will extend its implementation at a national level and offers to further strengthen the capacity of schools to apply the methodology developed with the European Commission support.

Support delivered

The first project focused on developing a methodology for tackling early school leaving at the national, regional, and local (school) levels. The methodology included an early warning mechanism and extensive guidance addressed in particular to schools. The second project is ongoing and builds upon the results of the first by piloting the early warning mechanism in 10 counties and offering hands-on support to more than 150 schools. It builds the capacity of the central and local level to support the roll-out of the mechanism at a national level, through the planned RRP interventions.

Results achieved

The projects resulted in a comprehensive methodology addressing the prevention, intervention, and compensation phases of early school leaving. This was accompanied by hands-on support to participating schools and written guidance addressed to central land local stakeholders. The methodology will be rolled out nationally with RRP support.