In one of the poorest counties in Romania, a reverse migration is taking place. Many villagers driven abroad by poverty return home after years spent in the West. The biggest challenge is the reintegration into Romanian schools of children born and raised abroad.
“Demostene Botez” High School PHOTO Cosmin Zamfirache
The children of Romanians who have gone abroad have become the best remedy for the depopulation of Romanian schools. In the last 10 years, the school population, especially in the country’s poor counties, such as Botoșani or Vaslui, was in free fall. Every year, 2,000 children also disappeared from the system. Schools were closing on a conveyor belt. In the countryside, learning was done simultaneously, and schools that had just been built through the World Bank, for example, were closing their doors due to a lack of students. The phenomenon of migration has become reversible, especially in rural areas. More and more villagers, who have been abroad for at least a decade, are returning home, and their children are starting to fill the country schools, saving them from being closed down. According to national statistics, more than 20,000 children from abroad returned to Romania. Their integration can be difficult, especially if they are children born abroad and do not really know the Romanian language. However, there are also cases in which they have to repeat the class because of the differences between the educational systems and the different level of knowledge. However, there are schools, the pinnacle of rural areas, that manage to integrate them perfectly, with a lot of patience and empathy.
“It’s a different phenomenon”
Botoșani county, one of the poorest in Romania, faced extreme migration, especially from the countryside. Many young villagers went to work in the West, driven by poverty, but also by the lack of jobs. After they started to collect money, many also called their families, settling in the states of the European Union, especially in Italy, Germany and France. This exodus also left the villages, as well as the country schools, almost empty. “Five years ago the wind was blowing”, confesses a villager from Drislea. Many schools have closed and teachers have been furloughed or transferred. The decline in the school population was dramatic and was already giving education chiefs nightmares. The situation was almost out of control. “From 500 to 2000 students annually left the system, without others taking their place. It was very worrying”says Bogdan Suruciuc, general school inspector at ISJ Botoșani.
In the last year, the situation has changed completely. A real miracle happened. The decline of the school population came to an abrupt halt. In fact, students started coming. It is about the children of those who went abroad 10-11 years ago. Many villagers, against the backdrop of major price increases abroad, have returned home, including their children. “This year, after a very long time, we are talking about 10-15 years in which the school population was in continuous decline, a stagnation in the number of children leaving. And due to the fact that many children returned with their parents from abroad. From September to November, we have over 100 applications for enrollment in classes in Botoșani. They are mainly children from Italy. There are families who have been abroad for some time. It is a different phenomenon. Probably the rise in prices abroad also caused them to return home. We hope that the business environment will provide them with the opportunities they need to encourage others to return home”stated Bogdan Suruciuc.
“We have students from all over Europe”
Things are not as simple as they seem at first sight in the case of students back home. They encounter serious adjustment problems in many cases. According to statistics, about 20% of students returning from abroad experience difficulties in adapting. First of all, it is about language problems, especially for those born abroad. Then there are the differences in educational systems, plus those related to the curriculum and the level of knowledge gained. Most of the students from Botoșani spent their entire primary and secondary school abroad, being used to the Western teaching system, having a level of knowledge provided in the programs of the countries where their parents worked. In Botoșani, many students who returned with their parents from abroad arrived at the “Demostene Botez” High School from Trușești.
Although it is a village high school, it is equipped to European standards. Most of them live in villages in the Trușești area and are trying to integrate after 10-11 years spent abroad. “I think that the current situation and the way in which schools in Romania are beginning to be equipped, even in the countryside, made them return to the country. Because you can make a book at home too, and home is good too. We woke up this year with a very large number of hearing students, that’s what they are called until they are registered in the catalog. We have students from primary grades up to the twelfth grade who come from all over Europe. That is, we have students from France, Italy, Germany”says Cristina Grădinaru, director of the Trușești High School. The integration process is not easy. The students are evaluated by a committee convened at the school level and then the recommendations are made and the documents sent, further, to the Inspectorate. Some of the students have to repeat the class, precisely to be able to face the national assessments.
“A commission is convened, an assessment is made, and then the documents are sent forward. There were also children who, after the assessment, after talking with their parents, I told them that it would be better to enroll at a level earlier than the one they officially had. For example, I had a student who came to enroll in class VIII a. If he was enrolled in the 8th grade, the child would have been under stress and it is not good for him. I told the parents that it would be better for him to be enrolled in the 7th grade, to get used to the system, because the Romanian system is different. And they will see exactly the problems that the child is facing. First of all, it is about writing. Some children were taught to write with block letters. There is no such thing here, especially in the exam. Then there is the matter of language. He must know it completely, because he will have to write an essay in Romanian. The parents understood”said the principal from Trușești High School.
“I am surrounded by a lot of affection”
At Trușești, the integration of students from abroad is a success story. Ana is 15 years old and has lived and studied in Italy for over a decade. The parents decided to return home, to a village near Trușești, and Ana was enrolled at the “Demostene Botez” High School, in the 9th grade. She encountered problems with some subjects, the difference in the curriculum being obvious.The subjects are harder in Romania. Especially physics, chemistry, mathematics. Especially math”says Ana. Nicolas felt the same. He is a 7th grade student and returned home, to Trușești, after 10 years in Italy. “The subjects are harder here in Romania, but I’m trying”confesses Nicolas. However, both Ana and Nicolas adapted perfectly. And that’s because the perfect recipe for the integration of these children was found at the Trușești High School. More precisely, a combination of empathy, affection and typical rural common sense. In fact, many children from abroad say that the warmth of their peers and teachers helped them overcome their difficulties with school subjects.
Ana integrated perfectly at Trușești PHOTO Cosmin Zamfirache
“Everything changed there in Italy. It wasn’t like the first few years and we decided to go back. Honestly, I thought about how I would cope at school after all this time in Italy, but I was impressed by my classmates. They are very good and very affectionate. Much more affectionate than those in Italy. I feel at home”says Ana. Nicolas, the 7th grade student had the same pleasant surprise: “It’s very good. I made friends right away. They took me by their side, they helped me. I like it much better here. That it’s the country where I was born and I don’t live among foreigners”. The school management says that it is a rule of hospitality and common sense that newly arrived students with specific integration problems should be helped. “I haven’t encountered any difficulties with them until now. They integrated perfectly. Their colleagues help them but also the teachers do everything they can to support them and help them adapt quickly. It is natural for this to happen. We help each other”says Cristina Grădinaru.
