The Ministry of Education launched in public debate a draft law that offers students with exceptional academic results the chance to pass two years of studies in a single school year. “It’s a good idea, but how exactly will it be implemented?”, asks Cătălin Nan, the representative of the Federation of Parents. And school principals don’t see this regulation very well either. And not because he would not agree with her, but, rather, because “that is not the priority in our education system”.
Students could complete two years of study in one. Archive
Starting from the 3rd grade, students with exceptional academic results could request to follow two years of study in one. Obviously, aspirants will have to meet some conditions to qualify. Thus, primary school children would need the qualification “Very Good” in all subjects including behavior, and middle school and high school students should tick 10 on the line. Then there is an interdisciplinary test in which students should obtain at least 80% of the total score awarded.
After being admitted to this program, the bureaucracy begins: parents will submit to the school secretaries a file with several documents: the enrollment application, the child’s educational portfolio, the reports of the student’s teachers, the school counselor, the school doctor or family, all with the Admitted/Rejected proposal. The file must also include the result obtained at the interdisciplinary test.
Once admitted to this program, the student must attend at least 50% of the school courses related to the current year and at least 40% of the courses related to the second year of study. But that is not all, because these children still need individual study and consultations provided by the teachers of the second year of study. As for the evaluation methods, they are also different: students will be evaluated in each discipline of the two classes, and the tests can be written oral, practical or skills.
“A proposal to say that we also did something at the end of the mandate”
How do school principals see this proposal? Prof. Andreia Bodea, director of the ILCaragiale National College in Bucharest, told “Adevărul” that she has nothing against this idea, but that is not the priority. “It saddens me to learn that we behave as if we have solved the fundamental problems of Romanian education and this is what we are left with: what do we do with children who are intellectually, mentally, emotionally, physically able to complete two years in one” .
The teacher refers to the fact that we don’t have framework plans, we don’t have programs, school dropouts are at their peak, functional illiteracy places us in the first places in Europe, the education system is dusty and with one foot in the hole, and we are concerned about unnecessary things in such a context. “However, we come up with a proposal that, even if it is a good idea and has been implemented in other countries, solves what? That it doesn’t solve the important things I run into every day“, confessed the teacher.
As for the implementation of this regulation, Andreia Bodea is very pessimistic. “The Ministry of Education has always been deficient in this regard. The procedures are incomplete, they have areas of maximum ambiguity, they leave it to the interpretation of some managers and inspectors who, after that, will be held accountable for misunderstanding”.
Interdisciplinary testing, for some mummy, for others plague
The director from Caragiale points out important aspects that must be regulated and which the ministry did not take into account. “Getting an average 10 at Sava is not the same as getting an average 10 elsewhere. Therefore, beyond these environments, a very well-designed and thought-out multidisciplinary testing at the ministry level would be needed. Otherwise, there will be schools where this test will be very serious, but there will also be schools where the assessment will be very easy. The problem is that high marks are achieved very easily. That’s why this project can fall into disrepute”. Andreia Bodea is of the opinion that in the current context of the education system, something new comes out on the ramp just to say that we have done something. “In fact, we have not solved our fundamental problems. When you furnish an empty house do you get your chandelier first or do you get your bed to sleep on? Things must be done in an order.”
Will teachers want to work extra? “I can’t force them”
Then there will be problems related to the timetable, the number of classrooms, the internal organization. Andreia Bodea believes that we have no tradition in implementing complete procedures. “I have no reason to believe that this time there will be a well-thought-out and well-crafted implementation procedure.” The director touches on another aspect: the teachers who should teach more hours than what is written in their employment contract. “I cannot force them to work more. Maybe they don’t want to take extra hours.” But there is a way to avoid such a situation: most likely, if this project gets the green light, the student will move from one class to another depending on how his teacher has classes that day.
The parents’ representative raises the issue of abuses that could take place in schools: “Give money, you passed high school”
Cătălin Nan, the president of the Federation of Parents, believes that the idea is welcome, but it will get stuck in the procedures. “Specifically, how will this regulation be applied? How will children learn? In what classes? And with what teachers? That we don’t really have anymore.. Will the students come to the teachers or vice versa? What is the procedure? Or is a new responsibility left on the shoulders of the schools, to be handled as best they can? We do not have the necessary infrastructure for such a project of such magnitude”, he declared for “Adevărul”.
But, beyond these aspects, the idea would not be bad at all, the parent believes, especially since it exists and works in schools outside. “Such a procedure should not be abused. That is, certain students could be admitted into this system just because they paid some money to the right person. And this must not be allowed to happen under any circumstances. Give some money and you’re done lice“.
