The two school weeks – School Alfel and Green Week – out of a total of 36 are intensely contested by many parents who accuse that, in the form in which they are being carried out today, they have not achieved their purpose.
“School Otherwise” and “Green Week”, two programs that aim to develop non-formal skills and civic and environmental awareness, are included in the structure of each school year and have clear motivations. The “Different School” has been organized for over 15 years, being launched under the name “To know more, to be better”, while “Green Week” is four years old.
From the initial goal to what they have become in many schools, however, it is a long way, and parents report slippages every time they have the opportunity.
During this period, activities included in the two programs were organized in many schools, with the schools having the possibility to decide the weeks they dedicate during the school year. Over time, because it has been noticed that the atmosphere is more of a holiday one during the “Different School” and “Green Week”, certain educational units have made the decision that these weeks precede the important holidays. It’s one of the reasons why this week many parents have had to change their regular schedule to make it easier for their children to participate in activities. Others reported that not only were their schedules turned upside down, but they were also good to pay, because despite the warnings that came in the past years, activities – themed trips, museum visits, etc. – are still being organized that require funds. And since the school does not have them, the parents cover these expenses.
“I can’t take this week’s nonsense anymore!”
“They were supposed to be at school at 9:00 a.m. today (for greening, so to speak)… the principal didn’t come. No one asked them what time it was. Tomorrow, bike race in the park, day after tomorrow movie, Thursday shit in the rain. When they have classes, they go through subjects like Vodă through loboda and give assignments like Berilă. They have no time, brother, for deepening, for anything. They have time for meditation! If the child did not understand any of this confusion, it is only his fault! It’s an endless joke! I come home from work in the evening because I don’t know where I’m going and I have to do lessons with the child, because I don’t have money to send him (also to them) for meditation. How come, after 10 hours of work, I also have to do their work, to do lessons because they are actually grading my work. At my place of work, no one gives me any help, I pay taxes so that the state pays them to teach the child and, what can you see, they put me to work in their place and I get offended, that my child is stupid, that he doesn’t come with everything he knows from home! What the hell is this!?!”an outraged parent posted on the “Parents of Romanian Students” Facebook group, an online community that has grown to more than 40,000 members.
From this post started a whole debate about the usefulness of the two weeks of education otherwise. The majority were parents who see the two weeks of activities as a waste of time, but there were also opinions in favor of the programs.
“I’m stupid on the parents’ money and nerves. I support! They go to school so they have a place to return to every day. But I don’t say anymore, because I’m already a star at school. At the meetings, I only have complaints and express them, but the other parents don’t make a sound, for fear that their child will be noticed. Around the corners, however, they gossip to the moon and stars, that the school is not good. My dears, if you don’t assume, it’s for nothing! The statistics show that the school is rotten and the future is in great danger, but if you don’t say “officially” it seems that you are satisfied! We deserve our fate!”, one parent commented. Many others supported his opinion, and even went so far as to propose supporting petitions to waive the two weeks of the school schedule. Teaching staff also intervened, who agreed that without support the activities are extremely difficult to organize in order to achieve their goal.
“I live in Germany. And here children have such holidays. No school has its own minibus. Children go on trips accompanied by teachers and some volunteer parents. They travel by bus or train. There is no shame in using public transport. All trips are educational. For example, they visited a bakery, an old people’s home, a carpentry workshop, went to the museum, had a picnic on the green grass, went to the zoo, to the ice rink, to the cinema”, other parents and pro arguments were brought up. “For parents in Romania, these activities mean nothing, just a waste of time. They don’t get involved in anything, they just comment and constantly look for the teacher’s fault”, another commenter reinforced.
Teaching staff also intervened in the discussion and spoke, in turn, about shortcomings. For certain activities, they would need support, or at least ideas, because the organization of the two programs falls exclusively to the school.
“You know very well that the school has no material resources, and the parents feel that they are helping the teachers if they give teaching materials. He helps his children. With what we currently have in schools, we cannot provide quality education. The school gives the textbooks, the seat in the bank, and some have some technology (a laptop, video projector, smart board). The parents provide them with the rest of the supplies, but they are not enough. Only with these resources, all that can be worked on are handouts, I watch a video, I debate a topic at a time. Students need much more. I am a parent, but also a teacher. At the beginning of each school year, I am not with my child, but with the students in the class. This week my daughter is going on a day trip -130 lei, 70 lei horse riding activities, horse show, ceramic painting, 100 lei to have with her in case she wants to buy a souvenir or something. Every day I do something different, but it takes resources from the parents to not do everything I do during the year”, explained a teacher.
Programs to prevent addictions and violence in the “Otherwise School”
“Yesterday, in my class (special school), I made recycled paper from egg molds, on which they inserted dried flowers. Today they planted flowers in pots and colored pictures using the paper paste we made in class. I brought from home pieces of mosquito net, vertical blender, electric mug to heat water, (I live outside the city and use public transport). How many of the parents who criticize teachers are devoted teachers themselves? Not many. In the end, the children had fun, made beautiful works, smiled, compared the works, helped each other. Tomorrow we dye eggs. All I ask the parents is to give them a boiled egg, I’m already calculating how many eggs to boil for those who won’t even have the bitterness of a boiled egg… The paint, because it’s more expensive than an egg, I buy it myself”continued the teacher. She also wrote that she wants education to get to the point where it provides everything a teacher needs in the classroom, depending on the needs of the class, but she was a little optimistic that she would experience that normalcy.
Other parents also shared their children’s experience, recalling that during the two weeks/school year they visited the airport, the embassy, a television studio, etc.
“It’s an attack on education, I could say, with the two weeks”
The founder of the “Parents of Romanian Students” community, lawyer Zeno Sustac, said that he is not surprised by the parents’ counter reactions, because over the years, many have complained that the two weeks “otherwise” consume funds and unnecessarily take away time for school.
“I’m attacking education directly, I might say, these two weeks. We pretend to be doing education during the two weeks when we ride the bikes, the boat, take pictures and eat fruit salad made in class. Let’s be serious! The matter is so crowded, we have so many problems in education, we have so many shortages, we have so many things to fix and we get lost among weeks, bridges, vacations and other things. We lose two more extremely important weeks”, said Sustac, for “The Truth”.
A major shortcoming of these activities is that they are not accessible to all students, with high absenteeism reported. Extremely useful work could be done, Sustac agreed, but not in the current structure. “The truth is this: in the area of influence or sympathy of the schools there are certain people or entities. They are involved or called in the respective weeks. (…) We have free discussions and sit for stories. And that is not what the school is about. The story is framed in the 36 weeks. Weeks in which material must be taught, it must be structured, it must be fixed, the identified problems must be fixed. Exam preparations are made, I give grades, it ends. It’s a waste of time. And I can tell you that it’s a generalized conclusion of the parents of the “Parents of Romanian Students”. Most of them have been supporting the idea of giving up these weeks for years,” argued Sustac.
The Class Store, the idea that brought children from a poor community to school every day
Dropping the two weeks and building other programs might be a solution.
“First of all, it should be, and it would be natural, for all students in Romania to benefit from the same information or the same activities. If deficiencies have been identified in certain areas, or if areas have been identified that need to be explored, fixed, or simply touched for the first time, in those areas some programs should be built at the national level. And those programs should be implemented in schools. We will do a serious thing, or we will leave the two weeks in the dilettante area, in the area pseudo-education and in the area of masked holidays”, argued Sustac.
“I publicly accuse the Ministry of Education of simulating education in Romania”
At this moment, we are at the point where a large part of parents believe that the two programs are too little useful for children, even many teachers think so, instead the representatives of the Ministry of Education see them as beneficial, even if there is no data to prove the impact, says Sustac.
“We cannot draw systemic conclusions such as in recent years, as a result of the Altfel School and the Green Week, we have managed to obtain the following benefits or results. We do not have such a thing, such an analysis has never been done. We are still in this area of educational pharisaism. The idea is that we pretend to educate. It is theft from education, two of the 36 weeks are stolen, and it must still be crammed into the 34, which are not even those 34. With bridges, with all kinds of classes that are not held, we reach below 30 weeks at the national level. (…) I publicly accuse the Ministry of Education of simulating education in Romania through various methods. And one of them is this two-week education simulation.” Sustac also claimed.
The points of view submitted to the Ministry of Education and Research over the years by parents were not taken into account, the representative of the “Parents of Romanian Students” community also claims. “There are hundreds of such proposals sent over time by parents, either coordinated through the group or individually,” Sustac also said.
