The week “School otherwise” is one of the most anticipated by students. Instead of ordinary lessons, schools must program otherwise educational activities. Only this often costs and not all children allow themselves. In disadvantaged environments, teachers try different approaches.
Tail at the Museum “Grigore Antipa” during the week the school otherwise
What is the program “School Other”
“School otherwise” is defined by the Ministry of Education as “un national program whose purpose is to contribute to developing learning competence and socio-emotional abilities among preschool children/students“. For that,”Teachers will design, test and evaluate effective approaches to develop these skills and skills‘. Each educational unit can decide in which week of the school year, these activities carry out.
In practice, in the big cities and the developed rural communities, each “week otherwise” comes with a series of activities and trips for which parents pay.
“You are a trip to Sibiu, 160 lei and the transport includes the entrances to 2 or 3 objectives. It seems to me OK, there is nothing mandatory, who wants and can go, who does not stay home”says a parent on a dedicated Facebook group.
“To us a trip is 375 lei of child”adds someone else.
The proposals for trips can also reach amounts that exceed the average salary on the economy.
“I know schools in Bucharest who allowed access to travel agencies, to promote holidays in Lapland, at 1300 euros”, writes a parent.
Most agencies that organize trips have beautifully wrapped, full of activities. The price is rarely mentioned in ads. It is on request.
Example of trip proposal in week school otherwise
Ministry of Education: You cannot raise money from parents for “school other” activities
“Do not confuse << School otherwise" with a week of holiday! Teachers can carry out activities right in the classroom, during class hours. Activities that have rather an applicability in everyday life. Obviously they can also be done in the form of activities outside the school - a visit to a museum, a natural reserve or in any other location that has activities with an educational component "explains Sorin Ion, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Education.
Visits from outside the school should not be paid individually, by each parent, says the Secretary of State.
“You cannot raise money from your parents to organize activities in the week of school otherwise. When we organize a source of financing, it must be from the Parent Committee, set up with legal personality, which can support financially. And it is a problem related to equity, because when a student cannot participate in such an activity, the school is obliged to provide them with similar activities during this period. It’s not right if every parent gives money for the trip. Because we will get to the situation where 20 children in the class afford and go on that trip, and five children cannot afford. That’s the problem! ”stresses Sorin Ion.
In the methodology he writes that “nu are allowed to travel by the students who involve costs and for which the educational unit has not identified financing sources ”.
Instead of trips to Lapland, charitable auctions
The General School in Curcani, Călărași county, is located only 50 kilometers from Bucharest, but the economic differences are as they cannot be greater. Here, the “School Other” program does not involve any costs.
“We have the week scheduled in December otherwise. Activities will be done in school. Depending on what the weather will be like, we can also organize in the school yard, because we have a generous yard and we can do many activities.
If the weather does not allow us, we will do in the classrooms. We are fortunate that we have an educational hub that the ones from the “Good Day” Association donated to us and there can still be carried out, especially related to sciences (physics, chemistry), they can do small experiments.“Says Vali Neagu, educational counselor and teacher of Romanian language and literature. The community where he has been teaching for 20 years is a vulnerable one, in which too few would allow expensive activities.
The dearest activity for children is the Christmas Fair, also carried out during the other week. The activity taught children about the power to do well and about teamwork.
“I made a fair before Christmas and all week they worked for that fair. They made all kinds of decorations, cakes, they invited the parents, I worked on the posters, the class of class. They sold decorations, and the money gathered I donated to the Association for Mastocytosis. I say that at the end they asked me if from the money they collected I can keep an amount, not all (they also donated to the mastocytosis) to donate it to a classmate, a conscientious child, who learns well, but who would not have a Christmas, I didn’t want to buy it. They give them too and they want to give for sick children. “
Image from the fair organized during school otherwise
The fair will be held this year. Teachers even think of a tender, in support of vulnerable children.
“We wanted to succeed in doing more for them and knowing more people about this fair. We have a little girl in the sixth grade who paints very beautifully and we wanted her paintings to be bought by other people, to bid them and to collect more money, because our goal would be for the end. It would be wonderful. Welcome works. “
Educational Councilor Vali Neagu with students
Educational expert: “School Otherwise” should be a week of living learning
Education experts also point out that activities in “School otherwise” should not be for a fee.
“Beyond the letter of the regulation, it is about his spirit – these programs have been designed as alternative learning forms.
When we turn a week that should be about curiosity, discovery and equity in one about “who allows the trip to the mountains”, we completely lose the meaning. Instead of creating bridges between children, they deepen their differences. ” says education expert Gabriela Bartic.
This completes: “Ideally, the “school otherwise” should be a week of living learning, not “elegant pause” between two teaching stages. Unfortunately, in many places it has arrived exactly: a week of semi-vacation, left in the director’s care, without the real involvement of the professional group and without the intention of testing something new. More serious, in some cases, it has transformed into a small local industry-expensive trips, expensive activities with “specialists” brought from outside the school, paid clubs that have nothing to do with learning.
If we return to the real meaning of the program, he is a week of experimentation. A moment when the school can test otherwise to learn (…) it is an opportunity to see what keeps connected, curious, involved – and how we can bring that type of learning and the rest of the year. “
Examples of activities that can be organized for free
Gabi Bartic and with a number of activities proposals:
– interdisciplinary workshops – for example, a project that combines biology with civic education and visual art to learn about the environment;
– Peer-Learning- hours in which students teach each other, or in which teachers change the classes to bring different perspectives;
– mini-artistic mini-competitions, in which the emphasis is not on performance, but on participation and team spirit;
– practical life activities- budget management, first aid, healthy cooking, ethical debates, things that really help children in life;
– Local partnerships- with libraries, museums, firefighters, NGOs, Tech companies, but with a focus on learning, not on PR pictures.
“Not the price of the activity gives value to the week “otherwise”, but the way we manage to make living, relevant and open for all “concludes the education expert.
Educational Expert Gabi Bartic
