The OECD report “Education Policy Outlook 2024”, recently published, presents the measures that the countries of the world have taken to prevent the shortage of teaching staff in schools. Referring to the situation in Romania, the difference between the educational policies implemented in Western countries and ours is so great that it can be measured in light years. Two education experts commented on the state of Romanian education for “Adevărul”. Why do students run away from the department? It is a question with many answers. Fortunately, there are also lifesaving solutions.
The profession of teacher is one that is disappearing in Romania. Archive
England, America, Australia, Portugal, Austria are just some of the countries that have tried to attract graduates to education, at the expense of other, otherwise very attractive fields.
Some countries have implemented certain financial measures for entering the profession. In England, for example, students receive grants of up to £30,000 if they complete initial training programs to become teachers of Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science or Chemistry. Then again, top-up payments of up to £6,000 are offered for junior teachers who choose to work in disadvantaged schools.
In the US there are also financial support schemes for students undertaking certain teacher training programmes. In Australia too, scholarships are awarded to support students to teach in public schools or early childhood education centers for a period equal to that of their studies. These countries, but not only them, have also implemented programs through which they try to attract teachers who have left the system into the teaching career. In Australia, an initiative has been implemented that allows students in their final year of teaching training to work as teachers, with limited responsibilities, and in Portugal, university teachers can also work in schools and high schools. Austria offers people who want a career change the opportunity to engage in early childhood education, but also in primary, middle and high school education. These are usually private sector or research employees who can teach general education subjects.
The bottom line is that the global teacher shortage can be combated through effective, well-thought-out policies that actually work. And through a budget that governments allocate to education as a priority.
Teaching, the profession that is no longer a golden bracelet
Comparing with what is happening outside, Romania is light years away. Students are not attracted to the teaching job for financial reasons, related to the working conditions, but also to a lost status, according to the specialists consulted by “Adevărul”.
“When you are at the beginning of your career, you need help, support. I mean, first of all, the financial part”explains Professor Marius Perianu, the director of the “Ion Minulescu” National College from Slatina and the coach of the junior Olympic team in Mathematics. “Students who leave the faculties, instead of going to education, choose other paths, other jobs that are much more satisfying from this point of view. We are facing a shortage of staff, especially in science teachers. In Mathematics, we are still resisting, although we are on the edge of a knife, but if I think about Physics or Chemistry, there the situation is disastrous”, continued the teacher. Why did I end up here? First, because colleges are hard and not everyone goes there. Then, to have good teachers, they must have been good students. And a good student was, first of all, a good high school student. “But these kids are thinking ahead, what awaits them after they finish college. And it is absolutely normal to choose a field where it pays better. Therefore, if the state wants to attract well-trained young people to the department, as well as future teachers, it must offer them financial aid. At least at the beginning of their career, young people should receive a scholarship to round off their income. Because beginners have low, unattractive salaries. A conditional incentive, of course, based on performance criteria”Marius Perianu believes.
Teacher: “Beginners need support from office colleagues”
The teacher also refers to the working conditions of teachers who teach especially in rural areas: “I mean those fractional departments, which can only be formed if four, maybe even five schools unite. In Chemistry, for example, in gymnasium you have two hours in the 7th grade and two hours in the 8th grade. And that’s it. In order to have an 18-hour department, several schools must come together. Or, let’s be serious, how many teachers are willing to run around four, five schools?”
Claudia Orășanu, the director of the “Unirea” Railway Technical College from Pașcani, completes the idea by saying that young people entering education need to be supported not only financially, but also morally even by the chancellery colleagues: “And for them, school must be that fertile ground that allows them to grow nicely, to develop. For these people at the beginning of their careers, it is extremely important to be seen, appreciated, recognized by the school management, but also by their colleagues. Be welcomed among them with all love, with all openness. But, unfortunately, many of them run into all kinds of prejudices and outdated mentalities. There are teachers, their colleagues, who reject them. And that shouldn’t happen. On the contrary”.
Bureaucracy buries any desire of young people to practice in Education
Another reason why students run away from the department is, in the opinion of Professor Marius Perianu, the thick bureaucracy in which the education system is buried: “Teachers are buried in papers, documents, documents upon documents. It is an accumulation of responsibilities beyond their performance in front of the students. A teacher’s work is not over after he leaves the classroom. Therefore, de-bureaucratizing the system would be a step forward towards attracting young students to the education system. To be allowed to do the job for which they have trained and to be relieved of all that means bureaucracy”, considers the director of the “Ion Minulescu” College from Slatina. With a solution in this sense comes prof. Claudia Orășanu, who campaigns for the expansion of the digitalization of the system. “Young people resonate when it comes to work efficiency, technique, technology, digitization. We will attract them into the system if we provide them with transparency and efficiency. Make it as easy as possible for them to enter the classroom and do their work. But, many times, I have faced teachers from older generations, teachers who are against the digital catalog, for example, and this mentality does us no good at all”.
Master status, an aura that fades to nothing
Young people avoid entering education also because of the social status that teachers have lost over the years. “This aura somehow and naturally eroded. Teachers of a certain caliber retired, were replaced by others who, however, from the beginning did not have the respect of those around them. Before, the teacher’s status was very high. Now, if you enter the system, you will have to fight terribly to convince that you are good, qualified, professional. And young people are, unfortunately, viewed with mistrust, with skepticism especially by the students’ parents. Due to lack of experience”, explains prof. Marius Perianu.
On the other hand, even a very good teacher often has difficulty holding the children’s attention. They must, effectively, know how to rip them off their phones, games, social networks, etc. However, society evolves, and together with it, teachers should also evolve, to keep up with the times. “However, not everyone is capable of such an effort,” the teacher thinks. Parents, says the teacher, also put a lot of pressure on the evaluation system, which they often dispute. The reason? “Now grades matter, averages open the door for kids to better or worse colleges.”
“Why did the teacher lose his status? It’s simple. Because he no longer has all the information,” Prof. also scores. Claudia Orasanu. “He was respected when all the information was with him. When you went to school and the teacher told you about the world and geography and history and so on. Today, the information is in the phone. One click away”, shows the teacher. This phenomenon is also observed in a context where many teachers are stuck in outdated teaching methods: “They are stuck in the same information delivery paradigm for ages. Automatically, they have lost respect in front of students who are no longer interested in listening to them”.
Therefore, if one wanted, many small but good things could be done in Romania, which would not require huge financial efforts, but which would change this system stuck in communist paradigms, outdated and dusty for decades, more consider the two experts in education.
