A World Teachers' Day spent with children
Romania for Every Child
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On 5 October, as part of UNICEF's "Romania for every child" project, pupils from two schools in Bacau went on a trip to Buzau, together with their teachers and parents.
"What things are pink and beautiful?" a primary school boy asks his classmate. The little girl looks around and replies happily: "Flowers." The two sit relaxed on the meadow at the Măgura sculpture camp, playing make-believe riddles from what they see around them.
The children on the meadow are pupils of the "Nicu Enea" Secondary School in Bacau and have taken a rest under the camp's walnut trees before lunch near the Cislău herd, the next stop on their one-day holiday in Buzău county. The flowers in the riddle are purple autumn crocuses that some children admire and others pick to give to the teachers with whom they share the day. On the meadow at Măgura, the children looked at some of the more than 200 sculptures, read their names, the years they were made and who their authors were.
"Go and collect a piece of information from one of the sculptures and come back and tell us", urged them Lucia Rosu, Romanian language teacher and 5th grade head teacher. It's a good memory exercise for the pre-lunch break. The children Lucia Rosu is accompanying, along with other fellow teachers, are primary and secondary school pupils. They were selected from each class those whose parents would not normally be able to afford a trip. Some of them have never been out of the city of Bacau.
They are children who live with relatives after their parents have gone abroad to work. They are children orphaned by a parent. Or children who have experienced parental separation. There are children whose families are struggling to make ends meet. The children have a certain love of school and learning, which they maintain every day, despite some difficult situations at home, say the teachers at the Nicu Enea secondary school. "And their parents do their best, they work extra hard, so that their little ones have an education", says Lucia Rosu, who was also a trainer in the parental education courses with parents, an activity within the "Romania for every child" programme, thanks to which the trip on 5 October, World Teachers' Day, was organised.
"They are so smart, involved, participative in class", says the headmistress of the "Nicu Enea" school, Anca Vârlan, "they have an enthusiasm that keeps them going".
Anca Vârlan is a 38-year-old English teacher. The school she runs was the one her father went to and where she used to pass by as a child, hand in hand with her grandmother, who used to tell her "this is the school that grew my children ". It is a joy and a source of pride, therefore, to create a gentle space for all children in this school. Workshops with parents, new classroom materials, teacher trainings, trips like this one, were all part of the "Romania for every child" project that the school benefited from. These are tools with the help of which the whole school team creates that school wellness. One of the 5th graders was thrilled when he found out he was coming on the trip, says the headmistress. "He cried and asked, 'What, are you taking me?'. "But how could you think we wouldn't take you? ', I replied."
No child should be left behind
"No child should be left behind" is one of the mottos of the project "Romania for every child. Ensuring social inclusion - breaking the vicious circle of exclusion for the most vulnerable children in Romania", started in June 2021.
"Romania for Every Child" is being implemented in five localities in Bacau and Brasov counties, with funding of €4.2 million from Norway through Norwegian Grants under the Local Development Programme managed by the Romanian Social Development Fund.
Authorities and community professionals can create a safety net at local level for the social inclusion of children and adolescents, especially vulnerable children and adolescents from Roma minorities, children with disabilities, children with special educational needs, children from rural areas or simply those who face various financial and emotional difficulties at home.
They are so smart, involved, participative in class. They have an enthusiasm that keeps them going.
The programme has three components: the Child Friendly Cities initiative, Integrated Community Centres and Quality Inclusive Education. The third component seeks to improve the quality of education, as well as mobilising kindergartens or schools, families and communities to support the education of every child.
Thus, UNICEF Romania is testing, within the framework of this project, several community interventions to promote quality inclusive education in 10 schools in the two counties, Bacau and Brasov, explains Ramona Pavel, Education Officer at UNICEF. The interventions consist, says Pavel, of training and mentoring programmes for teachers to improve their capacity to provide quality education for all children, so that the teaching process is centered on the (different) needs of the children in a class of pupils; support to improve teaching facilities and materials; training and mentoring to integrate children with special educational needs (SEN); parental education and support to improve links between family, school and community.
Involved parents, collaborative children
On the afternoon of 5 October, 9-10 year olds ran around the muddy volcanoes and marvelled at the babbling earth. They began playing catch and losing each other in the space that seemed endless at sunset. The mud volcanoes were the last stop for the students from Alecu Russo Secondary School before they left for home in Bacau. Teachers from Alecu Russo chose to bring 27 fourth-graders and their parents on the trip. They too are children who needed a trip out of the city, time spent with their parents and teacher, beyond the daily context.
Teacher Anca Chiricheș is 28 years old and has spent the last 10 years, immediately after graduating from pedagogical high school, in education. She speaks warmly to children even when she warns them to watch where they run. She believes that the teaching profession comes every day with the challenge to be patient and to listen and see the children as much as you can.
She has been building a relationship with her students' parents since the preparatory class because she believes that this is the only way for children to benefit. Whether it's day trips around town or to the ostrich farm in Neamt, the next county over, or to Ion Creanga's birthplace, or workshops with parents, any time together brings benefits.
"Our class has children from diverse backgrounds. We have a Ukrainian girl, a pupil from Republic of Moldova, there are other children with special educational needs, and half of them are raised by a single parent," says Anca Chiricheș. "We try to help parents maintain a healthy bond with their child, a bond that usually ends up being neglected in everyday life because of everyone's daily chores."
From workshops with parents, for example, she has learned about the challenges and frustrations of parents in relation to their children or with the educational process, experiences she hasn't experienced herself. Parents have made progress, they have understood that first and foremost, they have to be well in order to be there for their children. Each of them tries to be patient, to temper when they react, even though it is often very difficult," says Anca Chiricheș gratefully. And on the World Teachers' Day trip, she says, "the parents enjoyed their time with the children, and it helped them to see their own child interacting with others".
We try to help parents maintain a healthy bond with their child, a bond that usually ends up being neglected in everyday life because of everyone's daily chores.
