Romanian NGO starts testing campaign and alternative education program for gifted children

A Romanian association has started a campaign to identify gifted children in order to support their abilities via a differentiated education. The testing, done by the association Gifted Education Center, is completed online and targets children 5 to 14. Those selected by the center will benefit from specialized education, training with psychologists, according to one of the association's founder Monica Gheorghiu, quoted by HotNews.ro. Online screening is done on the site www.giftedminds.ro, and those who pass the first batch of tests will go on to the next stage, between April 26 and May 18. The association estimates there are around 200,000 academically gifted children under 15 in Romania, which is 6 percent of all Romanian pupils of 3.2 million. These children also also included in a category of high social risks, as most gifted children are in fact under-performers, according to the association, which quotes British studies. The training sessions at the Gifted Education Center take place on Fridays and Saturday, and parent counseling is scheduled for Sundays. The costs of attending these courses are EUR 2,400 a year, according to HotNews.ro. “We're not interested in children performing in Olympiads, but in them being happy, using their resources correctly, maximizing the resources they have and being satisfied. We're not interested in high grades in schools. In this project, children feel that with these abilities they have open more possibilities, and they get the resources needed to become autonomous in learning,” said Monica Gheorghiu. editor@romania-insider.com