Romanian city introduces itinerant school to fight dropout phenomenon

Turda, a city in western Romania’s Cluj county, has introduced a “mobile school workshop,” part of a project to fight the school dropout phenomenon and raise awareness on the importance of the education.

Under the project, after-school programs are held for primary-school children and secondary school children receive tutoring. At the same time, parents can receive counseling, and summer kindergarten programs are also held.

The mobile school runs out of a minibus equipped with benches and tables, laptops, a printer, TV, air conditioning and other equipment.

The project of the school is part of the wider CEPS Turda – Quality, equality and friendship in Turda schools project, co-financed through the European Social Fund. Its total value is of RON 6.17 million (EUR 1.2 million).

The project of the mobile school targets a group of 60 children aged 2 to 3 years, 200 children of kindergarten age coming from vulnerable groups, 480 children in primary and secondary schools at 4 schools in Turda, 50 youngsters who did not graduate from the compulsory school cycles, and 260 parents and tutors of children and students at risk of abandoning school.

In 2018, Romania had an early school dropout rate of 16.4%, one of the highest in the EU, where the average was of 10.6%, according to Eurostat data quoted by the initiators of the project. At the same time, the country plans to lower the rate to 11.3% by 2020.

(Photo: Plus Communication)