According to the project’s objective – that is to contribute to the national target of reducing early school dropout under 11.3% until 2020, in the project “I, an Oltenia-based peasant, need an education!” there were organized two workshops with actors involved in the school dropout problem at a local level. The purpose of these meetings was to identify the causes leading to school dropout, as well as to make a comparative analysis between the local situation of school dropout before the beginning of the after-school program and the present situation.

One of the first meetings was organized at Goiești School in January 2016, in which took part teachers from Goiești and Farcas schools, teachers involved in the organization and the development of after-school activities of the project and the project team. It has been concluded that the main causes of school dropout were first of all individual factors, closely followed by socio-economic and school factors. More precisely, there were identified the following school dropout causes: individual learning difficulties and low motivation for school activities; the lack of material possibilities of the family (correlated with the fact that parents often left abroad to gain a better revenue); the low level of education of the parents (correlated with a negative attitude towards the benefits of the education); the lack of basic conditions for studying at home; the use of children for household labors; the ignorance by the family of cognitive and adaptation problems of children; ethnic origin; early marriage.

The second meeting was held in Craiova, at the end of March 2016; there were present representatives of the School Inspectorate of Dolj County, of Dolj County Center for Ressources and Educational Assistance, of Dolj Prefecture, of General Directorate for Social Assistance and Child Protection of Dolj County, of Dolj County Directorate of Statistics and local NGO’s and partner schools and representatives of local media.

The themes discussed concentrated on the following aspects: main causes of school dropout, risk factors and models of good practice in the prevention of this phenomenon.

The results and the conclusions of the study regarding the impact of the activities developed by the Adina Stiftelsen Foundation in the partner communities were presented as follows:

• both respondent children and parents had positive impressions about the activities organized in the project.
• both parents and teachers observed many positive changes in children as a consequence of their involvement in the project’s activities.
• both teachers and parents consider that these activities are beneficial for the development of children and the acquired skills will be used in the future.
• there were changes seen in the way the parents, the school and the community understand and respond to children’s needs.
• 91,67% of the respondent teachers mentioned that the activities developed within the project „I, an Oltenia-based Peasant, Need an Education!” can represent a solution for the school dropout problem.

The two Norwegian concepts - Kindergarten Open and New Start, implemented through this project embody good practice examples in terms of early intervention in preventing situations of social risk of children. Was sent a memorandum to the Ministry of National Education and Scientific Research and was received as answer a statement that opens up the possibility that these concepts might be included in the National Strategy for Parental Education.

STUDY RESULTS    WORKSHOP PRESENTATION    MINISTRY MEMORANDUM

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