STRATEGIES TO OPTIMIZE THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS: TACKLING EARLY SCHOOL LEAVING AND BULLYING Prof. Dr. Anca Cristina Colibaba -„ Gr T. Popa „ University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi Fundatia EuroEd International symposium Horticulture - Science, Quality, Diversity and Harmony on the 24 th and 26 th of May 2012 in Iasi, Romania This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

School dropout – a phenomenon of the Romanian and European education system  One of the most important indicators of the efficiency of an educational system is the school dropout rate;  This reveals the capacity of the school system to integrate and keep the students within, to ensure access and support in order for them to finalize at least the compulsory school level;  Due to the acceleration of the ageing process in Europe and to a decline in the working population, the European Union will increasingly count on the young generation;

School dropout – a phenomenon of the Romanian and European education system  The dropout rate for Romania is illustrated by the chart below, which has as a source the data provided by the National Institute of Statistics  The analysis of the chart proves that the primary, secondary and high school education, have low school dropout rates (below 3%);  High rates are recorded by the professional and apprentice education, as well as by the complementary school and foreman education.

School dropout rate

Project: - The School Inclusion Project Transfer of Innovation LdV-TOI-11-IT-754 Life Long Learning Programme Leonardo Da Vinci Subprogramme – Multilateral Project Transfer of Innovation Context A common challenge for the European school systems is the prevention of early school leaving. Objectives The aim of the project is to transfer the successful experience of the School Inclusion project providing European school teachers with the necessary skills to prevent early school leaving. Target Groups The project aims to involve 140 secondary school teachers based in Italy, Belgium, Romania and Spain.

Project: - The School Inclusion Project Transfer of Innovation LdV-TOI-11-IT-754 Life Long Learning Programme Leonardo Da Vinci Subprogramme – Multilateral Project Transfer of Innovation Partnership 10 partners from 4 different European countries are involved in the project: Istituto Professionale F. Datini (IT) Pixel Associazione (IT) Inforef (BE) Florida (ES) CIPAT (IT) Connectis (IT) IAL CISL Toscana (IT) Rete Context (IT) Ufficio Scolastico Regionale del Veneto (IT) Fundatia EuroEd (RO)

- The project main activities are: A) Teachers Involvement Involvement of 140 secondary school teachers in the 4 European countries140 secondary school teachers Result  Creation of a network of 140 teachers involved in the prevention of early school leaving  From Romania 9 schools and 39 teachers have been involved  Teachers Forum to comment and receive further information on each of the modules. Teachers are invited to use the Forum to contact the authors of the course. On the Forum, the authors of each of the course modules answer questions and provide clarification or further information about the contents of the module they have developed. Teachers Forum

- The project main activities are: B) Improvement of the School Inclusion Portal Review, update and complete the School Inclusion Portal. Results  Insertion of new data in the database of publications on the topic of scholastic drop out – over 400 publications Further collection of direct experiences of teachers in preventing and tackling the early school leaving – over 100 experiences Creation of a collection of reviews of training courses for teachers on the topic of the prevention of early school leaving – over 60 examples of training courses Translation of the training course on the prevention of early school leaving available on the School Inclusion Portal online.org/training_initiatives.php

- The project main activities are: C) Testing Delivery of the online training course on the prevention of early school leaving to 140 school teachers The course is organized in 5 modules: Module 1: Identification of Students at RiskIdentification of Students at Risk aims to help teachers and other educational professionals to identify young students at risk of dropping out of education. Module 2: Communication provides practical proposals on how to facilitate communication with students, parents and colleagues in order to decrease the drop out rate at school.Communication Module 3: Teaching methodsTeaching methods focuses on effective teaching strategies that foster the active involvement of all students in educational pathways. Module 4: Educational Evaluation and early school leaving preventionEducational Evaluation and early school leaving prevention focuses on Educational evaluation because teachers need to be acquainted with the modern meaning of evaluation, evaluation types and forms, models, techniques and tools in order to become able to use them effectively in their school classes to achieve, among other educational objectives, the prevention of early school leaving. Module 5: External support and cooperationExternal support and cooperation examines external resources and supports available for teachers and students to help them in the prevention of early school leaving. Result Acquisition by school teachers of the skills to prevent and tackle early school leaving

- The project main activities are: D) Development of educational materials Involvement of teachers in hands-on experience (learning by doing) aimed to test the skills and abilities acquired during the course, through the creation of education materials on the prevention of early school leaving Result Collection of educational products on the prevention of early school leaving Each group of teachers, properly assisted by experts and coordinated by the partners will create:  a product addressed to students in order to raise awareness on the issue of dropping out of school  a product aimed at teachers, in order to help them identify and prevent dropping out of school

Related project: “I Am Not Scared” Project in the framework of the Lifelong Learning Programme (KA1 Policy Cooperation and Innovation) The “I Am Not Scared” project intends to identify the best European strategies to prevent and combat the bullying phenomenon. The purpose of the project is to involve vocational education teachers, directors, pupils, parents, counsellors and key policy makers in the field of education in a common reflection on the issue related to school violence.  Partnership : 10 partners involved from 8 different European countries (BE, BG, ES, GR, IT, LT, RO and UK.  Activities: A)Collection of Information - Review of publications and initiatives addressing the bullying phenomenon B)Case Studies - aiming at analyzing bullying episodes C)Transnational Discussion – discussion among teachers, aimed at enhancing a peer to peer based knowledge exchange experience, on the them of bullying prevention and tackling D)European Strategy to Combat Bullying

International symposium Horticulture - Science, Quality, Diversity and Harmony on the 24 th and 26 th of May 2012 in Iasi, Romania Project website: online.org/stayatschool/info/proj ect.php Fundatia EuroEd website: I am not scared Project website: online.org/info/project.php