“Suddenly They Want to Go to School”

Cristian Chiriac climbs the stage at the assembly hall in Suceava’s Sports Lyceum. He is project coordination and monitoring officer with the Romanian Social Development Fund – one of the European Wergeland Centre’s long-standing partners. 

“Most of us were born in the communist period and we were moulded in that environment. That is why it is very important to integrate inclusion, diversity and democratic competences in our schools,” he explains to the gathered audience, all participants in the bilateral pilot project “Promoting Inclusion and Quality Education in Romania. 

On this sunny March day, the 8-month-long project comes to an end with a big final conference. Teachers, school heads, scientists and civil society representatives are given the opportunity to share what they have learnt during the project, and how inclusion and education in democratic citizenship can continue in the future.  

When Narcis Constantin was a schoolboy, he was the only child of Roma heritage in his entire school. After experiencing high levels of discrimination and abuse, he decided to to go into teaching and now works as a teacher of Romani language, Roma culture and history at the Gymnasium Gulia in Suceava. 

“I promised myself that no child should face what I faced. I will never allow discrimination to happen no matter the child’s skin colour of any other attributes,” he says.  

“They Brought Back the Knowledge to Us” 

Learning of the project from his headmaster, Konstantin and his colleagues received multi-day training in Suceava.  

“My biggest takeaway from the project is the love you and everyone participating have for inclusion. It means a lot that you approach the Roma with such thoughtfulness, because for so many years we have been segregated,” he says passionately.  

“The Project Was Different in this Way” 

Aiming to turn negative trends and help build inclusive and quality education for students in Călărași and Suceava, all participants learnt ways to solve problems and interact with others in a democratic and non-discriminatory manner – either during study trips to Oslo or multi-day trainings locally in their home-regions.  

EWC’s experienced trainer team facilitated the training, sharing key Council of Europe and EWC concepts, like the whole school approach where schools are encouraged to open their gates and bring together not just the teachers and pupils, but also the other staff members, parents and other members of the local community to build safe, inclusive and democratic school environments.  

READ ALSO: “A School is not a Castle with Closed Walls”  

Two trainers are themselves of Roma heritage and could with conviction and credibility share knowledge about Roma history, culture and traditions.  

FOTO:  Trainers Marius Jitea and Mihaela Zatreanu (middle) at a multi-day training in Suceava.

“Suddenly They Want to go to School” 

Returning from their seminars and study trips, all participants had been tasked with sharing their newfound knowledge with their colleagues, as well as put in motion concrete measures to promote inclusion and democratic competences in their schools.  

The results surround the audience in the assembly hall, either in the form of colourful handmade posters on the walls, through testimonies from school heads and educators, or from the statistics gathered by EWC senior advisor, Larisa Leganger-Bronder. 

Liviu who participated in a study trip in Oslo, and recommended four of his colleagues for multi-day local trainings in Călărași, says he highly enjoyed all the activities taught by the trainers:  

“I’ve used them in my classroom and the children respond well to them. We have made wallpapers about inclusion and even reels for social media,” he explains.  

“You are Never too Young to Learn about Democracy” 

Headmaster Liviu believes good cooperation between the schools and municipalities is vital for the success of both schools and local communities: 

“I speak to the mayor every day, and he understands the importance of education.” 

After discussing the importance of children learning democratic competences from an early age at training in Oslo, Unirea secondary school held an election of their own for Student Council.  

Excitedly, Liviu takes up his phone and shows photos of his school’s Student Council president posing with a mayoral sash – happily lent her by the mayor himself.  

“We invited our pupils to hold a Student Council election, where we debated the issues that us adults had previously discussed on the trainings. The children learned about their rights and responsibilities and were able to elect one president and two vice presidents. Our student president even held a speech at the mayor’s inauguration. It is important for adults to spread the knowledge of democracy, especially considering the recent Romanian election,” he says.  

“Change is Not an Easy Thing”

The project also included 13 university professors whose task was to develop curricular recommendations to equip future teachers with knowledge and competences in democratic citizenship, human rights and inclusive education. 

“Perhaps we needed to meet in Oslo to understand that we can collaborate,” smiles Violeta-Stefania Rotarescu, associate professor in psychology at the University of Bucharest.  

“You know, sometimes change is not an easy thing. Sometimes we are too tired to make changes, even when we know that it is a good thing to do. These kinds of projects push us and serves as good reminder that things can become better,” she says. 

Like mayors and school heads, representatives from universities and teacher training institutions met in Oslo to partake in a multi-day seminar.  

For Violeta-Stefania, the realization that fostering a democratic culture and living as a active and responsible citizen, is a lifelong commitment, was both scary and exhilarating.  

“This training is not very simple. I need to transform myself to reach people. To teach democracy is a lifestyle. It’s a style of living,” she reflects. 

Cristina Olteanu, who works as a Councillor for at the Ministry of Education and Research had a similar realisation: 

“Democracy not only needs to be taught, but experienced,” she says. “It has been inspiring to see how we can increase the civic education awareness among the students and the professors. This entire week they have discussed how important it is to experience democratic culture directly, and how things like roleplays can achieve this. Democratic skills, attitudes and values are very important for the Ministry, and it outlines the direction we must take.” 

“We Must Continue our Efforts” 

Only a few weeks after the study trip, Violeta-Stefania and several other colleagues she had met in Oslo, are ready to present the results of their brainstorming with the rest of the project participants. 

PHOTO: Councillor Cristina Olteanu (left) sharing her ideas with professor Violeta-Stefania Rotarescu (middle) and other project participants at a study trip in Oslo.