There is a new regulation for the establishment and functioning of classes and groups of students that study an internationally spoken language intensively and bilingually. These classes with intensive or bilingual teaching will function based on the new statute as from the 2011/12 school year. The old statute allowed bilingual classes to function only for modern language L1 and at high-school level. By creating the new statute, the intention is to promote multilingualism, meaning an increase in the diversity of languages that are learned.
Within the bilateral French-Romanian project “From bilingual education to francophone university pathways”, a methodology for the organization of francophone bilingual classes/units starting from the 2011/12 school year has been developed. There will be a regulation of provisions and practice standards for francophone bilingual high-schools that can award the special mention “francophone bilingual unit” of the baccalaureate.
A methodology concerning the promotion of multilingualism in Romanian school education has been carried. As shown by European recommendations and the needs of the labor market, there is a need for people who speak more languages. Every citizen should speak at least two modern languages. It is desirable that these languages are not always the same, and a diversity of European languages should be learned. At present, in Romanian school education, about 94 % of the workloads of foreign language teachers are represented by only two languages (English and French), a situation which does not respond to the real demand in the labor market. This situation has lead to an increase in the number of private language schools that satisfy the demand not covered by the public system, which contravenes the principle of equal opportunities provided in the Education Law (not all parents can afford paying for “alternative” modern languages for their children).
The diversity of learning contexts and of new teaching and managerial roles requires a regulation of the “new teaching professions”, a diversification of the professional profiles of those who work at different levels of lifelong learning systems so as to include specialized roles and a legal statute associated to lifelong learning such as: mediator, assessor (for competences, institutional), learning facilitator, counselor, tutor, mentor, online facilitator, human resources manager, curricular developer, educational expert in regional/ local administration etc.
The project “Digital tools to improve the quality of assessment in school education” funded by Structural Funds (August 2010 - March 2011) aims at improving the quality of assessment in high school education with the development of assessment items (an item bank for teachers).
“New skills for new jobs” - Since June 2008 the Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sport through The National Centre for Development of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (NCDTVET) piloted a methodology for surveys on the labor market needs in terms of skills and competencies in two regions with the support of EU founds from Phare TVET programs.
Steps for a reform of early education, focused on children aged between 0 and 6/7 years old for the period of 2006-2012 have also been made. This reform aim at promoting the new curriculum for pre-school education (children aged between 3 and 6/7) as part of the 2006-2010 national strategy in the area of early childhood education. The role of pre-school education was reconsidered in relation to the other levels of education. This document defines the following goals of early childhood education (from birth to 6/7 years of age):
the free, integral and harmonious development of children’s personalities based on their own rhythm and needs and support for their autonomous and creative formation;
developing the capacity of interacting with other children, adults and their environment in order to gain new knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors;
encouraging exploration, exercises, trials and experimentation as autonomous learning experiences;
discovery by every child of their own identity, autonomy and development of a positive self-image;
supporting children to learn knowledge, capabilities, skills and attitudes necessary when they enter school and throughout life.
Within the bilateral French-Romanian project “From bilingual education to francophone university pathways”, a methodology for the organization of francophone bilingual classes/units starting from the 2011/12 school year has been developed. There will be a regulation of provisions and practice standards for francophone bilingual high-schools that can award the special mention “francophone bilingual unit” of the baccalaureate.
A methodology concerning the promotion of multilingualism in Romanian school education has been carried. As shown by European recommendations and the needs of the labor market, there is a need for people who speak more languages. Every citizen should speak at least two modern languages. It is desirable that these languages are not always the same, and a diversity of European languages should be learned. At present, in Romanian school education, about 94 % of the workloads of foreign language teachers are represented by only two languages (English and French), a situation which does not respond to the real demand in the labor market. This situation has lead to an increase in the number of private language schools that satisfy the demand not covered by the public system, which contravenes the principle of equal opportunities provided in the Education Law (not all parents can afford paying for “alternative” modern languages for their children).
The diversity of learning contexts and of new teaching and managerial roles requires a regulation of the “new teaching professions”, a diversification of the professional profiles of those who work at different levels of lifelong learning systems so as to include specialized roles and a legal statute associated to lifelong learning such as: mediator, assessor (for competences, institutional), learning facilitator, counselor, tutor, mentor, online facilitator, human resources manager, curricular developer, educational expert in regional/ local administration etc.
The project “Digital tools to improve the quality of assessment in school education” funded by Structural Funds (August 2010 - March 2011) aims at improving the quality of assessment in high school education with the development of assessment items (an item bank for teachers).
“New skills for new jobs” - Since June 2008 the Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sport through The National Centre for Development of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (NCDTVET) piloted a methodology for surveys on the labor market needs in terms of skills and competencies in two regions with the support of EU founds from Phare TVET programs.
Steps for a reform of early education, focused on children aged between 0 and 6/7 years old for the period of 2006-2012 have also been made. This reform aim at promoting the new curriculum for pre-school education (children aged between 3 and 6/7) as part of the 2006-2010 national strategy in the area of early childhood education. The role of pre-school education was reconsidered in relation to the other levels of education. This document defines the following goals of early childhood education (from birth to 6/7 years of age):
the free, integral and harmonious development of children’s personalities based on their own rhythm and needs and support for their autonomous and creative formation;
developing the capacity of interacting with other children, adults and their environment in order to gain new knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors;
encouraging exploration, exercises, trials and experimentation as autonomous learning experiences;
discovery by every child of their own identity, autonomy and development of a positive self-image;
supporting children to learn knowledge, capabilities, skills and attitudes necessary when they enter school and throughout life.