Although
schools are suffering from lack of funds (as is the rest of România)
they are not helped by the system of funding.
Each county gets a single grant which is then shared out amongst all the
schools in the area. Its this sharing that is the problem. The large
county schools take the first share of the grant, followed by the town
schools, which leaves the village schools to take their share out of
what is left. This means
that many of the village schools suffer most from a lack of funds. The
school time table has now changed in the last year. Basically they used
to get very long holidays in the summer period. During this period many
of the children would have to work helping the family to look after the
sheep and cows all day. Although most had to work, including collecting
water from the local well, as villages have no main services except
electricity, a few do not even have this, they also have time to play.
Many of the children can be seen playing games made up of any materials
they can find, even using two pieces of wood and a ball made of paper,
for tennis.
Children
start school at seven years old and carry on until they are eighteen.
Quite a few schools do not teach English as they do not have, and cannot
find, suitable teachers who speak English. I have known several schools
to stop teaching English when the English teacher retires. The
Trust has visited many schools and
taken computers (donated by Dane Court Grammar School, Broadstairs),
books (donated by several local primary schools), pens & pencils
(collected from several shops etc. by the Papa Tango CB Group), pencil
cases (donated by Kentex of Margate), sports equipment and other items
the Trust has managed to obtain.
Due to the suspicious nature of communism many people
do not trust one another. This can be seen in the way schools do not
communicate with each other. The teachers have to work under difficult
circumstances as well as the pupils. The Trust
was in the Rosseti School in Bucuresti one February when it was -20
degrees C outside and inside, as the school heating was not working. It
was strange to see pupils sitting at their desks with coats, hats,
scarfs and gloves on while they were working.
The
Trust has helped many local schools
with whatever it can obtain. Most of the village schools only take
pupils until they are about 14 and then they move on to the larger
schools in the nearest town. Sometimes the town can be a long way from
the village so some pupils stay with relatives in the town
when
they are at school. Some of the schools in the villages are small and
one of them, the smallest I have ever seen, taking about 20 pupils.
Although you will find many gypsies living on the outskirts of villages,
not many of the children go to school. Gypsies have their own language
and some young ones cannot speak Romanian.
The
teachers have a difficult time at school, having to work in poor
conditions with little resources, The wages for teachers are not good
and some have a second job. The Trust
tries to help local schools near every hospital it visits, but can only
carry on this work with the support of donations or fund-raising from
the UK. If you can help the Trust
in its work please contact us.
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