National project to combat functional illiteracy: 37,000 teachers and 15,000 students involved

The Ministry of Education has launched the project "Intervention Mechanism for Functional Literacy in Pre-university Education (MIAF)", co-financed by the Education and Employment Program 2021-2027. Direct beneficiaries are students and teachers. The project targets two main categories of beneficiaries: a minimum of 15,000 students from 176 primary and secondary schools selected at national level; a minimum of 37,500 teachers - teachers, principals and inspectors - who will participate in professional skills development programs related to functional literacy.

• Integrated Literacy Interventions

MIAF aims to develop a framework for assessing the level of functional literacy (standards, item sets, tests), develop teacher competencies and implement a pilot mechanism for students. The ultimate goal is to expand the program nationwide.

• Targeted areas

Students will be supported to develop their functional competencies in: reading, mathematics, science, civic education, digital education. The project will run for 48 months, starting October 1, in partnership with the Institute of Educational Sciences, county training centers (CCD Alba, Argeş, Dolj, Ilfov, Suceava) and school inspectorates (Alba, Argeş, Dolj, Ilfov, Suceava).

• Project budget

The total eligible amount is 207.1 million lei, of which over 166.7 million lei represents non-reimbursable funding. Minister Daniel David emphasized that functional illiteracy is a critical issue for Romania: "A key issue in our education system is related to the high level of functional illiteracy, which is becoming a national security risk, making us vulnerable, as a country, to manipulation (through conspiracy narratives) and underdevelopment - as a knowledge-based society. This project complements and allows for "experimental piloting" for recently introduced institutional approaches, namely remedial programs at the primary education level (through 2 hours/week) and at the secondary/high school level (from the time per subject available to the teacher), remedial programs focused on: consolidating-fixing skills; developing target skills, not developed in the standard approach; using skills in everyday life and developing skills for performance". The financing contract was signed by the Minister of Education, Daniel David.