Thousands of education staff to receive training to support vulnerable students

The Ministry of Education and Research (MEC) will implement a project worth nearly 100 million lei, aimed at increasing inclusion and equity in schools. The initiative focuses on training over 18,000 education system employees and developing support services for students in vulnerable situations, including children with special educational needs or disabilities. The MEC has announced the approval of funding for the project "Future through Modern and Inclusive Educational Resources (VREM): Professionalization for Quality Inclusive Education." One of the key areas of action involves enhancing the competencies of teaching, auxiliary, and management staff who work with students from vulnerable groups. To this end, the project includes the operationalization of "resource rooms" for educational and psycho-pedagogical support, as well as the training of teachers and specialists who will work within these facilities. The initiative aims to strengthen the capacity of schools to better address the needs of students who require additional support to participate in education.

• Piloting Support Levels for Students

The project also includes the piloting of various levels of support, based on a methodological guide to be developed and validated as part of the initiative. Another component focuses on strengthening the institutional capacity of the Ministry of Education and Research, the county-level and Bucharest Municipality centers for educational resources and assistance, the teacher training centers (casele corpului didactic), and other subordinate structures. The objective is to improve how these institutions plan and implement measures for the development of inclusive education. The VREM project has an implementation period of 36 months and a total budget of 99,077,490.30 lei. Funding is provided through the 2021-2027 Education and Employment Program, under Priority 6, which aims to prevent early school leaving and increase access to and participation in education for disadvantaged groups.

Through staff training and the development of support structures, the project aims to contribute to reducing the barriers that limit the participation of vulnerable students in the educational process.