Environmental education system in Romania

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• Environmental education system in Romania

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Educational system in Romania
Specialization stage (18-19 years old, grade XII
- XIII)
Intensive stage (16-17 years old, grade IX - XI)
C O M P U L S O R Y
Observation and orientation stage (13-15 years
old, grade VII - IX)
Development stage (8-12 years old, grade III - VI)
Fundamental acquisition stage (6-7 years old,
grade I - II)
Kindergarden (3-5 years old)
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Kinds of highschools

• Theoretical (social science, philology, computer
  science, natural science)
• Technological (technical, services, natural
  resources and environmental protection
  industrial chemistry, environmental protection,
  wood exploitation, veterinary, agricultural,
  alimentary industry)
• Vocational (arts, sports, military, theological)

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Forms of environmental education in Romania
Middle school
Technological Highschool
Compulsory
Formal
Optional (middle and highschool)
Environmental Education
Nonformal (NGOs, clubs, associations, mass
media, museums, etc)
Informal (mass media)
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Formal - Compulsory - middle school

• 1. Mathematics and sciences (biology 8th grade)
  objectives
• To identify the components of an ecosystem
• To compare natural and man made ecosystem
• To explain the ecosystem functions
• To explore the living world
• To project /develop experiments
• To make prediction based on the experimental
  results
• To collect data and to develop original ideas
  starting from this data
• To demonstrate that they understand the
  consequences of their own behavior towards the
  nature
• To demonstrate the influence of the environmental
  factors on the human community
• To show a ecological way of thinking

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Formal - Compulsory - middle school

• 2. Man and society (geography)
• 5th grade objectives to prove interest in the
  environment
• 6th grade objectives to understand the
  importance of protecting the environment
• 7th grade objectives to understand the global
  dimensions of the environmental degradation
• 8th grade - objectives to understand the issues
  created by the environmental degradation

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Formal - Compulsory - theoretical highschool

• 1. Mathematics and sciences (biology 12th
  grade) objectives
• Recognizing and defining terms, concepts, laws,
  principles (related with the biological
  sciences)
• Investigation and experimentation of biological
  process through collecting data
• Explaining biological process and phenomena
• Knowledge transfer (from biology to different
  contexts)

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Formal - Compulsory - theoretical highschool

• 2. Man and society (geography)
• 11th grade objectives to identify the elements
  of the geographical environment (the man made
  environment) to investigate processes or
  phenomena related with the environment to relate
  phenomena with their conventional
  representation to identify the global
  environmental issues to apply the knowledge in
  the real life
• 12th grade objectives to identify the
  environmental degradation associated with the
  Romanian territory

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Formal - Compulsory - technological highschool

• Ecology and environmental protection (11th and
  12th grade) objectives
• To understand and apply the ecology concepts
• To recognize different kinds of ecosystems and to
  describe the relations between their components
• To identify the factors that are influencing the
  ecological balance
• To suggest methods to reduce the pollution and
  protect the environment

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Formal - Optional curses - middle and highschool

• School decision optional curses
• Intensive
• Extensive
• New subject/objectives
• Integrate (for several curricular areas)
• Principles of curriculum development
• Appropriate selection of the contents
• Functionality
• Coherence
• Equal chances for the students
• Flexibility (individuality)
• Connectedness with the social relevant issues

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Nonformal NGOs in Romania

• 140 environmentalist NGOs in 1994
• 91 environmentalist NGOs in 2001
• 4985 NGOs workers - 95 volunteers
• 1 465 250 Euro/year - total budget
• 20 of the NGOs has less than 500Euro/year
• 80 of the NGOs - priority environmental
  education
• 65 of the NGOs - priority environmental
  protection
• 57 of the NGOs - priority public participation
• 54 of the NGOs - priority eco-tourism
• 43 of the NGOs - priority biodiversity
  conservation

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Promoting education, public awareness and
training in Romania

• The magazine Perspective, the Romanian
  Environmental Journalists Association (ARZM)
  deals with environmental issues, explanting
  environmental phenomena and policies.
• The Resources and Information Centre for NGOs in
  Constanta (CIER) produces general ecology and
  thematic information, which is disseminated to
  the public free of charge.
• In natural protected areas such as the Danube
  Delta under the Biosphere Reserve Authority
  information brochures and other good quality
  educational publications intended for visitors
  are produced, but sparsely disseminated.

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• Environment is taught at primary school from the
  first to the fourth levels in the man and
  society subject, and afterwards in the natural
  science curriculum.
• At secondary school, ecological education is
  taught from an interdisciplinary perspective
  (physics, chemistry, biology, geography) and
  independently in the biology curriculum.
• The Civic Culture curriculum in general and
  professional teaching contains references to
  ecological awareness.
• In the technical high schools (agriculture,
  forests, sport) ecological aspects are present in
  the specialized courses.
• Childrens Clubs are publishing many local
  reviews, such as Eco, Ecological Universe or
  Natures Friends.
• Cooperation between schools and NGOs on
  ecological projects is frequent in Constanta,
  NGOs together with the University of Ovidiu and
  some members of the Antipa Institute organize
  educational sessions with classes on marine
  ecology.

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New dimensions of the education

• Priority accorded to the students own interest
• Focus on the functional skills development
• Grow the diversity of the school curricula
• Allowed the students to project their own
  education plan
• Grow the responsibility of schools in confront
  with the students future
• Preferring the functional culture instead of the
  universalistic culture

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Mass media and environmental education

•    By monitoring (with the help of the students
  or of the NGO Mare Nostrum volunteers) the
  reflection in the written and audio-video mass
  media of the environmental issues topics.

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• For broadcast medium items
• Date of broad-casting
• Starting time of broadcasting
• Length of broad-casting
• Type of program (news show, advert, documentary)
• Title and description of the broadcast
• The impact on the viewers
• For print medium items
• Date of publication
• Page number section (editorial page, magazine)
• Status of item (lead story, advert, editorial,
  comment column)
• Length of item (text and non-text material)
• The impact on the readers

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Recent changes of the Romanian educational system

• Rules/regulations/laws
• Curricula
• Text books
• Evaluation
• Methods
• Organization
• Teachers training

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Romanian strategy for the development of the
educational and training system (2001-2004)

• To allowed identification of the quality of a
  unpolluted environment as a premise foe a healthy
  environment
• To create an awareness of the interconnectedness
  between environmental quality and life
• To encourage the development of an environmental
  friendly individual and social behavior
• To promote a responsible involvement in
  environmental protection activities
• To apply the human rights principles in the
  environmental protection activities

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Romanian national strategy for a sustainable
development

• Chapter on human resources (focused mainly on
  the university training specialized/professional
  approach)
• Chapter on health some data about the
  environmental degradation and the human health

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Clean Romania governmental program

• Creating a educational program through camps
  network
• Publishing promotional/educational materials
  (brochures, leaflets, etc)
• Clean-up activities
• Contests (for students)
• Starting a National Environmental Education
  Program (RECs Green Pack)
• Mass media involved in EE program

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• Pluses
• Many NGOs, associations, clubs are producing
  materials in order to sustain the environmental
  education

• Minuses
• The NGOs havent enough founds to produce as
  many support copies are necessary

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• Pluses
• Some goals of environmental education is part of
  the national plans/programs for the formal
  education

• Minuses
• There is not enough willing to really fulfill
  these goals

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• Pluses
• Romania is part of some international - European
  programs (GLOBE, COASTWATCH EUROPE, ECO-SCHOOLS,
  Socrates, etc)

• Minuses
• There arent enough schools or organizations
  involved in these activities

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• Minuses
• There are less projects who area dealing with
  real/near issues like recycling, sustainable use
  of the resources, etc

• Pluses
• Most of the environmental education projects are
  about monitoring research gathering
  information or awareness public campaigns

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• Pluses
• At the Ministry of Education have been created a
  job for a inspector who is responsible with the
  extracurricular activities (including
  environmental ones)

• Minuses
• Only one person cant supervise all the
  initiative that could be promoted by schools,
  NGOs, research institute, etc

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• Minuses
• In some areas/counties it is a lack of interest
  of teachers and students (they dont know
  anything about this contests or they dont want
  to waste their spare time working outside the
  classes)

• Pluses
• There are some local/national contests
  (interdisciplinary or only environmental project)

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• Pluses
• Some NGOs are trying to bring together more
  schools, teachers, students, in small
  environmental education networks

• Minuses
• It is a a lack of communication /cooperation
  between the main actors in the field of
  environmental education

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• Pluses
• The inspectors which are in the County Schools
  Inspectorates have the obligation to organize
  environmental education activities

• Minuses
• It doesnt exist a environmental education
  department in the County Schools Inspectorates or
  at the Ministry of education

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• Pluses
• Most of the resources in the schools, libraries,
  NGOs are donation from foreign organizations
  (very useful works but cant be use without
  being adapted to the local conditions

• Minuses
• Lack of original works, in Romanian, about the
  local/national environmental issues

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• Pluses
• There are many opportunities to get founds for
  environmental education projects

• Minuses
• Only some NGOs, associations are aware of this
  but also eligible for that and they need skills
  in writing good project proposal

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• Minuses
• It is a lack of coordination at the national
  level (it exist a Council for the Environmental
  Education but it doesnt really work). Even in
  the Sustainable Development strategy arent
  established any concrete measures to take in
  order to promote the education for the environment

• Pluses
• There is a Romanian National sustainable
  development strategy with a chapter about the
  human resources and the environmental education

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• Minuses
• There are too many alternative manuals for one
  subject (even more than 20) and the teachers must
  choose in a very short time only one of these.
  Some manuals are just translations of foreign
  text books (you may identify pictures, schemas,
  diagrams, taken from those manual)

• Pluses
• There are a lot of alternative manuals for the
  biology study (the VIII th graders are studying
  the ecology but with very few elements of
  environmental education)

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• Pluses
• In some Universities (environmental sciences)
  there are environmental education courses for
  those students that want to become teacher

• Minuses
• It is a lack of developed methodologies for the
  environmental education

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• Pluses
• Some schools (middle- and high-schools) have
  optional lessons on the environmental (marine
  biology, protected areas, etc

• Minuses
• The choose of the optional is very subjective
  (depends more on the teachers, head master,
  parents and less on the students)

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• Pluses
• There are many initiatives on the protection of
  the environment (but how effective are those?)

• Minuses
• It is a lack of quantitative evaluation of the
  actual situation/results of the environmental
  education initiatives)

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• Pluses
• Most of the environmental education activities
  are organize in the non-formal approach

• Minuses
• The people who are working on these projects are
  most of the times volunteers

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• Pluses
• The ecology as a science it is study in schools
  (in the compulsory approach)

• Minuses
• It is study only in the final grades (8th and
  12th) when the students are interested only on
  the final exams

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Environmental Education Materials, Teacher
Training Earth Day Activity
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Environmental projects proposed by the trained
teachers
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Main subjects in the optional curses proposed by
the trained teachers
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• EE SWOT analysis - Strengths
• Teachers/students willing to be part of a EE
  program
• Team work
• Previous natural sciences courses in school
• Collaboration with the local authorities
• Previous training materials
• The need of changing pupils mentality
• School location
• Pupils quality
• Capacity of involving parents, sponsors
• Support offered by the Ministry of Environment
• One EE responsible (teacher) in the schools

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• EE SWOT analysis - Weaknesses
• Lack of materials/information
• Lack of programs
• Difficult to organize activities for a small
  group
• Lack of project management expertise
• Conservatory approach
• Lack of rules that can sustain this projects
• Lack of involvement from the local authorities
• Lack of teachers training
• Pupils interest for other domains
• Lack of interest from the school

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• EE SWOT analysis Opportunities
• School location
• Possibility to shape behaviors
• Schools magazines manage by the students
• Schools educational offers (optional courses)
• Help from the NGOs (training, materials,
  expertise)

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• EE SWOT analysis Threats
• Lack of interest from the students parents
• Lack of time
• Loosing the students interest because of other
  factors
• Lack of the project applicability
• Lack of collaboration from other teachers
• Impossible to have the technical resources
• Students age

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• To do!!!!
• Institutional structures to perform a shift in
  emphasis from a centralized to a decentralized
  one from top down to bottom-up planning from
  authoritarian planning to participative planning
  from global planning to sub-sectorial planning
• Legal frame work promotion of a coherent, legal
  framework aimed to improving the national
  educational system
• Pre-universitary education to increase the level
  of both general education and training of young
  people for an adequate integration in society to
  enhance the interest for vocational counseling
  activity
• Efficiency of the education to provide access to
  education to balance the supply/balance ration
  within the school network to reduce the gaps
  between the training levels of the people various
  residence areas

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4. Quality of education quality curricular
standards, connections between the subjects
taught and the real life, more optional matters
at all levels, the promotion of new modern
concepts about the educational relation between
the educator and the pupil, improved value system
for selection, assessment and evaluation 5.
Closely connected to the problems facing by
Romania programs intended to develop new forms
of in-formal and non-formal, such as education
for health, education for the environment,
education for communication, etc