Guidance and counselling in Romania

Guidance and counselling in Romania Mihai Iacob, NCP-VET-CO, Bucharest, March 24th 2011

The national context The guidance and counselling system: • During recent years the guidance and counselling services have been developing quickly, including a rapid expansion of the network of counsellor • The Romanian guidance and counselling system is mainly based on two networks: - education (university and pre-university levels) - labour market (state run agencies for employement)

The national context • Counselling and guidance are part of the national curriculum, starting with primary school. Main contents: self-awareness, communication and social competences, the management of the learning process, career management and development, life style. • First regulated by the Law of Education (1995) and now by its current version (2010), which established the introduction of counselling centres throughout the educational system

The network • Romania is divided in 41 counties and the Municipality of Bucharest • Each of the 42 administrative divisions has its own local Centre for Psycho-Pedagogical Assistence • The number of counsellors at pre-university level is around 1600

Counselling Centres • Centers for Educational Resources and Assistance were established in 2005 by order of the Ministry of Education. • They are functional since 2006 and they are entrusted with coordinating, monitoring, managing and evaluating the activities of school counsellors

Objectives • the inclusion and support of all children during compulsory education; • additional support when the pupils’ profile requires such an approach; • improving the educational process; • creating the proper conditions for children and youth to develop their personality in order to be integrated in social, school and professional life; • the involvement of parents in order to create an effective relation between school and the community;

Services provided • Psycho-pedagogical counselling, career counselling; • Counselling for initial and continuous; vocational training; • Information services; • Additional services provided with the help of partners (e.g. universities, NGOs, etc.).

Counsellor’s Tasks • To provide information and advice to students, parents, and teachers on various topics (knowledge and self-knowledge, the student’s adaptation to the school environment, optimization of the student-parent-school relation, school drop, aggression/ violence, etc.) • Providing advisory services and courses for parents;

Counsellor’s Tasks • To propose and organize orientation programs for school, vocational and career guidance, in collaboration with other teachers. • Develop psycho-sociological studies on pupils’ options for vocational and professional qualifications in high schools and other types of schools in the educational system.

Pupil allocation • A counsellor may be allotted to educational facilities with a cumulated population of 800 pupils/400 preschoolers. • In practice this means that larger numbers of children may be assigned to one counselor (over 1500 in some cases) • Some of the school counsellors have work assigned in 3 or 4 schools. When this happens, the counsellor can not spend more than 4-6 hours weekly in one school. • It would be desirable to have 400 pupils or less assigned to one cousellor, in order to be efficient and to achieve quality educational goals.

Ethical aspects All the children who benefit from the educational services offered by the counsellors are requested to have the agreement from their parents or their legal guardians to participate in counselling activities.

Thank you for your attention! Contact: mihai.iacob@ise.ro

Guidance and counselling in Romania