School Inspectorate county of Sibiu SWOT Analysis School Inspectorate county of Sibiu Equity in education Anca Voineag _School Inspectorate County of Sibiu

STRENGTHS National level Instruments of ensuring the quality in education, generally valid in all schools; Ministry of Education develop programs/projects to ensure equity in education: “School after school” “The Second Chance” program (students who exceed with 4 years class age) “Money for High School Education” (students with hard financial situation from high schools) “Euro200” (all students with hard financial situation) “Scholarships for the students in Professional Education” (all students from vocational field); County level Inspectorate strategy of desegregation (ethnic criteria, social status, religion); Teachers’ interest in developing new abilities/skills through lifelong learning courses; Institutional level Heads who are interested in developing the school management.

WEAKNESSES Equity in education is not studied in schools; In schools there are no instruments of assessing if equity in education is ensured; There are schools with a high level of absenteeism; The risk of dropping out of school ( Romani ethnicity, students from foster homes, or students belonging to socially, financially, disadvantaged groups); Occasional inefficient communication between schools – parents - local authorities; Teacher's need to attend training course in areas like: social skills, how to be confidence, how to be successful or how to be efficient, equity in education (there are situations when is difficult to integrate some students into the school community : students with special educational requirements, gifted students, students with behaviour or communication problems, repatriated pupils).

OPPORTUNITIES Government support for students from disadvantaged backgrounds or minorities; The partnership between School Inspectorate and “Lucian Blaga “ University of Sibiu is developing; Increase quality of social partnership between the private companies and community support for educational system; Access to European grants; Possibility of exchanges good practice between schools/other educational institutions from national/transnational level – this project for instance.

THREATS Sometimes is little family/community involvement in school issues; bullying is on the rise in Romania; there are economic/financial discrepancies among students.

Conclusion Applying instruments to asses equity in education, head-teachers can develop management strategies to increase the rate of student’s life success or reduce school leaving, increase school integration, reduce bullying).

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