Country Report - Romania

3rd Workshop on Training of Teachers of the Visually Impaired in Europe,
Warsaw, Poland, 3 - 6 April 2002

by mr Vasile Preda

1. Legislation with respect to integration

• Law of education no. 84/1995, revised in 1999
• Law no. 108/1998 concerning the protection of children in difficulty

2. Provisions with respect to facilities in integrated settings

Staff, equipment, textbooks in braille/large print, lessons in O&M, ADL, Social skills.

During the past five years, in Romania, the only children to be integrated were those with slight mental deficiency. Visually impaired children, especially the low vision, were only sporadically integrated, and these cases represent an exception rather than a rule. The special schools for visually impaired children are not, in fact, segregationist, they contribute to the social integration of young visually impaired people, by means of vocational schools and universities which facilitate access for visually impaired youth. Difficulties in integration are mainly caused by the lack of equipment and braille/large print textbooks in mainstream schools.

For the future, creation of resourse centers has been proposed, both material and human resources meant to facilitate the integration of the visually impaired people.

Intregration requires early intervention and interdisciplinary teamwork, including lessons in O&M, ADL and development of social skills.

3. Relation with the Special School for the v.i.

The Special Schools are to become Resource Centres.

4. Itinerant teachers/support teachers

Do they receive special training?
Yes, they receive it in the Departments of Special Education in the Universities of Cluj Napoca, Bucuresti, Timisoara and Iasi.

Where are they based?
At a special school, in a resource centre, in a local agency, elsewhere:
They are to be based in special schools.

How is the ratio: itinerant teacher/number of children:
Legislation specifying this ratio is to be set. Possibly, the ratio will be 1 to 5.

What is their task at the mainstream school?
To support v.i. children, to support the classroom teacher, other:
Both of them: to support the teachers in developing individualised educational projects, ensuring the corrective-compensatory therapy (visual training, O&M, social skills) and to support the students by providing material resources for Braille writing, magnifying glasses, etc.)

Do they have a task with respect to the parents?
The parents are seen as active members of the educational team and they are offered psycho-pedagogical counselling.

5. What is the task of your University, Faculty, College, etc. in preparing itinerant teachers

In the Department of Special Education of our University there are courses and practice classes which have as specific objectives the training of itinerant teachers. For this training we also cooperate with the UNICEF representatives in Romania.

6. One other question: What are the major changes with regard to education for v.i. children and youth in your country since the Bratislava workshop (1999) or, if you was not there, in the last three years?

• The network of Early Intervention Centres in Transylvania has expended, a number of approximately 80 children (0-6 years of age) being part of EI programme.
• More focus has been placed on O&M activities, visual training and social skills.
• A curricular reform has taken place, the content of v.i. curricula being similar to the one in the mainstream education.
• The number of v.i. students attending universities has increased, being now 15, in the fields of psychology, philology, history and special education.

Back to: [ Index of Countries ] [ Table of content ] [ Teachers Training Page ]