Festivity of Awarding the title of EUROPEAN SCHOOL 2007 - 05.06.2007
Mr Cristian Adomnitei, Minister of Education, Research,
and Youth awarded today the 60 winning schools of those that participated
to the 4th edition of the project competition “European School”,
in a special festivity which was held in the foyer of the Romanian Opera House. The Minister handed the representatives of the schools the certificate of European School and the plaquette
“You all know what it means to be a European school. You are the best 60 and you must guide the rest of your colleagues. I congratulate you for all the work you have done to receive this award and title ” was the message of the Minister to those present. “Mihai Eminescu” National College was the 7th of the 60 winning schools, having obtained 180 points out of 200.
The certificate is valid for three years, after this period the school must re-enter the competition. Each year, the school receives 4,500 Ron to be used for endowment. The decision regarding the goods to be purchased belongs to the leadership of each school. The Minister of Education, Research and Youth will allot the money to the County School Inspectorate, which will allot the sum to the schools.
The
evaluation of the 159 schools who were registered in
the contest was done after the following criteria: the coherence of the European
cooperation activities and general policy of the school institution, the
integration of the European cooperation activities in the school’s schedule, the
variety of the groups of people (students) involved in the activities,
continuity and constancy in these activities, strategy and ways of evaluation
and dissemination, the quality of the established partnerships. The State
Secretary for Pre-University Educational System, Mrs. Zvetlana Preoteasa, the
director of the General Management Office for Pre-University Education, Mrs.
Liliana Preoteasa, and the general school inspector in Bucharest, Mr.
Cristian Alexandrescu, all participated at the festivity. Together with the
representatives of the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth there were also
present Mr. John Barker (member of the European Commission Delegacy), the
assistant coordinator of the European Parliamentary Information Office in
Bucharest, Mrs. Raluca Huluban, and the coordinator of the Comenius Department
of the National Agency for Communitary Programmes in the Domain of Education
and Professional Forming, Mrs. Corina Leahu
The Ministry of Education and Research organised on Thursday, May 13th 2004 , the ceremony for awarding the ”European School” certificates. Both Mrs Ioana Irinel Chiran, the Secretary of State for Secondary Education and Mr Jonathan Scheele, the Chief of the European Commission Delegation in Romania attended the ceremony.
The competition for the ”European School” was initiated by the Ministry of Education and Research beginning with the 2003/2004 school year and took place between October 1st and December 1st 2003. The competition was open to all secondary schools that are or have been involved in activities and projects with European institutions. The activities could involve the entire school, or just teachers and students individually, or in teams.
The Evaluation of the schools taking part in the competition was based on the following criteria:
- the correlation of the European cooperation activities with the general policy of the school
- the different age groups involved
- the integration of the European cooperation activities in the current programme of the school
- continuity in the activities
- strategy and methods of evaluation
- strategy and ways of dissemination
- the quality of the partnerships established
Mr Jonathan Scheele had this to say: ” I believe that this competition proves that in Romanian schools there is already a European spirit, that the Romanian school system wishes to become European even if it does not have all the necessary funds yet to catch up with a few delays. Romania’s plan in order to attain the common European objectives concerning education till 2010 invoves dealing with partially solved problems such as increasing the opportunities of access to education for all social categories , improving the quality of education, and schools becoming more open towards society. These objectives can also be achieved with the help of competitions like the present one.”
