Romania is facing a lack of policies and action plans in the field of STE(A)M education at central and regional level. This is one of the reasons why EOS Romania Foundation together with eight other organizations promoting digital education, decided to create the Coalition for Digital Education (CED).

CED aims to support the development of quality digital education in Romania and the adaptation of the educational offer, so that it prepares children and young people for the transformation of society and the labour market in line with technological development trends. Due to its composition, CED has extensive knowledge about the opportunities that digital education offers, but also the importance of responsible, planned and inclusive use of the solutions that digital education proposes.

The nine organizations that initiated this approach promote digital education and STE(A)M education among students and young people through concrete and varied activities. Thus, they trained in this field about 1,500 teachers in Romania, conducted lessons with about 18,000 students, including those from rural areas, and managed to mobilize also and human resources from outside the education system involving in their work over 250 mentors.

In the context of COVID-19 and the disruptions caused by the pandemic in education, EOS Romania on behalf of CED sent an open letter to the Romanian Ministry of Education, to highlight some critical issues to be dealt with:

• reducing the digital divide between urban and rural areas, given that schools in rural areas have poor infrastructure and limited access to online educational resources;
• predictability and regulation regarding the education of students in the final grades who are most affected by the interruption of courses – the need for a plan with concrete actions and firm deadlines, implementable as soon as possible;
• the importance of developing a unitary distance education strategy, a guide for teachers in order to effectively plan and conduct educational activities in the online environment;
• the need to train teachers to make effective use of tools and resources available online – given that a number of online resources are available, teachers must have the necessary skills to select and use the most effective tools for the proposed educational purpose;
• making the best use of the solidarity and congruence of action and reaction of ICT professionals, in order to coagulate effective and sustainable long-term alternative education initiatives, to combat the implications of the educational syncope’s generated by the current state of emergency as soon as possible;

Currently, EOS Romania has started through CED the localization of an important resource for the development of teachers’ digital skills, so that they become STE(A)M ready. DigCompEdu is the basis for the development of STE(A)M competence framework within the STEAMonEdu project and for the elaboration of STE(A)M educator profiles.

EOS Romania and CED will continue to raise awareness among Romanian policy makers on policies and frameworks already developed at EU level that can be adapted and implemented in the Romanian education system. Moreover, they will support the Government in creating a country-wide STE(A)M strategy that will support the introduction of STE(A)M approach in schools across the country.

by EOS Romania Foundation