European Trade Union Committee for Education

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On 6 February 2025, the second case study visit under the InclEdu4AllNeeds project took place in Bucharest, Romania. This initiative, led by ETUCE and EFEE with co-funding from the European Commission, supports the European Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee in Education (ESSDE) Work Programme (2024–2026). The project aims to enhance social partner collaboration to integrate students with special needs and evaluate policies and practices to improve inclusive education.

The study visit in Bucharest took place in the Special Secondary School St. Nicholas, the largest special needs school in Bucharest, serving around 200 students from kindergarten to vocational education and training (VET). It included classroom observations, interviews, and focus group discussion among Romanian social partners in education, to examine the challenges and best practices for inclusion in education. It provided an opportunity to complement previous research with in-depth qualitative insights into national policies and institutional strategies. Despite facing challenges such as limited access to therapies, a shortage of specialised staff, and insufficient equipment, the school remains committed to enhancing special education through innovative teaching methods and external partnerships.

The key issues highlighted by the Romanian social partners in education, as well as the school personnel and management included:

• While both mainstream and special needs schools exist in Romania, transitions between them remain inconsistent. A lack of adequate support has led to an increase in students transferring to special needs schools, as well as choosing private education. Both unions and school management shared a wish to create a pilot school which would combine the special needs school with the mainstream school creating an educational hub to facilitate the inclusion of persons with special needs.
• Despite a legal commitment for education funding to be 6% of GDP, actual allocations remain between 2–3%. Schools face significant gaps in infrastructure, vocational training, and support personnel. Regarding the inclusion of persons with special needs in education, the schools rely heavily on EU funds (on their own initiative) instead of the national budget.
• The 2023 education law mandates reduced class sizes for special needs students in mainstream education. However, practical implementation is hindered by a lack of support staff and high workloads for teachers.
• Although special education is now part of initial teacher training, practical exposure of students is insufficient, and a shortage of specialised staff remains a pressing issue.

The study visit to Bucharest underscored the need for stability (since 1989, Romania has seen the most number of education ministers ever who were changing every 1-2 years), long-term and coherent vision and initial teacher training on special needs. The discussions reinforced the importance of social dialogue between trade unions and education employers to address challenges and develop practical solutions.

Read the official report here