Preliminary assessment of the first payment request of Romania

       minor works and purchases of goods;
       grants for pupils in vulnerable groups to ensure the transition from lower secondary to
        upper secondary education, to complete compulsory education;
       partnerships with NGOs for support and/or extra-curricular activities.

This milestone is an initial step in the implementation of the reform and shall be followed by the award of grant schemes to educational establishments by Q1 2022 (target 465). Evidence provided:

In line with the verification mechanism set out in the Operational Arrangements, the following evidence was provided: 1. Summary document duly justifying how the milestone (including all the constitutive elements) was satisfactorily fulfilled (Cover Note). 2. The online publication of the call for projects to award grants for educational establishments for the support of students for the transition from lower to upper secondary education, showing that the competition is open to applications. 3. The documents describing the technical specifications of the call (Applicants’ guidelines), fully aligned with the description, criteria and conditions as set out in the description of this milestone in the CID Annex.

The authorities also provided: 4. A list of eligible schools based on the 5 indicators defined in the Early Warning Mechanism in Education. Analysis:

Prior to the launch of the call, the Ministry of Education announced the programme on its internet site and invited schools to submit a declaration of intent (to participate in the call). 3 489 schools that applied were deemed eligible based on the Early Warning Mechanism in Education (MATE). The list of eligible schools, which Romania submitted as part of the evidence, shows how the 5 respective indicators were used to define eligible schools (as indicated in columns R1, R2, R3, R4 and R5 in the list of eligible schools based on the 5 indicators defined in the Early Warning Mechanism in Education).

On 2 March 2022 the call for projects was launched on the Ministry of Education’s website (https://www.edu.ro/ghidul_solicitantului_PNRAS). The applicant’s guidelines were published together with templates for applicants to use in the call. On the website and in the applicants’ guidelines, the eligible target group and purpose was defined (see p.2 of the guidelines: schools with high and medium risk of dropout and scheme to allocate financial resources to schools to support students in order to reduce absenteeism, improve assessment results, obtain a higher participation rate in national exams and a higher percentage of students’ transition from lower to upper secondary education).

In addition, the applicants’ guidelines define management and purposes of the grants and categories of eligible activities (projects) in line with the CID Annex (p.552 of the guidelines). According to the information included on the Ministry of Education website (https://www.edu.ro/ghidul_solicitantului_PNRAS). The call was closed on 14 March. The guidelines also address the CID Annex requirement of schools becoming responsible for the grant and its use, including student outcomes and for regular updates on the progress achieved, by transferring that information into the MATE data collection system (see p.7 and 9). Ministerial Order No 3.496/30.03.2022 approved the list of round-1 educational establishments covered by the grant scheme of the National Reduction Programme School abandonment (PNRAS).

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