Preliminary assessment of the second payment request of Romania

relevant parts of the grant specifications of the project proving alignment with the description of the milestone and of the description of the investment in the CID annex the existence of a local strategy for the development of these services, the number of children up to 3 years-old relative to the coverage capacity of existing services within a max. 2/3km radius, the number of pending requests from parents for these services (at least 50), a needs analysis, and newly-constructed buildings to comply with the objective of achieving a primary energy demand (PED) at least 20% lower than the nearly zero-energy building (NZEB) requirement according to national guidelines, which shall be ensured through energy performance certificates.).

Commission Preliminary Assessment: Satisfactorily fulfilled

                  Related Measure: Supporting educational establishments with high risk of drop-
Number: 465
                  outs
Name of the Target: Educational establishments awarded with the grant scheme (Lot 1)
Quantitative Indicator: Number           Baseline: 0           Target: 750 Time: Q1 2022
Context:
The objective of this investment is to reduce early school leaving using the Early Warning
Mechanism in Education methodology and IT tool by granting funds to schools i) to support
students for the transition from lower to upper secondary education and ii) for the digitalisation of
2,500 schools included in the drop-out programme.
Target 465 requires that 750 educational establishments shall receive grants for the support of
students for the transition from lower to upper secondary education. Priority shall be given to

schools with high risk of drop out, based on the five indicators defined by the Early Warning Mechanism in Education (MATE). Schools shall also become responsible for following and registering students’ progress using the MATE IT tool. Target 465 is the first target of the investment, and it follows the completion of milestone 464 related to launching the project call. It will be followed by target 466 related to lot 2 of the grants awarded to schools, target 467 related to awarding grants for the digitalisation of schools included in the drop out programme and target 468 related to reaching a 25% reduction of the number of schools with high risk of dropouts. The investment has a final expected date for implementation in

Q2 2026.

Evidence Provided:
In line with the verification mechanism set out in the Operational Arrangements, the following
evidence was provided:
  i)    Summary document duly justifying how the milestone (including all the constitutive
        elements) was satisfactorily fulfilled;
  ii)   Copy of the list of all chosen projects with project description elaborated by the Ministry of
        Education, dated 14 December 2022;
 iii)   Copy of the list of the contracts signed with all beneficiaries elaborated by the Ministry of
        Education, dated 14 December 2022.
On the basis of a sample, selected by the Commission, the following documentary evidence was
provided for each of the units selected:
 iv)    Copy of the signed grant contracts between the County School Inspectorates and the

        selected schools;
  v)    Copy of an extract of the relevant parts of the technical specifications of the projects
        proving alignment with the description of the target and the eligible activities mentioned in
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