Preliminary assessment of the second payment request of Romania

         the Annex to the Council Implementing Decision.
The authorities also provided:
  vi)    Copy of the Ministerial Order No. 3496 of 30 March 2022 “for the approval of the list of
         educational establishments which receive grants under lot 1”;
  vii)   Copy of the Ministerial Order No. 3580 of 15 April 2022 “amending the Ministerial Order
         No. 3496 of 30 March 2022 for the approval of the list of educational establishments which
         receive grants under lot 1”;
 viii)   Copy of the Ministerial Order No. 3319 of 1 March 2022 “approving the Applicants’
         guidelines”;
  ix)    Copy of the Ministerial Order No. 3326 of 3 March 2022 “amending Annex 1 of the
         Ministerial Order No. 3319/2022 approving the Applicants’ guidelines”;
   x)    Copy of the applicants’ guidelines;

  xi)    Copy of the Ministerial Order No. 4338 of 27 July 2022 “for delegating tasks to school
         inspectorates for the implementation of investments included in the Recovery and
         resilience plan under the responsibility of the Ministry of Education”;
  xii)   42 Implementing agreements signed between the Ministry of Education and the County
         Schools Inspectorates for implementing this investment;
 xiii)   Note No. 797/DGIPRE of 03 October 2022 “concerning the six educational establishments
         which have given up the funding for their approved projects, and the modification of the
         legal status of the educational establishments with approved projects for funding under the
         grant scheme National programme to reduce early school leaving (PNRAS) - Round I”;
 xiv)    Copy of the Ministerial Order No. 6457 of 22 December 2022 “for the approval of the
         methodology for the management of the MATE tool in the Romanian Integrated Education
         Information System (SIIIR) for the pre-educational system’s activities”, published in the

         Official Journal No. 30 on 11 January 2023;
  xv)    Regulations No. 500/SSD of 15 December 2022 for publishing Ministerial Orders in the
         Official Journal, elaborated by the Ministry of Education;
 xvi)    Copy of the Ministerial Order No. 6000 of 30 December 2021 “for the approval of the Early
         Warning Mechanism in Education (MATE) and of the implementing methodology for the
         MATE IT tool to prevent early school leaving”, published in the Official Journal No. 1252 on
         30 December 2021;
xvii)    Copy of the list of 3235 eligible schools under the National programme to reduce early
         school leaving;
xviii)   Copy of the list of 1726 eligible schools under lot 1 published on 22 February 2022;
 xix)    Copy of the 60 projects proposals included in the sample.
Analysis:

The justification and substantiating evidence provided by the Romanian authorities covers all constitutive elements of the target. 750 educational establishments shall receive grants for the support of students for the transition from lower to upper secondary education, on the basis of 5 indicators defined in the Early Warning Mechanism in Education. All indicators are calculated on the basis of a weight that analyses the quantity i.e. the number of students and teachers, or the quality i.e. the marks obtained in the national assessment. Based on the vulnerability index on Early School Leaving, MATE schools were classified into three categories, depending on the priority of the intervention: high, medium and low. High-priority educational units, which need immediate intervention, are considered to be those that receive a total score between 3,5 and 5 and that have several elements of vulnerability, such as a high number of substitute teachers, a rate high dropout rate, low participation rate and poor national assessment results. These schools shall be prioritised for

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