Romania – school transport fees for children to be covered by the government

The Romanian Government has recently approved a new measure meant to encourage children to stay in school, in particular children coming from the most disadvantaged families.
 
Since in Romania over 125 000 children were commuting on a daily basis during the last school year and that these type of costs are one of the main reasons why disadvantaged children drop out of school, the measure comes as a practical way to alleviate the financial burden of the poorest of families. Transporters will thus provide free subscriptions to pupils, which will then be reimbursed by the government for distances of up to 50 km.
 
This also comes as rejoicing news to municipalities and Roma communities within the ROMACT Programme in Romania, particularly in those places where Community Action Groups (CAGs) identified transport to school as an issue favouring dropout, as it was the case in Alesd and Simleul Silvaniei. Many other CAGs in Romania requested that Roma children’s school dropout is addressed by the Joint Action Plan with the local authorities and further on by the Development Strategies of the municipalities (for instance in Ghidigeni, Calvini, Ivesti, Sighisoara).