Education and training

Specialist education for children

An external evaluation credits Sense International (Romania) with transforming the Romanian education system by embedding appropriate education for deafblind children within state service provision, and then successfully transferring ownership of the programme to the government.

From the beginning of the programme in 1999, we began working with the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research to set up educational units for deafblind children. There are 17 units for deafblind children throughout the country so far.

In addition, we also work directly with schools. One of our first partners in Romania was Eminescu Kindergarten, where we have set up two educational units for deafblind children. With its exceptionally skilled and committed staff, Eminescu Kindergarten was recently named a 'centre of excellence' for education in Romania. The school is also a partner in our early intervention programme.

Teacher training

Our strong and long-standing relationship with the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research has enabled us to make the educational needs of deafblind children an integral part of the Romanian education system.

In conjunction with Sense International (Romania), the Ministry created an accredited teacher training course which has trained 60 teachers so far and a training of trainers' course which has accredited 11 national trainers and provided post-training support to newly qualified teachers. At first, these courses were operated with the help of international education experts, but recently the Romanian trainers have taken over. This means the training can continue into the future without dependence on outside help.

In addition to making training available for teachers, we also support their work by providing specialist equipment and learning materials for working with deafblind children.