Home / News / Ana Cabac, Head of Pedagogical Assistance Service in the district of Cantemir.

Ana Cabac, Head of Pedagogical Assistance Service in the district of Cantemir.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

„A perfect school, open for every child and able to help develop their potential, is still a pedagogical model that we want to make closer to our reality”

“We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.”

(Stacia Tauscher)

A methodical seminar was held this summer, in June, 23 – 24, in the city of Vadul Lui Vodă, with the participation of the Heads of Psycho–Pedagogical Assistance Services (of regional and municipal level). Participants at the seminar discussed about the wellbeing concept and family’s protective factors. The event was organized by the Ministry of Education and the Psycho-pedagogical Assistance Republican Centre (PARC), with P4EC support.

The purpose of the seminar was to train the participants in proper application of the assessing methodology in working with institutionalized children and their families; to aware public actors to ensure child welfare and to help families develop protective factors to prevent such phenomena as child abuse and neglect.

At the seminar were also presented success stories of social and scholar inclusion of children from the Orphanage of Orhei and the Auxiliary school of Sarata Galbena, district of Hincesti. A huge role in these children’s deinstitutionalization and turning back home was played by the specialists of Psycho–Pedagogical Assistance Services.

The main target for PAS to achieve, in the next future, consists in identifying and evaluating qualitatively and correctly the need of each deinstitutionalized child. PAS should also provide to family and school integration and to help children develop those necessary skills so that they can accede to a new level of education or have a successful integration into social life.

According to Mrs. Virginia Rusnac, the PARC Director, while realizing these tasks, specialists should provide that every child gets the right support at the right moment from all professional structures, including social assistance, educational, medical services. It is quite important that these services work as a multidisciplinary team. Providing services as a multidisciplinary team has become one of those quality indicators widely used in the international practice of services’ assessment and comparison.

About this practice, the wellbeing concept and family protective factors spoke P4EC trainers Ana Palii and Tatiana Dnestrean.

The practical activities organized by trainers within the seminar revealed dependencies and social limits to which are exposed children living in adults’ world. Participants also spoke about vulnerable circumstances and situations when children are at risk and can easily become victims of violence. Among other subjects discussed, participants also listed a series of protective factors for the child. They all admitted that those risky areas can turn into areas of intervention, while risk situations can turn into alarming factors. This is why it is important for all professionals working with children to know which are the risk factors and which are the protective factors. It’ll help them evaluate the risk of exposure at situations of abuse, neglect, exploitation and to contribute to child wellbeing, resilience, secure attachment, social abilities, self esteem, etc.

A special attention was dedicated to the practical model of application of the Resilience Matrix, which can be used by PAS, when necessary, as a guiding support and documentation tool for those difficult situations faced by children. Child development in a proper environment that offers protective elements, can lead to the prevention of abuse consequences, especially if we mean long-time consequences, or it can lead even to the prevention of the abuse. The child-victim or the child that suffered a trauma caused by violence has to recuperate those parameters for a harmonious development so that he or she can move on with its usual activity. This can be achieved only in partnership with the social services and educational, medical, public order, to prevent, identify, refer, evaluate, assist and monitor children at risk.

In the second part of the seminar participants presented case studies on good practices, and also discussed about the obstacles faced in the process of scholar inclusion, in mainstream schools, of the deinstitutionalized children. PAS representatives of the districts of Orhei and Hincesti spoke about the complex assessment of the residential institutions and about the importance of this service in the whole process of deinstitutionalization.

The positive examples of the above mentioned districts allowed participants to create a new vision on the next steps to follow in identifying those proper supporting resources to meet the educational needs of every child and to offer equal opportunities of social inclusion and family integration to all deinstitutionalized children.

The actual topic approached at the seminar, the practical activities performed, the exchange of experience and the support and guidance offered to participants are to be considered substantial resources to value and apply in their future work.

My special thanks go to those who organized this seminar and provided to our continuous professional evolution: the Ministry of Education, the Psycho-pedagogical Assistance Republican Centre, the NGO “Partnership for Every Child”. You offered us a model of fair concurrence, correct approach and strategic planning in implementing the inclusive education.

A perfect school, open for every child and able to help develop their potential, is still a pedagogical model that we want to make closer to our reality.

The road is still long enough and each specialist involved in the process of inclusion has paramount importance in the formation of children and young people. At the end of each step of this journey, we’ll meet youngsters, adults, even generations, some will be more lenient, some more engaged and more responsible. The fact is that all together we must approach the world with openness and tolerance.

Ana Cabac, Head of Pedagogical Assistance Service in the district of Cantemir

Impressions about the seminar:

Tatiana Veremciuc, Head of Pedagogical Assistance Service in the district of Edineţ

The workshop dedicated to the heads of PAS, which was organized by the Ministry of Education and PARC, in collaboration with P4EC – known for its experience in deinstitutionalization - represented a good occasion for the participants to exchange practices and to better evaluate themselves, to understand if each of them are active enough, as a citizen and/or professional to contribute to child wellbeing. The platform initiated has emphasized once more our need to put together all the efforts to bring our children home and to create secure conditions for their harmonious development.

It is extremely important to identify children’s needs and if we don’t intervene as a multidisciplinary team, there won’t be any tangible result. We must have an efficient communication between specialists of all fields.

Another pending priority for us is to continue the series of trainings at local level, to identify competent pedagogues, to report and prevent cases of child abuse, exploitation, neglect and trafficking, to change the general perception and attitudes, reducing stereotyping in education, understanding that every child is unique and needs to be treated individually.

Our common task is to strengthen the efforts to create and maintain the educational and social services for those children who need these services. We have to focus more on the quality of the provided assistance, to ensure equal rights and chances to everybody. By insisting and being perseverant, by collaborating and learning continuously , we could provide quality services to ensure the physical and psychological integrity of all children and subsequently could create a healthy genofond.