Picture Source: Centrul FILIA
A society is nothing without learning, schools, and knowledge. A country where the educational system is not taken seriously and teachers are not doing what they must do is a lost one.
As it is said in „Education Unites us-Vision on the future of education in Romania„, made by The Ministry of Education from Romania,
„Education offers each individual the opportunity to accumulate knowledge and develop the attitudes and skills necessary to become an informed and active citizen who contributes to the progress of the community and the nation. So, education ensures social stability and development.”
They also present the fundamental values: trust, equity, solidarity, effectiveness, and autonomy and explain them.
„A fundamental role of education refers to personal development. Each individual must have the possibility to develop according to his own potential so that he can ensure his independence and prosperity, the family he eventually decides to establish, and the groups he decides to be a part of. Continuous personal development through repeated learning throughout life is essential in contemporary society.”
says the fourth paragraph that presents the role of education. The first paragraph refers to the relationships between the implicated parts, especially teachers and students.
„Trust is the essential value, which defines the mutual respect and interdependence between all the actors involved in education, from the student and the teacher to the family and the wider community. It translates to the healthy and constructive attachment of all parts of the educational approach to the shared and summative division of education.
Through the sincerity of daily behaviors, we share constructive relationships aimed at achieving the goal of the vision of education. The integrity, convergence, and correctness of the public service of education represent the support of trust in the inability to fulfill its mission of molding children into responsible adults. education. Society, through its authorities, the civil and private sectors, supports education at all levels based on trust in the quality of processes and results.”
The above visualization presents, in percentages, the school population registered, by levels, in schools or universities in 2019-2020. As we can see, the primary and secondary school percentage is the biggest in Romania, while the rest of them are pretty low, especially post-high school. In 2020-2021, the situation looks similar, with no major changes, just some insignificant ones.
At the same time, the school dropout is changing from year to year, and everything looks like it is almost impossible to go under 1%.
All these things and we did not took into consideration the kids that don’t have the chance to go to school at all, because of different reasons. If we do this, things look even worse. Education should be something that everyone should have access to.
When we talk about education, we have into consideration all the things from our lives, being important to know a little about everything: math, history, geography, to have civic spirit, and also to understand what is happening with us. For this, in schools, we have biology that teaches us a little about our bodies, but not sufficient. Physical changes take place from the first day of our existence and hardly continue until at least 18 to 20 years old. We grow up: from kids to pre-teens and then into teens and adults. We see ourselves changing day by day and not only our bodies, but our minds and souls. We start being attracted by people, liking new things, and discovering our person. If no one talks with you about all of these, how do you know you are fine? How do you know that you don’t have a problem if you are not looking like your friend? How can you not be ashamed of yourself if you don’t know that is completely normal not to look like others?
The subject of the introduction of sex education in schools has been making noise for a while, with people having both pro and con opinions. When we refer to sexual education, as the Ministry of Education specified, we refer to a subject adapted for each age category, where necessary, basic elements could be learned, such as personal hygiene, protection, and body changes during puberty. This matter was misunderstood, or better said, its objective was perceived differently. According to Agerpres, Alin Coleşa, a deputy of the AUR party says that „We don’t need masturbation of children, gender ideology, abortions for teenagers, their sexualization in a word.” So, according to the statements cited above, children and adolescents are sexualized only if sex education is introduced in schools and it would be a bad thing for this subject to be introduced.
As we find on the official website of the Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA), „Comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) is a vital necessity for supporting children and young people in their sexual and general development. It enables them to increase their knowledge of sexual and reproductive health and rights and to develop their skills in decision-making, communication, and risk-reduction, as well as positive and responsible attitudes toward sexuality and relationships.”
According to Eurostat, Romania is still the leader in the number of underage mothers. Unfortunately, according to the statistics provided, in 2021 there were 414 births to girls between the ages of 10 and 14, compared to 371 in 2020. As for girls between the ages of 15 and 19, things are more alarming. No less than 14,581 births were registered in 2021, although there is a decrease from year to year. In 2020, 14,892 births took place, all to mothers aged between 15 and 19.
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 to 14 years | 385 | 371 | 414 |
| 15 years | 1051 | 1020 | 908 |
| 16 years | 2060 | 1969 | 1947 |
| 17 years | 3.049 | 3.144 | 2.936 |
| 18 years | 4127 | 3846 | 3918 |
| 19 years | 5.242 | 4.913 | 4.872 |
| 15 to 19 years | 15529 | 14892 | 14581 |
The subject of underage mothers could be stopped by introducing sex education in schools, which would help young people with information about a healthy and safe sex life. The fact that there is no such program in schools is seen more and more from year to year. Children learn about sex more and more quickly, regardless of whether an adult talks to them about the subject or not. The Internet is accessible to almost everyone, so in 2021, according to INSS, 80.8% of all households in Romania have access to the Internet at home, an increase of 2.6 percentage points compared to 2020. It is more accessible both in the urban environment (80.8%), as well as in the rural environment (73.1%), even if there is still a considerable difference. Having free rein in the use of technology, children are increasingly exposed to both pornography and premature sexualization. Ignoring a problem does not reduce the painful results, so the harmful effect of lack of sex education can be seen with the naked eye: abuses still happen, no one reports them out of fear and shame, toxic relationships exist and are more common, and discussions about protection and a healthy sex life are taboo.
According to the data provided by the National Authority for the Protection of Children’s Rights and Adoption, in 2021, 1,349 cases of sexual abuse of children were registered, 173 boys and 1,176 girls, of which 502 in urban areas and 847 in rural areas. This is a painful and shocking truth, especially since 1045 cases were registered in 2020. Toxic relationships start at home, something is proven even by statistics: 46% of children and adolescents declare the presence of physical punishments, while only 28% of parents admit the same thing. According to the „Voices for Democracy and Justice” Association, official statistics show that 40 minors were sexually abused by their parents or siblings, 9 criminals killed their spouses, 6 children killed their parents, and 9 minors were killed by their parents or siblings. Compared to the last ten years, in 2021 the number of minors who stole and robbed is the lowest, and the number of those who raped is the highest.
After many debates, however, according to Agerpres, in June 2022, the Chamber of Deputies decided to adopt a law that provides for the introduction of health education programs but only starting with the 8th grade and with the consent of the parents. This is a good thing, as students could learn about the prevention of contact with sexually transmitted diseases and the number of underage mothers, but for a small number of students. From this equation, it emerges from the start that only from the age of 14 to 16 do children learn about these things, while the statistics clearly show an alarming number of underage mothers before the age of 14.
To stop this phenomenon, it would be necessary to introduce a mandatory subject, for everyone, without the need for signatures. This would be beneficial for everyone, and children could be protected from unpleasant and unwanted situations, helping, at the same time, to educate the new generations about these extremely important but still taboo topics. Everyone should have access to free, healthy, and beneficial education to become responsible and open adults toward respecting the rights of all our fellows. As we can see, things are starting to improve, but this fact will be visible only in a few years after the programs would run in more classes and more variants. As we could see, there are more children in the first classes than in high school or secondary school, which means the ones that don’t continue their learning have a smaller chance of a real and healthy education about themselves.
Before this, though, on Youtube people started posting videos to help others that needed to know something about their sexual health or just curiosities. Even CIDSR (The Reproductive Health Training Center of the Republic of Moldova) made a Youtube account with interactive and interesting videos for everybody since even their beliefs say that „each person, no matter where he lives, no matter of the sex, age, ethnicity, presence of any physical or any other impairment, has the same sexual and reproductive rights.” MsAnneGreen was having sex talks and was bringing awareness in the field of sexual education and why it is so important to exist, but also useful information. SEXUL vs BARZA takes the definition of sex education formulated by the World Health Organization. According to it, sexual education means „learning about the cognitive, emotional, social, interactive and physical aspects of sexuality. Sex education must be age-appropriate and scientifically sound. It equips children and young people with information, skills, and positive values related to sexuality, healthy relationships, and respect for sexual health.”
On all of these YouTube channels, the subject of abortion appears, being part of the consequences of being sexually active while being capable of getting pregnant. The idea of giving birth and having a child is easy to talk about, but when it comes to someone that doesn’t want or can’t keep the baby because of various motifs, things are completely different.
In Romania, there are approximately 220 hospitals that have a gynecology ward/outpatient clinic where abortions can theoretically be performed on demand. The FILIA Center team contacted 112 of them that theoretically make abortions, making an investigation about the way that women were treated during the lockdown. Out of that, only 12 hospitals (11%) perform abortions on request, but in most cases only if the pregnancy exceeded 12 weeks; none of the above hospitals was from Bucharest.
Libertatea tried to call different clinics and hospitals from Bucharest, to see if there are any variants for women that need an abortion and no one was performing one. Even if in Romania having a pregnancy interruption is legal, The College of Physicians Code of Medical Ethics allows doctors to deny them this right. The Polizu Maternity Hospital said: „There are no terminations of pregnancy during this period, call us after Easter, if anything changes, we will tell you”. This response is frequently met in Romania, a country where religion dictates and there is no sex education in schools.
FILIA also contacted 42 clinics, hospitals, and private health networks. 5 of them were closed, 10 of them do not have the necessary medical infrastructure for an abortion, in 2 of them, medical abortion can be done and in 5 of them, abortions on demand could be performed.
The research showed that three large health networks in Romania do not perform terminations of pregnancy on demand: REGINA MARIA – Private Health Network, Sanad, and Medicover Romania. In Bucharest, the only private hospital FILIA was able to get in touch with that provides abortions is Medlife.
Marie Stopes is one of the clinics that the FILIA Center turns to when beneficiaries in difficulty come to it. Andrada Cilibiu tells about a woman from Somalia, who arrived as a refugee on Romanian territory and who became pregnant as a result of a rape while passing through Turkey.
„She wanted to have an abortion. Had no money, and no one performed abortions in Galați either. I talked to the girls at Marie Stopes and they agreed to take her in, but in the last talk with her she said she was going to keep the pregnancy for religious reasons. I understand her choice, she is part of a completely different cultural background. It was a very difficult decision for her, clearly. At this point, he probably has a week or two to change his mind. But, if she did not want to keep the pregnancy and she was alone in Galati, she would not have had any possibility to have an abortion”
The president of the Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Romania, Radu Vladareanu, also confirms that empirical abortion has become a reality again, even if, for now, there are no centralized data to show us its extent.
„We have no data on anything in Romania, but from discussions with colleagues, it emerged that they met people with situations, in the past, in which septic-induced abortion was profitable and there were deaths that I think can be attributed to this situation. We also had, in the hospital where I work, a few situations that could have been included here. And unfortunately, one or two cases resulted in death. They came very late and in some states in which, with all the intensive care support, they could not survive”, he says. „It is hard to understand how, in a country that was decimated by this ban on abortion, it came to this situation again”
Adds D.r Vladareanu. Iustina Ionescu, human rights lawyer makes some affirmations too.
“Not being able to terminate a pregnancy on time is an abuse, in which patients are violated not only their right to health but also their right not to be discriminated against as women, given that we are talking about services that are needed exclusively among women. Even if the Ministry of Health and other institutions had the information regarding this practice during the pandemic, I do not know that measures were taken to correct things (for example, by expanding the use of medical abortion during the pandemic, as was done in the Republic of Moldova); therefore, Romanian women remained completely unprotected, even more so, as there is no precedent in the judiciary on this topic”
The problem is that even though theoretically women can ask for an abortion, it is hard to find someone willing to perform it. There are a lot of options, the thing is that it is necessary to have people that want to help, do and change things. As other countries could (eg. The Republic of Moldova was in lockdown when they used telemedicine or other European countries that did the same; Estonia and Finland, two of the few countries that „have strengthened their teachers’ competencies and skills by making the teaching of sexuality education part of the teacher-training curriculum at colleges and universities.”
Sexual education might help in Romania’s situation with teen moms: if the contraception methods would be known by everybody, there wouldn’t be as many teen moms or needs for abortions as they are now.
Education is key. Without it, life’s doors can’t be opened.
Mariqquri 
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