Romania - Secondary Education Project

Overview & Synopsis

Ratings for the Secondary Education Project for Romania were as follows: outcome was moderately satisfactory, Bank performance was moderately satisfactory, and monitoring and evaluation quality was substantial. Some of the lessons learned include: support that is both targeted and context-specific can be more effective in addressing the needs of disadvantaged students than unconditional support. Effective support for disadvantaged students requires clearly defined selection criteria that consider socioeconomic status, geographic location, ethnic minority background, and special education needs. To address the multiple factors influencing student success, interventions should combine academic support with social, extracurricular, and community-based activities. The school grant played a critical role in this approach, empowering high schools to identify the specific challenges that their students faced and to implement targeted, context-specific interventions to support student achievement and progression. Supporting students during key educational transitions, particularly from secondary to tertiary education, is essential to reducing the likelihood that students will drop out of school and to improve retention rates. Programs such as the summer bridge courses, academic counseling, and mentorship tailored to vulnerable groups foster continued engagement in education and are associated with important and positive long-term outcomes. Embedding evaluation mechanisms within project interventions strengthens the ability to assess effectiveness and inform evidence-based decision-making. For instance, surveys conducted on the Bridge Program provided valuable insights into its effectiveness in supporting students’ transition to tertiary education. These practices fostered a strong results culture and should be considered as good practice for future operations aiming to generate actionable evidence and improve accountability.