Graduates of residential institutions encouraged to continue studies

17% of the almost 800 young people who have graduated from residential education institutions this year chose to return home, while the others applied to high schools and vocational schools. The education system encourages the young people from the residential system to continue their studies for a better social inclusion in the future, Education Ministry expert Virginia Rusnac has told Info-Prim Neo. According to the expert, the young people who choose vocational schools are helped by nongovernmental organizations that offer them scholarships and by the Education Ministry. The students who are orphans or who are under guardianship receive a lump-sum payment of 5,000 lei when they graduate from the residential institution. When they finish a vocational school, a college or a higher education establishment, they get another lump sum of 10,000 lei. The children with mental disabilities from auxiliary institutions can continue their studies for a year within a vocational class to lean such skills as wood processing and osier weaving. “The auxiliary institutions support those who want to study as the social inclusion percentage is much higher when the young people learn skills for a job and can do qualified work,” said Virginia Rusnac. Almost 6,500 young people graduated from the residential institutions of the Education Ministry in 2007 – 2012.