Analysis on the vulnerabilities of middle school students in Mehedinți county

Abstract. This research is part of the “Sustainable social and educational integration through sports activities” project, which aims to increase the school attendance rate and the transit rate to ISCED level 3. Mehedinți county presents a lot of vulnerabilities for middle school students. The purpose of the current study is to emphasise the structure of vulnerabilities for the middle school population from this Romanian county. The identified vulnerabilities were structured in eight categories, namely: Roma students, students with one or both parents working abroad, remigrated students, students from disorganised or single-parent families, students raised in foster care, students who are children of immigrants or refugees in Romania, students with a degree of disability and students at risk of early school dropout. This applied research was conducted over a period of 2 years. The participants are 170 students (93 boys and 77 girls) from two schools in rural areas, who have a moderate ISCED level. The methods used in this study are: literature review, survey, mathematical and statistical method, graphical method. The research results identify the structure of vulnerabilities affecting the middle school population in Mehedinți county. The research provides a deep insight into the social challenges faced by the lower secondary population in rural areas.