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Description
The issues addressed by the project, confirmed by studies, are: civic education is not taught or is improperly taught in schools, though it is essential for civic responsibility, respect, empathy. Human rights and nondiscrimination are almost inexistent in the educational discourse. In Romanian highschools, the practical approach in teaching civic education and human rights is missing and the opportunities for civic engagement are lacking; teaching is traditional, without a focus on critical thinking. There are even less opportunities in small communities and rural areas. The aim of the project is to contribute to the improvement of civic and human rights education for young people (14-18 years old) from small urban communities (Buzau, Calarasi, Dambovita, Giurgiu, Teleorman counties). The project seeks to support young people to become more involved in their communities, raising awareness of their important role in changing the status quo, their knowledge about their civic rights and their capacity to use local community resources. Activities and direct beneficiaries: - 400 students involved in interactive needs assessment workshops - 60 teachers involved in needs assessment focus groups - 20 head teachers will receive training on the basis of a special program of teaching civic education and human rights developed in the project; they will use it to teach their students during educational classes - 400 students will benefit from 16 hours of civic and human rights education, delivered by these head teachers - Min. 200 students (out of the 400) will be directly involved in community participation activites (volunteering, public human rights campaing, treasure hunt) Indirect beneficiaries: local institutions/NGOs, media, decision-makers in education. The added value of the Partner is the experience in creating and implementing innovative educational projects for children and young people.
Summary of project results
The issues addressed by the project were: civic education is improperly taught in schools, though it is essential for civic responsibility, respect, empathy. The aim of the project was to contribute to the improvement of civic and human rights education for young people
During the project, were selected the 10 partner high schools and organized activities in order to analyse the communities’s needs through the focus group method, with the participation of 411 students and 71 teachers. Ten community needs assessment reports were used in developing a teacher training program covering four topics: Train-the-Trainer, Human Rights, Civic Education, and Media Literacy. 20 teachers participated in the training sessions. The project team incorporated the teachers’ feedback and finalized lesson plans, worksheets, and support materials to facilitate activities with students. The SCOP program was implemented across three domains: Human Rights, Civic Education, and Media Literacy, led by 24 teachers for a total of 532 students. In the final stage, each high school hosted activities including Volunteering with SCOP, Community with SCOP (where students prepared an information campaign on human rights), and the SCOP Race (a ‘treasure hunt’ to explore community resources), involving 219 students and 13 teachers. 5 events were organized to present the results, with 93 participants. The material (activities sheets, support materials, videos) were posted in the project’s dedicated section on the website’s page.
This project created an example for integrating civic education into high school curricula, developed tools and training for teachers, and directly engaged students in related activities.