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Description
Civic education is a neglected subject in our education system. The effects are visible in the results of the 2018/2019 Romanian Youth Survey conducted by FES Foundation, which shows that young people in Romania manifest a low level of political participation, only 25%, the lowest level in the SE Europe region, and they also show a low interest in future participation. Also, none of the subjects taught in high school or secondary school approach the subject of worker’s rights. Young people are not informed that they can organise democratically and get actively involved in collective action to defend their rights and interests.
The project proposes a national advocacy campaign, led by young people (final year pupils and students), to introduce rights at work into the school curriculum. The project therefore responds to a double need: a) to involve young people in civic activities and b) to improve civic education in Romania.
The advocacy campaign for the introduction of these notions in the school curriculum will be an example of youth organisation and involvement. Together with the project partners (ISJ, high schools, student associations), we will organize an information campaign on your rights at the workplace in at least 15 high schools and 5 student organizations involving 1500 pupils or students. Of these, 150 will participate in 2 online workshops, from which we will select 20 people to take part in a 5-day bootcamp. At the end of the camp, young people will form a civic action group, which, together with us and our partners, will write handbooks for teachers and young people containing all the important elements on rights at work and will develop and participate in the national advocacy campaign for curriculum change. The campaign will have its own online platform, specifically designed to facilitate organisation.
Summary of project results
The project "Active students = future active citizens and respected workers" brought to the forefront of public educational debates a little-known topic among high school students and young people in Romania: knowledge of their rights at the workplace. The context mentioned by the Promoter was that after finishing their studies and in the process of integration into the labor market, young people can encounter a series of problems in their relationship with employers, therefore they need the information to know and confront the situations. Starting from this need, the Promoter mainly proposed carrying out a civic campaign among the decision-makers in the field of education to introduce notions related to the rights to work to employers into the school curriculum. To achieve this objective, in addition to management activities, the project targeted a number of 4 activities: (1) carrying out a study regarding young people at work, (2) developing an online platform dedicated to the subject, (3) training a civic action group and (4) running a national advocacy campaign to actively involve young people (pupils and students) in a national campaign to include in the school curriculum the elements of education regarding rights at work and to thus ensuring the necessary information for them before entering the labor market.
Even if the level of civic knowledge has increased in Romania in recent years, the participation of young people in decision-making is still insignificant. Many aspects related to elementary civic education are far too easily debated or even overlooked in schools and high schools (by teachers and parents), which leads to an increase in the vulnerability of young people who, after finishing their studies or early termination of to them, I propose to engage. That''s why the Promoter trained more than 1500 students from high schools in Romania, 11th and 12th graders, with basic notions and civic tools, with an emphasis on employee rights, and then managed to activate those who want to continue the deepening of the subject in a campaign to convince the public authorities with attributions in the field of the need to study these rights and citizenship instruments at high school.
In order to have the most recent information about the perception of young people on the subject of the project, the Promoter carried out within Activity 3 - a study on young people at work - which included a representative national survey on a sample of 1500 young people aged between between 16 and 34 years old. The survey analysis - which can be found here - https://cedrepturiam.ro/drepturile-la-locul-de-munca-ghid-pentru-angajati/ - was later translated into a guide on the rights of individuals at work, a guide whose purpose is to help prevent abuse and exploitation of labor. The guide also addresses topics about employees'' rights (paid vacations, sick leaves, maternity, the right to compensation, employment conditions, etc.), the topic of trade unions, training and improvement of the workforce, etc. The guide/study was publicly launched during a debate that took place at the Gheorghe Lazar National College with the participation of over 80 people.
As part of Activity 4 - Development and use of the online platform - the Promoter created an online platform - https://cedrepturiam.ro/ which contains a blog area, thematic resources and the possibility to sign petitions. The platform was built around the theme of the project - people''s rights at work - but, according to what was mentioned by the Promoter, it will be able to be used later for other similar campaigns.
Activity 5 - The formation of the civic action group - involved the development of an information campaign in the 17 selected / partner high schools and faculties in Bucharest, Ilfov, and Ialomita counties with the participation of 2200 pupils and students. Later, 15 advocacy workshops were organized with 214 people and 15 seminars on workplace rights with 118 people. Finally, the formation of the civic action group took place after a summer camp-type event attended by 20 young people selected before. During the camp, the premises of the advocacy campaign and of a plan for its realization were realized. Also within the activity, 2 guides were developed - (1) on advocacy tools and (2) on rights at the workplace.
As part of A6 - Advocacy Campaign - a national petition "We want education about rights at the workplace" was carried out to support the introduction of elements regarding rights at the workplace in the school curriculum, a petition that gathered 1240 signatures; (2) 8 public events (including 2 public consultations) with a total of 347 participants in Bucharest, Ilfov, Ialomita, and Brasov; (3) a policy brief was drawn up which can be found on the website at https://cedrepturiam.ro/resurse/); (4) and actions were taken to monitor public authorities and political decision-makers regarding how they relate to the rights of young people at the workplace. These actions took shape in the opinion articles on the project platform and in the development of the 11 videos from the advocacy campaign; (5) sent 5 requests for data and public information to the Ministry of Education and the Territorial Labor Inspectorate, as well as 2 public hearings at the National Center for Policies and Evaluation in Education within the Ministry of Education and one at the National Trade Union Bloc for the presentation of the central theme of the campaign; (6) in the end, 2 workshops were held with teachers from the high schools of Ilfov and Ialomita regarding rights at the workplace, events requested by the project partners and not initially provided for in the funding request.
The project aimed at actively involving young people in a national advocacy campaign to include elements of labor rights education in the school curriculum and ensure minimal information for young individuals before entering the job market. The activities focused on four major, interdependent lines: the first step involved a study titled "Youth in the Romanian Labor Market," which mapped the challenges youth face at work and the perspectives of organizing for young people. We proceeded to form a civic action group by conducting 18 informative workshops in high schools and universities in Bucharest, Ilfov, and Ialomita, with a total of more than 2200 participants. They learned about the importance of knowing their rights and were invited to participate in 15 advocacy workshops (with a total of 214 participants) and 15 workshops on workplace rights (118 participants). Thirty-two participants applied to the project''s summer camp with a motivation letter, and 20 young people were selected to engage in 5 days of intensive workshops for the development of the advocacy campaign. Simultaneously, we created the cedrepturiam.ro platform where various resources were published, including workshop kits, the study developed in the project, 26 articles from youth engaged in the project and experts in various fields. In the advocacy campaign, we organized 8 events with 347 participants, submitted 5 requests for public information, conducted 2 consultations, developed a policy brief, participated in 2 hearings at institutions, and carried out canvassing activities and signature collection for the petition "We Want Education on Workplace Rights," which garnered 1240 signatories. As a result, we reached over 2900 participants who were informed and engaged in activities related to labor rights and obtained an acknowledgment from the Ministry of Education regarding the future school curriculum.