Although intercultural learning must take place within society as a whole, there is little doubt that intercultural education is a priority in the education of young people and children.

Intercultural education with children and young people works in two major ways:

• to help them gain the capacity to recognise inequality, injustice, racism, stereotypes and prejudices
• to give them the knowledge and the abilities which will help them to challenge and to try to change these mechanisms whenever they have to face them in society
• to know and recognise human rights as universal values and aspirations.
   

Educational approaches both within and outside schools are tremendously important. How we refer to these approaches depends a lot on context. Additionally, it is also “true” that one can find more formal methods in out-of-school education, (a lecture, an input session, written exercises, etc.) just as more informal methods can also be found in schools, (working in project groups, using the local environment, etc.). When this Education Pack was first written in 1995, we were used to differentiating between formal and informal education – it was relatively rare to talk of “non-formal education / learning”. The debate has moved on, and informal education is now more often referred to when talking about non-planned learning situations, such as in the family, on a bus, or talking with friends. What’s more, non-formal education / learning has become increasingly recognised as essential in life-learning processes, complementary to (and sometimes replacing) formal education processes.

Challenges facing educational systems today and the need for complementarity between formal and non-formal education are outlined in the chapter in Compass on Education.