Our activities on quality education

The Council of Europe’s numerous activities on education are organised to respond to this vision of quality education, which is very much in line with the aims of the targets for the Sustainable Development Goals, and more specifically the 7 targets and 3 means of implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 4.

The Council of Europe’s particular focus is on projects that contribute to building democratic and inclusive societies through the development of a culture of democracy, by promoting education for democratic citizenship and human rights education for all.

The Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC), for example, offers member States and their educational institutions guidelines for competences for democratic culture and intercultural dialogue and is intended for all levels of education. Activities on language learning are a key component, since language is crucial for enabling access to education and, in addition, fosters social competences and competences for democratic citizenship, such as inclusivity and valuing diversity. In addition, in 2023, the Education Department launched an initiative to develop a guidance document on implementing the RFCDC in the context of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). This initiative aims to support education systems in equipping learners with the necessary competences to take individual and collective democratic action in support of a low-carbon transition, sustainability and biodiversity preservation.

In recent years, the project on Digital Citizenship Education has been working to enable pupils and students to become competent digital citizens, able to participate actively and responsibly in democratic societies both online and offline. Through its co-operation and capacity-building programme, the Council of Europe offers tailored support to member States, individually or in groups, to identify and promote best practice across a range of education issues, allowing SDG4-related outcomes to be given more visible priority. Since 2018, for example, three specific programmes have targeted reducing poverty among vulnerable groups, such as Roma, supported by funding from EEA/Norway Grants.

 

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