Address: #19 V.Nozadze Str.

Country: Georgia

 School website

Project: Summer camp ,, Education for Democracy”

Working language during the project: 

• Georgian
   

Themes of the Council of Europe campaign “FREE to SPEAK, SAFE to LEARN - Democratic Schools for All” covered:

• Making children’s and students’ voices heard
• Preventing violence and bullying
• Dealing with propaganda, misinformation and fake news
• Tackling discrimination
   

Competences from the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (CDC) addressed and where / how they were integrated:

• Valuing human dignity and human rights
  First day activity: Making Human rights poster using old magazines.
  Game: ”Lost Rights”, students have half a part of a human right and have to find the other part.
• Analytical and critical thinking skills
  Conflict- resolution skills
  During school students had discussions, debates and presentations about different topics: conflict, bullying, stereotypes and democracy.
• Openness to cultural otherness and to other beliefs, world views and practices
  During summer school, trainers used role play, watching short videos, making posters and videos about equality
   

Target group age range:

• 15-19
   

Level of education:

• Upper secondary education

Short description of the project:

The summer school lasted for five days, during which participants discussed with their trainers topics such as: Human Rights, Stereotypes and prejudices, Equality, Conflict and Bulling and Democracy – achievements and challenges. Participants also discussed the strategies of effective communication during conflict situations and planned action projects to create a democratic culture in their schools.

25 participants were students who came from Sachkhereand tried to resolve the issues critical for their schools and communities, they led civic-minded projects and participated in initiatives together with their peers. In daily trainings they learnt how to think critically, how to plan the initiatives and projects, how to become more active in the decision-making process, how to become more sociable with the help of group work, presentations, simulations and role play.

A camp helped students to learn more about civic activism and planning and implementing civic initiatives. The trainings conducted in the camp helped students to improve their presentation and communication skills and to learn how to advocate for themselves and their communities. School also offered activities for fun and leisure. Day leaders, who were former students, assisted the trainers.

Aims/objectives

• To create a “Civic Culture of Learning” in our school, where teachers and all staff lead a joint effort to study, discuss, and enact educational policies.
• To improve civility school wide, civic norms, heightened participation in extra-curriculars, connections to outside class civic activities, etc.
• To get students excited about deepening and extending their own personal set of core values, beliefs and principles on important issues of justice, ethics, and morality.
• To help students develop their unique civic identities and to apply their personal principles and beliefs on civic duty in solving social and political problems locally, nationally, and internationally.

Expected results/outcomes

As the result of project 25 students

• Learnt to become responsible citizens not only through study in the classroom, but also through being given the opportunity to learn from experience.
• Understood how stereotypes and prejudices are linked and how they may lead to unfair views of individuals, groups of people and whole countries.
• Learnt to recognise and analyse situations where human rights are in conflict and developed critical thinking about the acceptability of the use of violence and about personal behaviour.
• Learnt to express their own opinions on a topic and offer justifications for these views
• Planned 4 projects to support the establishment of a democratic culture in their schools.
• Filmed 4 videos on democratic values and made thematical posters.

Changes

• According students feedback we were changing the agenda

Challenges you faced

• At the very beginning students were confused and had difficulties to express their opinions honestly. Some of them tried not to be active during discussions and presentations.

Time-frame of the project:

The duration of project was 3 weeks, comprising a 2-week planning period (1-14 July) and 5-day implemention period (15 July to 20 July). 

Council of Europe materials on citizenship and human rights education used while preparing or implementing your practice:

• Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture
• Living Democracy - manuals for teachers
• Compasito