Address: 28, Turhenivska str, Irpin, Kyiv region

Country: Ukraine
 

Project: M 18 (voting for children)
 

Working language during the project:

  • Ukrainian
     

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
     

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

  • Analytical and critical thinking skills
    Students learn the candidates’ programmes, analyse them and choose the best one
  • Civic-mindedness
    Children became more active in making decisions and more responsible for their future.
  • Valuing democracy, justice, fairness, equality and the rule of law.
    Students play the election model, learning about the right to vote, which is one of the fundamental democratic rights.
     

Target group age range:

  • 5-11
  • 11-15
  • 15-19
     

Level of education:

  • Primary education
  • Lower secondary education
  • Upper secondary education
     

Short description of the project:

Aims/objectives

The goal of the project is to help children and youth under the age of 18 (without the right to vote), to understand the essence of the basic mechanism of democracy - the election - through modelling the election and the voting process, teaching them to distinguish between party and election programmes, a thorough evaluation of the promises of politicians and in practice see polling stations. Children voted for Irpin mayor, political parties and now they are going to vote for the President of Ukraine.
 

Expected results/outcomes

Raise the level of youth activity in the social and political life of the country.
 

Changes

Children became more active and responsible for the future of their country. They understood the importance of election voting, persuading their parents not to be passive, to participate in President’s elections, to change the country for better .
 

Challenges you faced

There were no problems with the children or parents, but a lot of problems with other adults from our city, who blame us for political and democratic education not being a good project for schools.
 

Time-frame of the project:

2015-2019.
 

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

  • Compass