[hr-education] Citizenship education in Croatia: "I vote for the first time"

Dear colleagues,

We have experience with high school students in our project "I vote for
the first time". For the purpose of encouraging young people to
participate in political and democratic life in Croatia -- in accordance
with one of its fundamental goals: education of citizens about their
rights and responsibilities -- four years ago we designed a project in
which final year high school students would be facilitated in getting
involved in the political and democratic process in Croatia. Main goal of
our project is holding workshops titled "I Vote for the First Time" in
final year high school classes throughout Croatia dealing with the topic
of democracy, political system, right to vote, election law and election
process.

Considering that final year students are turning 18 years of age and thus
acquiring the passive and active right to vote, our aspiration is to
additionally inform and discuss with young voters about their rights as
well as the value of participation in democratic processes. In the five
years of the implementation of the project in all parts of Croatia 82,000
high school seniors took part in 2904 workshops. Out of 365 high schools
in Croatia, 272 high schools and grammar schools took part in the project,
which comes to 75% of the total number of high schools in Croatia.

More information about the Project you can find on www.gong.hr

Have a nice day and good luck with your fine work!

Vlatka Svedruzic
GONG



On 10 March 2005, Dan Schreiber wrote:

>In the context of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz,
>the Belgian Federal government has recently launched a pilot project,
>called "Schools for Democracy". It involves an educational programme for
>children in their last year of primary school and for high-school
>seniors (in two separate programmes) about the teachings of the
>Holocaust from the perspective of its contemporary relevance. The aim is
>to promote the values of respect, citizenship and global responsibility.
>
>Each of the two groups (300 primary school pupils, and 300 high-school
>students) should reflect the diversity of the Belgian school population.
>In other words, the represented backgrounds of the participating classes
>should include the two large language communities, the two main
>educational curricular structures (general and professional), and
>pluralism in some other dimensions deemed relevant. This setup should
>reinforce the educational programme's content in terms of tolerance and
>respect.
>
>For both groups, the programme involves three to four encounters of the
>participating classes, and a day visit to Auschwitz (for the high-school
>seniors) and to the Malines/Mechelen deportation camp (for the primary
>school children), accompanied by experienced guides.

<snip>



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