In order to strengthen European values the EU has to invest in citizenship education.
VALUES UNITE
An Initiative advocating the establishment of a
European Agency for Citizenship Education
Our goal is to preserve European values and thereby social and European cohesion.
Several EU member states breach European values such as the rule of law or the protection of minorities. However, common values are a prerequisite for successful cooperation in the EU, as they create mutual trust beyond differing political interests and positions. European values are best protected by well-informed and engaged EU citizens. We can only secure democracy and the rule of law in the EU if citizens have a good understand of political issues and a strong awareness of these common values. This is why Europe needs to invest in citizenship education and support regions and member states, where we lack sufficient formal, non-formal and informal citizenship education.
Our Proposal
Main
Objectives
Access
Ensure equal access to citizenship education in order to ensure equal political participation.
Quality
Improve the quality of citizenship education across all EU member states.
Innovation & digitalisation
Foster innovative and digital learning methods in citizenship education.
Guiding principles
European
The agency focuses on European values as set out in Article 2 TEU and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Non-partisan
The agency is non-partisan. It provides balanced information on different political, social and scientific positions on the relevant issues from across Europe.
Demand-oriented
Citizenship education is fostered where there is a lack of or insufficient access to formal, non- and informal citizenship education. Existing structures for citizenship education are complemented, not duplicated or replaced.
Impact-oriented
Education programmes, content and methods should be oriented towards their target groups and cover the needs of various section of the population. The impact of the proposed programmes of the agency are monitored and evaluated on a rolling basis.
Sustainable
The agency fosters citizenship education and political participation across European member states sustainably. This requires long-term structures and educational programmes.
Main
Tasks
Research & monitoring
Provide long-term research and monitoring on citizenship education in the EU. The agency should publish an annual report analysing the state of citizenship education across the EU27 and give recommendations to each member state as to how to improve quality and access to citizenship education.
Capacity-building
Provide capacity-building programmes on citizenship education for a range of different stakeholders and providing support on content and (digital) methods.
Grant-making mechanism
Establish and coordinate a grant-making mechanism for non-formal and informal citizenship education, supporting civil society across the EU that seeks to promote European values.
Mutual learning and exchange of good practices
Establish a platform for mutual learning and the exchange of good practices for educators from across Europe.
Teaching materials and practices
Provide teaching materials and practices on citizenship education for all age groups and in all EU languages in order to support citizenship education. This way, educators from across the EU will be supported through a large database of materials to use both in the classroom, but also in other (non- and informal) educational settings.
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You support the proposal for a European Agency for Citizenship Education or you have feedback or thoughts on it, you would like to share with us? Please get in touch!
info@valuesunite.eu
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