News Archive

Due to national regulations on Covid-19 infection control, The European Wergeland Centre had to postpone all education activities at Utøya island this spring. As Norwegian society is gradually reopening and restrictions are being lifted, we can finally welcome students and teachers at Utøya again.

The Council of Europes’ Reference Framework for Democratic Culture (RFCDC) held a central role when EWC presented experiences from the Schools for Democracy project in Ukraine, and how they have dealt with the challenges presented by the covid-19 pandemic, at an international e-conference promoting European ideas in education in early June.

In June, EWC organized and hosted four webinars as well as one major conference via online platforms, gathering dedicated participants from across Europe.

The European Wergeland Centre Secretariat has now a new organizational structure in place.

EWC’s project “Democracy Workshops” will host its first workshops this fall after the government has decided to open up for activities aimed at children and youth in Norway.

Around 240 participants gathered for the online national conference “Schools for Democracy” in Ukraine June 24.

When Greek schools closed in early March because of the pandemic, 18 schools already participated in the piloting phase of the EWC project “Schools for All – Integration of Refugee Children in Greek Schools”. Despite being temporarily interrupted in their efforts, schools report on positive results.

Executive Director Ana Perona-Fjeldstad participated at a virtual UNESCO expert meeting on “Education as a Tool for Prevention: Addressing and Countering Hate Speech” May 13-14. 2020. At the meeting experts discussed recommendations ahead of the upcoming Global Education Ministers Conference and Multi-stakeholder Forum on addressing and countering hate speech through education.

With an aim to build a common understanding of the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values students’ needs in the 21st century, the OECD Future of Education and Skills 2030 hosted its first global forum in mid-May. As part of the multi-stakeholder focus group, EWC took part in the virtual workshop “overcoming challenges in curriculum delivery during school closures and transition back to school”.

When project activities were postponed due to the corona pandemic, the project team started to look into the possibility to move parts of the “Preparing Future Teachers in the Western Balkans” project online.

Together with Utøya, EWC is developing a new online learning platform within the framework of the “Democracy Workshops” Project.

EWC’s Schools for Democracy in Ukraine moved the training of 120 schools online due to the current outbreak of the corona virus. Work has also been intensified on a Massive Open Online Course on «How to build a democratic school», which will hopefully be launched in June.

In this interview Executive Director Ana Perona-Fjeldstad gives an update on how EWC has been handling the corona pandemic. She also talks about which challenges she sees today and in the time to come, as well as the importance of education for democratic citizenship and human rights education to ensure that this health crisis does not become a democracy crisis.

When faced with restrictions and rules of social distancing due to the outbreak of the Corona virus, partners and participants of the EWC project “Preparing Future Teachers in the Western Balkans” have come together to offer each other support and find alternative ways of continuing with the project implementation.

The national curriculum in Ukraine is on track to be approved this summer. In early March a draft was submitted for public hearing, resulting in 434 suggestions.

Practical proposals for a new Ukrainian school
Ukrainian education professionals developed practical proposals for schools to develop competences for democratic culture using the Council of Europe tools during a round table conference in 2016.

On 9 December 2016 in Kyiv, Ukraine, EWC together with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine co-organized the round table conference “Democracy and Human rights in the New Ukrainian School”. The conference gathered over 80 participants – experts and educators from different regions of Ukraine, and the National Trainer Network of the EWCs Schools for Democracy Programme.

EWC and The Norwegian University for Science and Technology (NTNU) are working together on developing new learning resources for educators to use when teaching about 22. July 2011 and democratic citizenship.

In 2019 EWC received a Certificate of appreciation in recognition of the long-lasting partnership, dedication and support in implementing educational reforms in the “New Ukrainian School”. The Ministry of Education and Science, who is a partner in “Schools for Democracy” program, also honored other donors supporting educational reforms in the country.