News Archive

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.

On November 11-12 EWC welcomed a delegation led by Ukraine’s Minister of Education and Science, Hanna Novosad. The purpose of the visit was to get familiar with the Norwegian pre-school system, as Ukraine is planning to develop a new strategy for this sector.

EWC expanded the “Schools for Democracy” pool of trainers in Ukraine by welcoming 14 new members at the Training of Trainers conducted 12-15 August in Kyiv.

EWC is proud to congratulate our Schools for Democracy trainer Natalia Kidalova on winning the Global Teacher Prize Ukraine 2019.

Entering into its fifth programme cycle, more than 300 schools now take part in the Schools for Democracy network in Ukraine.

Konotop City Council members and gymnasium students decided on the future of “Dignity Land” together. According to the rules of an educational game, students and local officials from Konotop in Ukraine became members of a parliament of an imaginary country

A small village school from Dnipropetrovsk region stopped demanding pointless obedience from their students and instead encouraged active participation, bringing up responsible pupils.

Before joining the Schools for Democracy Programme Bilozirya secondary school did not experience close cooperation with parents and other members of the local community. The school followed its own routines without involving outsiders. Most decisions were made by the administration.

Within the project “Preparing Future Teachers in the Western Balkans”, a network of universities including various faculties such as natural science, mathematics and pedagogy from six Western Balkan countries has been set up by EWC in 2019.

The UNDP Rabat is implementing a programme promoting tolerance, citizenship and civic education across schools in Morocco. EWC contributes to the programme with our expertise from working with teachers and youth leaders for the promotion of citizenship, tolerance and democracy

The national networks of practice schools with mentors play a significant role in the project. The goal is that all students get to spend at least 20% of the course practicing teaching in real-life classrooms.

One key endeavor of the project is to develop new and innovative teacher education modules emphasizing practice-oriented teaching, promoting democracy and human rights.

“The most positive thing about the new quality criteria for schools is that it outlines a comprehensive system for quality assurance, instead of measuring results only. This helps identify positive developments as well as shortcomings to work on”.