Civic Education: Macedonia's Path to a Civil Society
In September of 1998 Catholic Relief Service Macedonia (CRS), in partnership with the Macedonia Ministry of Education/Bureau of Education Development began implementing the USAID funded Civic Education project. This project assists Macedonia's first steps in the long-term process of educating children and parents about the important role they have to play in the development of civil society and training them in the skills and knowledge needed to exercise their civic rights and duties. The program works with teachers, school management staff, parent councils and government officials to introduce and implement the Foundations of Democracy civic education curriculum to students in kindergarten and grades 1-4 and the Project Citizen Civic Education Curriculum to students in grades 5-6.
To date the civic education curricula have been introduced in all elementary schools in Macedonia. By September 2003, all Macedonian teachers in kindergarten and elementary school will have received in-service teacher training on the methodology and teaching of the civic education curricula and will be able to provide instruction in civic education for future generations of Macedonians.
Foundations of Democracy Program
To date the civic education curricula have been introduced in all elementary schools in Macedonia. By September 2003, all Macedonian teachers in kindergarten and elementary school will have received in-service teacher training on the methodology and teaching of the civic education curricula and will be able to provide instruction in civic education for future generations of Macedonians.
With the Foundations of Democracy curriculum for kindergarten and grades 1-4, students are introduced to the concepts of authority, privacy, responsibility, justice, tolerance and cultural understanding. With the Project Citizen curriculum for grades 5-6, students choose a public policy issue in their school or community, develop an action plan and assemble a portfolio displaying their work. In a number of cases, students have gained community and local government support and have resolved the problem. Project Citizen supported competitions across Macedonia in which the students showed how they had dealt with their chosen problem.
Civic education textbooks have been produced for students and teachers in kindergarten and grades 1-6 in Macedonian, Albanian and Turkish. The textbooks were produced through modification and local adaptation of civic education materials developed by Center for Civic Education, USA. In addition, a civic education textbook for grades 5 and 6 students was developed locally by the Bureau of Education Development and published for 34,400 students.
Student Competition
This textbook introduces the structure of Macedonian schools, local and national government and further supports citizen awareness, understanding and opportunities to participate in public policy decision-making. Also a civic education newsletter Civic Education Today is published and distributed to all primary schools in Macedonia in Macedonian, Albanian and Turkish.
Civic Education project activities also include workshops and seminars for parent council members introducing civic education reform and methodology. To date 340 parent councils have been introduced to the civic education program to increase awareness and motivation to support their children in learning civic education.
Through the Civic Education project, USAID and CRS have also helped the Bureau of Education Development set up standards and tools for measuring students' achievement in civic education. Standards implementation is currently in the pilot phase.
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