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Civic Education Study Tour

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EVENTS

Civic Education Study Tour

On 7 - 18 of April a group of educators from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tadzhykystan visited Kyiv in order to study the state of civic education system in Ukraine. On the guests' part, the trip was organised by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Academy for Educational Development in Kazakhstan (AED), on the Ukrainian part - by the Information-Analytical Centre for Pedagogical Innovations at the APS Institute of Means of Education.

Why was Ukraine chosen as a place for conducting this training programme? First of all, it's due to the fact that for the last ten years both the Middle Asian states and Ukraine have followed a very similar path. But Ukraine has achieved a lot more on the way to educational system democratisation, and its positive experience can be useful for the Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Tadzhyk officials and teachers to develop and improve educational systems in their countries.

The group of 10 was rather heterogeneous, both from the professional viewpoint and from the viewpoint of the participants' age and work experience. Among them there were representatives of ministries of education, directors of in-service teacher training institutes, school headmasters, teachers and NGO representatives. However, they were joined by enthusiasm, openness, great interest and good will. Another common feature of the guests was their sense of humour.

Diverse was the range of objectives the guests had while in Ukraine:

• to learn about the approaches to teaching civic education at Ukraine's secondary schools;
• to study how the civic education issues are presented in school curriculum and how the civic education curriculum reflects the country's political situation;
• to learn about the work of Ukrainian NGOs dealing with realisation of civic education programmes, about their co-operation with schools, educational authorities and the Ministry of Education.

• a visit to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and meeting with Deputy State Secretary G.G. Naumenko who told the study tour participants about the process of reforming the educational system in Ukraine and the Ministry's policy in the field of civic education, co-operation with NGOs in this field, and also answered the guests' numerous questions;
• a round table discussion "Civic Education in the System of Contemporary Knowledge" attended by officials, scholars, teachers, representatives of NGO involved in the development of the theory and practice of civic education at school. It enabled the hosts and guests to share their ideas and achievements as to what civic education at school should be like;
• lectures and training sessions during which the participants learned about theoretical development of the problem and its practical implementation into the content and methodology of separate civic education courses and extra curricular activities; and, at last,
• visits to educational institutions (secondary school N 4 in Brovary, secondary school N 48 in Kyiv, NaUKMA, Centre of Children's Creativity) and NGOs (Department of the Ukrainian Women Parliament).

Summing up the results of their two-week stay in Ukraine, the main thing stressed by the Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Tadzhyk educators (their Ukrainian colleagues completely agreed with them) was the need to develop and maintain systematic contacts between the countries at the level of ministries, educational institutions, and individual educators. As for the detailed analysis and evaluation of the acquired information the guests will be able to do it when they return to their work places.

On the eve of the departure we asked the participants to share their strongest impressions of the programme. Here are some of them:

"My participation in the civic education study tour enabled me to learn about the practical experience in civic education in Ukrainian educational establishments. Very useful was the Street Law training session conducted by O. I. Pometun, learning about approaches to the organisation of student training at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, practical experience of the teacher at school N 48 in Kyiv. This trip showed a big potential for co-operation in the field of education, particularly, civic education in the CIS countries". (V.O. Rassukhin, Headmaster of school N 17, Atyrau, Republic of Kazakhstan).

"I was very much impressed by the visit to school N 48 in the Shevchenko district in Kyiv. The headmaster of this "school of joy", energetic woman Maryana Ivanivna Bosenko, welcomed our delegations, and showed us around the school. There were unplanned meetings with pupils. We could see a great contribution of the teachers and administration to children's education. There created extremely comfortable conditions for pupils and teachers. I'd like to hope that the traditions of the school will be supported, developed, and enriched". (S.A. Gabak, history teacher, Kant, Kyrgyzstan).

"My strongest impression is the people we communicated with and, undoubtedly, Kyiv. The city aura influences a person in a very positive way. People here are open, hospitable and kind. It was very interesting to get the first-hand information on how Ukraine lives, in what direction its education develops. It is important that Ukraine has managed to keep a high level of education and its intellectual potential. I hope that this programme is not the last one, that it will become a start for wider and more active contacts, both professional and human. We have a lot in common: problems, activities, history. Thanks a lot!" (K.S. Iglikova, teacher at school N 29, Aktyubynck, Kazakhstan).

Svitlana Posnyak

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