Citizenship education needs ‘democratic schools’, stakeholders say

 

While a common curriculum could help harmonise citizenship education across the bloc,  transforming young people into active citizens requires “democratically structured schools”, stakeholders said, warning not to put the responsibility solely on teachers.

“We have common values, and we share them, but there’s no harmonisation on teaching them,” Patrick Tardy, high school teacher at Lycée des Métiers Roland Garros in Toulouse, told EURACTIV.

Tardy proposed a standard European curriculum on EU democratic values to solve the discrepancy in citizenship education across the bloc.

“Teaching a curriculum enlarged to the 27 member states would be a good idea because it would allow students across borders to work together on common projects, such as a twinning project.”

In his view, a standard curriculum across the bloc could also help boost civic education, which too often depends on the teacher’s engagement and motivation. (...)