Today, the second group of the project is going to job shadowing to Warsaw. It is organised by the Center for Educational Initiatives (Lviv) and Civis Polonius Foundation (Warsaw) within the EU Erasmus+ Youth KA2 Project. Five educators from Lviv, Volyn, Ternopil, Khmelnytsky and Poltava regions will learn the experience and work of Fundacja Civis Polonus (Warsaw) during 2 weeks.
Three people from this group represent educational institutions that participated in he Schools for Democracy Programme. Sergiy Kutinets, principle of a rural school from Zaliznytsa village says that the school makes the efforts in using non-formal education methods and sets cooperation with parents and representatives of local community. Svitlana Minchenko Pentsak from Ternopil Secondary School # 28 told how, at the beginning of her participation in the Schools for Democracy Program, the school staff were afraid to realistically assess the situation in their school. However, after a year on the final assessment, the mood was completely different - it became clear that hiding problems would not solve them. Therefore, in the final assessment, the school in some cases set itself at a lower level than at the initial one. Now we are looking forward for cooperation with NGOs and youth workers, as the assessment clearly shows the need for development of civic competences of students in partnersh with different institutions. Obviously, such reassessment was taking place in other schools participating in the program, said coordinator Olena Shynarovska. Schools throughout the program are deepening their understanding of democratic principles and, in particular, become more self-critical and open to discuss their problems.
According to the project design all participants will conduct a series of activities in Ukraine to disseminate the experience gained during job shadowings. The plans also include the development of exercises and lessons for the development of civic competences in cooperation with youth workers that will be available in the online toolbox, a moderated depository of various teaching and learning tools. The materials proposed and developed for the project participants will, in particular, focus on synergies between formal and non-formal education in civic competences development.