There might be much uncertainty in Europe right now, but there is consensus over at least one thing. All European countries now teach Citizenship education.

Yesterday the European Commission published a report compiled on their behalf by the Eurydice network which showed all EU member states have integrated Citizenship education into their primary and secondary school curricula – albeit with different approaches. The Commission also highlights that improving teachers’ knowledge and skills for teaching Citizenship remains a challenge. England is identified as one of only two states (the other being Slovakia) that provides professional training for prospective specialist teachers.

Androulla Vassiliou, the Commissioner for Education said, “Citizenship education endows pupils with the necessary knowledge, skills and values to actively engage in society. We must encourage this because active participation is at the root of our democratic values” He went on, “We also need to put more emphasis on teacher training in this area so that young people are inspired to become active citizens.”

The report also finds that by encouraging democratic practices and participation through, for example, student councils and student representation on school governing bodies, there is an increased likelihood that young people will actively engage in social and political life.

This makes for interesting reading at a time when our government is still to announce its proposals for a revised National Curriculum and the future status of the subject of Citizenship. Last year the government also allowed the TDA (now the Teaching Agency) to cut the number of teaching training places available for future specialist Citizenship teachers in 2012 – a move slammed by those in Initial Teacher Education and which we wrote to Mr Gove about last year.

We call on Education Ministers to make a clear commitment to statutory Citizenship continuing in our National Curriculum and to support this with a proper allocation of places for teacher training. Citizenship is the only subject that teaches about government, democracy, law and the economy and develops skills of active citizenship. If we want to give our young people the best chance of making sense of the world around them and being properly prepared for life and work especially in these challenging times – then we must keep Citizenship.

Note:
The 2012 Eurydice report on Citizenship Education in Europe aims to capture how policies and measures relating to citizenship education have evolved over recent years in European countries. The report provides an overview of the state of play on five main topics: 1) Curriculum aims and organisation; 2) student and parent participation in schools; 3) school culture and student participation in society; 4) assessment and evaluation; and 5) support for teachers and school heads.

• Posted in News.
• You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
• You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
• This entry was posted on Friday, June 1st, 2012 at 10:13 am