Citizenship education
Learning at school and in society

EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY IN UKRAINE -EFDU

US-Ukraine

The EFDU aims to promote the democratic political culture. The central purpose of the project is to facilitate the introduction of Education for Democracy in the Ukrainian schools, more specifically in secondary school, grades 9-11.
The main outputs of the program are: the development and the implementation of a national policy and a curriculum on Education for Democracy, the design of teaching materials and methodology for Education for Democracy and the training of teachers and teacher trainers.

Education for Democracy in the Ukraine is a transatlantic project, focused on secondary school.
The program defines Education for Democracy as the educational process that equips schoolchildren with the knowledge, attitudes and skills that are necessary to participate actively in a democratic society. This is implemented in two ways:
-In school: as a separate subject and also inter-disciplinary in existing subjects
-Extracurricular: out-of-class and out-of-school activities; via democratic activities in the school organisation.
The materials included in the curricula are textbooks, teacher manuals, testing and evaluation materials, video and CD-ROM.
The program runs with the aide of workshops and Knowledge Centres for teachers and trainers, the creation of a nation-wide network of educators and informal educational-upbringing institutions like the mass media, the family, political parties, religious organisations and other governmental organisations.

The project is based on the necessity of implementing a civic education. According to recent changes in the economic and political systems in Ukraine, this project has been improved to provide citizens with knowledge about the functioning of democracy in Ukraine and world-wide; and focus on instilling the motivation and the main skills for social and political participation in order to promote a political culture.

EU-US Transatlantic Civic Society Initiative
SVETLANA POZNYAK
Project Co-ordinator
Education for Democracy in Ukraine Project
Vul. Hrushevskoho, 4, k. 302
01001 Kyiv
Ukraine
Tel/fax: +380 44 229 4388
e-mail: efdu@gilan.uar.net
website www.edu-democracy.org.ua

Institutional Partners
European Union : Instituut voor Publiek en Politiek (IPP)
US Government : Merchon Center of the Ohio State University
CIVITAS International

May 2000