Ladies and Gentlemen 

Developping a National Action Plan

 For Education For Democracy

March 26th ,2014

On March26th, 2014, the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy (CSID), in Tunis, organized a seminar and a workshop about promoting democracy education in the country through a national action plan at Africa hotel, Tunis. 

The workshop was in the form of a seminar in the morning and a workshop. It was attended by an important group of prominent officials in the ministry of Education and civil society associations such as ALESCO and UNDP.

Dr. Radwan Masmoudi, the CSID President, opened the seminar by welcoming the guests and the lecturers. He introduced the subject "Democracy Education" which he considers a very important component for the success of the democratic transition in Tunisia. Furthermore, democracy is a culture and not only a set of mechanisms. Dr. Radwen stated that the aim of such activities is to enhance the role of civil society in the development of programs and developmentof action plans for the upcoming 5 or 10 years in collaboration with the government and education institutions about building the culture of citizenship and culture in Tunisia. Educating citizens on the values of democracy and citizenship is crucial to ensure co-existence and manage differences. The target group includes women, youth, teachers and civil society organizations.

The representative of the ministry of education and the responsible of relations with civil society organizations, Mr Mohamed Rached, said that the ministry is making efforts to deepen the culture of citizenship, democracy and human rights in primary and preparatory school throughout the country. According to him, the subject of civic education is not playing an effective role. In collaboration with the Arab Institute for Human Rights, there will be a revision for the programs and subjects of primary school from a human rights perspective, training 200 teachers in human rights and citizenship and developing "Citizen Project" among 5 governorates in Tunisia. He also mentioned that the educational institutional should be open and it should establish the basis of co-existence and the crucial role of civil society organizations.

The Second Speech:

Mr Latouf Abdallah from ALESCO confirmed that the idea of democracy is not a set of mechanisms. It is a whole culture and the absence of the ingredients and the pillars of this culture in the Arab worldare mainly due to illiteracy and the educational system. He explained that throughout history, the Arab elites at the level of political parties and because of the oppression and tyranny, they couldn'tset pillars pillars from which they start and even within political parties this culture is absent. He added that democracy is a beautiful dream haunted the Arab citizen and haunted everyone and it is the result of the need to  freedom, to a fair election , but in the latter it turned into a nightmare as a result of what appeared ( what is happening in the Arab world today ) .....

At the end of his speech, MrLatoufAbdallah wondered about how to develop mechanisms to foster a culture of citizenship. He invited all the parties to work together and cooperate with partners who really believe in democracy. He also called for the diagnosis of the educational system and development of a plan for the development of education, the Arabic language and set a project that establishes centers for education on democracy outside the educational institutions.

In the aftermath of delivering the speeches, the workshop agenda was launched and the participants were divided into three groupsto talk about three important points:

1-      First group: Primary Schools

2-      Second group: High Schools

3-      Third group: Civil Society Organizations

Every group was asked to suggest solutions and to agree upon recommendations. When the conversation ended, the participants provided quick and efficient recommendations as follows:

I- Citizenship Education in Secondary Schools:

• Establishing libraries and halls for review

• Reducing the number of pupils in the classroom to 24 pupils

• Calling toengage pupils in the elected councils within his organization and carry responsibility in the side of school life : learning democracy by parctice

• Electing a representative of the class elected by pupils and not appointed by the administration.

• Developing a mechanism to listen ( outside the framework of the institution: psychological and Social )

• Activating the capacity of young people through cultural activity in clubs and sports

• The development of an interactive program and evaluation between teachers and pupils

• Reviewingthe school time schedule and pedagogical systems and programs in order to include the pupil and making him an active actor in his environment and the social environment

• Activating the laws regulating the public space within the educational institutions

 II- Citizenship education in primary education:

Pedagogical implications

-The inclusion of educational materials tackling citizenship and democracy related issues.
-Reloading books and school bonds and including the values of democracy and on the values of citizenship in the curricular.

Pedagogical methods

-Adoptingactiveapproaches in civic education subjects
- Examples of proposals: Theater Citizenship, organizing children visits to the Parliament
-Adoption of a horizontal Education approach

Building the capacities of the Educational staff
-Training the educational staff with all its components on the culture of democracy: educators, administrative staff and employees

School and Environment

-Founding citizen clubs
- Promoting cooperation between the media and educational institutions and creating programs for children
- Including the family in promoting a culture of democracy
- Raising awareness Campaigns in schools
- Re-activating representative councils for pupil
-Entrenching the principles of discipline

 

• Contributing to the promotion of knowledge

• Giving up on the indoctrination and the vertical educational system and replacing it by an interactive and a participative one.

• Drawing specific goals and linking them to the path of transition experienced by the country

• Avoiding the negative role played by some associations in the period after the revolution , where linking democracy by acclamation or to someone

• Resisting to the ignorance of the general public of the concepts of democracy and citizenship

• Intensifying of activities in citizenship education in holidays and in the public squares

• Rewriting the history of Tunisia to develop a sense of citizenship

• Re- considering the role of culture places and young people to raise awareness about citizenship and democracy

• Organizing Studies and seminars on the book "The natures of tyranny and wrestlers of slavery " of Alkawakibi

• Updating studies on the thinkers who examined the issue of democracy

• Promoting the bright points in history that converge with the spirit and concept of democracy

• Intensifying banners and posters about democracy in public places
• Of the Tunisian administration in the ways of dealing with the citizen

watching the conference