Building a culture of tolerance and participation in schools

Sovata, 1-10 July 2010.℘

In 10th July has ended the training organized by the CEMO in human rights education field, entitled: “Building a culture of tolerance and participation in schools” Fostering democracy through the inclusion of human rights education within the formal education system. The training has been founded by the European Commission, Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, Europe for Citizens Programme.
There were 28 participants from 3 countries: Hungary (8 people), Slovakia (8 people) and Romania (12 people). The training participants were mainly teachers and educators who are strongly motivated to introduce the human rights within their teaching curricula, and who want to consolidate their professional skills, acquire new skills, and who are firmly convinced that tolerance and mutual respect build the basis of a democratic society. Additionally, young motivated persons were present at the training who work at NGO’s, deal with social questions and are interested in human rights, tolerance, and mutual respect and are willing in enlarging their knowledge in these areas as well as trying out and implementing new methods and techniques.
The trainers and facilitators used different approaches for group dynamics, the participants worked in mixed groups. The training modules were learner – centered and based on the experiences of participants and the principle of mutual learning, taking into consideration the personal responsibility for learning, supported by a strong group dimension and a collective approach and will enable participants to apply and transfer into their work practice what they learnt.
The persons involved in the Training will become multipliers and they were provided with new teaching methods and this will help to bridge the existing methodological gaps between formal and non-formal education.
The participants have forfmulated their conclusions: “I have learned here that we have to live with our rights and use them in our daily lives, because those -on paper formulated rights- will become realities only if we, ourselves take them very seriously. I am intending to teach my students this.” (Printz Ágnes, Áprily Lajos High school, Braşov).
We believe that our training has reached its goal: many teachers, social workers, NGO members have realized the importance of the human rights and they have acquired new techniques and methods in teaching human rights, tolerance, mutual respect, diversity and solidarity.

Civic Engagement Movement