On 8th April, our project team including Ms Sarah Keating, Head of Unit for Regional and Bilateral Co-operation - South East Europe Education Department DG II - Directorate of Democratic Citizenship and Participation Council of Europe and Ms Isabel Cristovam-Bellman, Unit for Regional and Bilateral Co-operation, visited two pilot schools in Mardin. In both schools, they were welcomed very warmly and were impressed by the results of the project activities implemented in schools so far. In Mardin Technical and Industrial Vocational High School, project team met the school parliament members. Studetns proudly presented the accomplishments they have had since the project started. Their belief in the sustainability of the democracy culture was promising. Almost all classroom representatives underlined that they have built a culture in which they feel comfourtable and can find solutions to their common problems. This process seems to have empowered students and built their self-confidence, equipping them with necessary skills to negotiate and to solve problems, which is one of the main aims of the elective course on "Dmocracy and Human Rights", as well as of the activities carried out under the scope of democratic school culture.

We were visited by a delegation including the representatives of the CoE, the BoE and a number of academicians. They were here to observe the implementation of the "Democracy and Human Rights" course as well as the democratic school culture in our school. First, they had a meeting with our principal, Mr Hüseyin Ataç and then the delegation was divided into two and while one group observed a class taught by Mr. Muhittin Daş, the other group held a meeting with the class representatives in the school parliament. The delegation visited our school facilities and concluded their visit.

 In order to improve our students competences in communication with one another, being participatory, having a culture of voting, electing and being elected and adopting democratic leadership, we carried out the presidential elections for our school parliament in Mardin Technical and Industrial Vocational High School. Metin Başak (11-D) collected most of the votes and was selected as the school president.

 

5 November 2012

We held a meeting at our pilot school in Mardin in order to support our school further in the pilot implementation phase and also to evaluate, with our teachers, the classroom activities we have sent to our schools in the scope of "Democracy and Human Rights" course so far. Moreover, we had the opportunity to observe a democracy and human rights course in practise. Our international expert Prof. Dr David Kerr (Citizenship Foundation, UK) shared his experiences from the UK, as well as his observation notes as to the implementation of activities in the classroom.

 

 

24 September 2012

The new curriculum for the Democracy and Human Rights elective course was introduced to the teachers in a seminar which was held in Rize in the first week of September. We were able to reach most of the teachers who will be teaching this course throughout the implementation. In order to make sure that we reach all the relevant teachers and more importantly to get feedback about the activities that were sent to our pilot schools by the Board of Edcucation we visited Technical and Industrial Vocational High School. Our visit was also improtant in terms of raising awareness on Democracy and Human Rights elective course and it was accomplished successfully.

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