Citizenship Education program

Program Coordinator: Turgut Mustafayev

Mission statement

The Citizenship Education Program aims to make human rights education a priority in the region's schools.

Program directions/components

• Develop human rights education teaching materials
• Increase the knowledge and skills on human rights education among school children and teachers
• Distribute materials to school libraries and education regional departments
• Promote the involvement of NGOs working in the area of human rights in school educational activities
• Incorporate these materials in the curricula of in-service and pre-service Teacher Training Institutes

Achievements

• The program focuses on developing educational materials on human rights and increasing knowledge and skills not only of teachers but also of the education administration (school principals, school inspectors, etc).
• An OSI grant enabled teachers to attend a workshop in Moscow on human rights in schools so they could train other teachers and participate in OSI's program in Azerbaijan.
• 1998 and 1999 activities included the development and printing of human rights education materials, several three-day seminars for teachers, and workshops for educational authorities, as well as many classes for 'training the trainer'.

Activities 2002

• The Nur NGO supports civics and democracy teaching in the country by developing a civic education syllabus with schools from Baku, Sumgayit, Ganja, and Lenkeran.
• Six teachers will participate at DEEP (Democracy Education Exchange Program) (An American Forum initiative with the US Dept of Education for teaching democracy)

Future Plans 2003

• Approval of Citizenship Education syllabus by Ministry of Education;
• Development and approval of Citizenship education textbooks by the Ministry of Education;
• Elaboration of civic education standards for Azerbaijan.

Partner organizations

In 1998 OSI and The Norwegian Refugee Council created a working group on human rights education, which included local NGO representatives with human rights education experience.