Active citizenship
The Platform believes that education is key to foster democratic and civic participation at local, national, European and global level. Learning to become an active citizen is about knowledge and attitudes, which requires the use of methodologies that involve learners actively in their own learning. They should be encouraged at all levels and in all sectors of education.
Curriculum should be competence-based, aiming to equip learners with democratic attitudes and social, civic and intercultural competences, as key competences for life. They represent an essential gear which any citizen should have in today’s complex and fast-changing world. We also need to build learners’ capacity to think critically and creatively, to explore new ways of acting and making informed and adequate decisions.
Civic and social participation are the fundament of European values and democracy. The Platform welcomed the fact that citizenship education became a highlighted priority of the Education and Training 2020 work programme of the Commission following the so-called Paris Declaration. It is a member of the dedicated Commission Thematic Working Group set up to share practices/knowledge between Ministries of education. It calls for concrete implementation measures at EU and national level.
The Lifelong Learning Platform is currently running a working group “Europe 2020 – Policy coherence” that is monitoring and contributing to various policy developments and is promoting the exchange of good practices amongst its members in this area.