Pioneering new ways to teach global citizenship will soon be rolled out across schools on three continents, thanks to a ground-breaking programme involving IBE.
The final phase will be planned in Seoul, South Korea during a two-day meeting, starting 12 February. It will involve four countries and UNESCO’s Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding, which leads the work in partnership with IBE.
The partners are developing curricula, teaching and learning resources for Global Citizenship Education (GCED). The programme is developing these resources in four countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America: Cambodia, Colombia, Mongolia and Uganda.
What is GCED?
Global citizenship education (GCED) involves students' active participation in projects that address global issues of a social, political, economic, or environmental nature.
UNESCO has promoted GCED since the launch in 2012 of the UN Secretary-General's Global Education First Initiative (GEFI). This made fostering global citizenship one of UNESCO’s three education priorities.
IBE has been a crucial partner. We have helped develop conceptual frameworks as well as GCED curriculum, teaching and learning materials in the four pioneering countries.
We’re working in partnership with each country and with UNESCO’s Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU). The partners began the project in 2016 by analysing each country’s education system and developing curriculum, teaching and learning materials to fit their particular situation. These materials were piloted last year.
Next steps
This year’s final project phase will revise and finalize the draft curricula/guidelines/resources based on results from pilot tests and last year’s monitoring. Then the final outcomes will be disseminated nationwide. There will be a comprehensive project evaluation by the participating countries, organizations and a third party that has expertise in both GCED and curriculum development. This month’s meeting in South Korea will discuss each country’s plans to roll out the new curriculum at scale across Cambodia, Colombia, Mongolia and Uganda.
Staff Members from IBE-UNESCO and UNESCO-APCEIU, as well as education specialists and representatives from the Ministries of Education of the four countries will attend the meeting.
"GCED is vital"
Renato Opertti, IBE Programme Specialist, leading our team in South Korea said: “This initiative is so important in these four countries. It will help their learners of all ages and backgrounds to become informed, critically literate, socially-connected, ethical and engaged global citizens. Such progress in learning is vital across the world if countries are to achieve SDG targets and fulfil the Education 2030 Agenda.”
