Bid to promote education for democratic citizenship

The Ministry of Education will shortly be launching a campaign to put into practice "education for democratic citizenship policies and programmes" developed within the Council of Europe, Education, Minister Louis Galea said.

He was addressing the second plenary session of the 16th edition of the mini-European Assembly entitled 70,000,000 Youth In Europe - How Can We Be Involved?

The mini-European Assembly is a simulation of the European Parliament where students from post-secondary and first year tertiary educational institutions represent different European countries and meet to discuss topics of European relevance.

Parallel to this initiative, the ministry last month sent a group of 30 young people to discuss European issues at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Dr Galea referred to the low election turnout among young people and their decreasing participation in public and political life in Europe. Although this was not so much the case locally, the issue of education for democratic citizenship, which should be seen as a long-term investment to promote the democratic values of human rights, tolerance and cultural pluralism, was important and urgent in order to ensure that Maltese youth remained part of the democratic process, he said.

Dr Galea said the ministry was planning to set up four other Youth Empowerment Centres to the existing ones to engage and empower young people to participate actively in the decision making process.

The centres provide youth with the information required to empower them in becoming more employable through furthering their academic and technical skills, awareness of job opportunities and encourage entrepreneurial initiative.

The ministry, together with the Ministry of Gozo, is planning to hold a two-day seminar in Gozo to engage and network Gozitan youth organisations with other organisations in Malta.

The seminar is designed to help youth organisations from Malta and Gozo understand the European Commission's common objectives of increasing participation, providing information, supporting voluntary activities, advocating youth autonomy and promoting European citizenship.

Dr Galea said his ministry will also be hosting the Commonwealth Youth Forum this November. This will bring together over 100 delegates from 56 countries to discuss human rights, sustainable development, education, employment and health issues.

The forum will present a final communiqué to the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting in Malta later this year.