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EACEA National Policies Platform
Czechia

Czechia

9. Youth and the World

9.4 Raising awareness about global issues

Last update: 8 February 2024
On this page
  1. Formal, non-formal and informal learning
  2. Youth-targeted information campaigns on global issues
  3. Information providers
  4. Key initiatives

Formal, non-formal and informal learning

In the Czech Republic, there are two basic strong and quite developed concepts on education in global issues as described in Chapter 9.1The Global Development Education and the Environmental Education (EVVO) which are also included in the state curricular documents in formal education and are also promoted by youth and other NGOs in non-formal education. Within formal education there are also enhanced educational areas like 'Human and Society', 'Human and World' where pupils can be taught about the global issues as well, however, the form and exact content depends on the school's curricular documents and programmes.

There are also several public initiatives on how to motivate schools to provide attractive education on global issues such as 'Světová škola' (A World School), UNESCO Schools,  or private NGO programmes like 'Jeden svět na školách' (One World at Schools) or 'Škola pro udržitelný rozvoj' (School for sustainable development), 'Zelená škola' (Green school), 'Ekoškola' (The Eco-School), etc.

'The 1Planet4All project is an international project in 11 European countries, including the Czech Republic, which focuses on raising young people's awareness of climate change, its causes and effects not only on us, but also on people in developing countries, solutions and, above all, personal responsibility for a sustainable future. The project is supported by the European Union and its DEAR (Development Education and Awareness Rising) program, which seeks to motivate young people to engage with global issues and challenges facing the world today.'

Adra offers methodological materials for educators on teaching global education within the True World project. They offer materials for kindergartens, primary schools and high schools.

Arpok educational NGO is also involved in global development education. They offer a wide range of educational programs for students. For schools, they organize seminars that take place interactive form.

Nazemi offers educational programs for students and methodological courses for teachers. Participants have the opportunity to gain theoretical knowledge and practical skills in global education topics.

Varianty project by 'People in need' helps teachers to present global education issues and to implement this approach in the daily life of the whole school. They create programs and educational material.

Special support for raising awareness on global issues in the context of non-formal and informal learning derives from the European programme Erasmus+ and its possibilities for youth projects concerning international and global issues.

As there is an ongoing process of revision of the Educational Framework Programmes (main national curricular documents, for detail, see chapter 6 and specifically 6.10) the former National Institut for Education published in 2018 an overall analysis how the global issues and thinking in global and European context have been developing in the Czech Education system. This report outlines the ongoing trends and how to further enhance educational activities on European and world wide issues.

 

Youth-targeted information campaigns on global issues

There have been no special state youth-targeted information campaigns on global issues per se since 2010.

In 2020 the Labyrinth 2030 competition for university students and young professionals up to the age of 30 was announced. The two years long projects focused on foreign development cooperation and solving development challenges in this area. The competition was organized by Caritas CR and was co-financed by the Czech Development Agency. 

 

Information providers

The biggest promoters in this field are NGOs, usually those operating the above-mentioned educational programmes. The topic of Global Development Education itself is in the competence of the Czech Development Agency as described above.

Special efforts are offered by the UN Youth Delegates programme in the Czech Republic to provide information on young people on how to participate in global policy processes. After the end of the Covid-19 restrictions in 2022, international activities of the Czech UN Youth Delegate programme were restored and even expanded compared to previous years. Besides the established cooperation with permanent missions of the Czech Republic to the UN in Geneva and New York, Czech UN Youth Delegates (CZ UNYDs) also got involved in the newly created youth structures of the European Sustainable Development Network and entered in closer collaboration with the Ministry of Environment. This collaboration resulted in the first-ever inclusion of both CZ UNYDs into the official delegation of the Czech Republic at the COP 27, where they also organised a round table of the UN youth delegates from EU member states and the representatives of European international youth NGOs. UNYDs are also active in disseminating outputs and findings of these activities at school workshops, public events and at meetings with the partner ministries.

The Information Centre of the United Nations in the Czech Republic also provides information and organize several activities to promote UN and global issues among young people. 

In the Czech republic there is also the initiative University for climate (´Univerzity za klima´) which involves students, teachers and university staff who are not indifferent to the future of our planet. They support Fridays for Future strikes. The national branch of Fridays for future also operates in the Czech Republic.

Key initiatives

There are several main initiatives at national level funded by the state in order to promote Global topics among wider society with particular attention to young people.

  1. State Strategy to for Education on Sustainable development for the period 2008-2015.
  2. The European Week of the Sustainable development has been an annual initiative of the Office of the Government and its Department on Sustainable development since 2015.
  3. Hate Free Culture, a wide public campaign of the Office of the Government and its department – The Agency for Social Inclusion.  
  4. The state Agenda 2030 as a national vision for the year 2030, also implementing the SDGs to the national context.
  5. Strategic Framework Czech Republic 2030 - a strategic framework for long-term development of Czech society, the objective of which is to improve the quality of life of all inhabitants of the Czech Republic while respecting natural limits.
  6. Education Strategy 2030+
  7. Czech UN Youth Delegate Programme