EDUCATION

Let’s Learn about Europe – Educational Program for High School Students

Faster approaching to the European Union, fulfilling the conditions for the status of an associate country, is the basic need and priority of Serbia.

As the main obstacle to Serbia 's integration to the European Union appears the absence of the consensus on the need for Serbia to become a member of the European Union. Although it has been stated as one of the goals in the Constitutional Charter, the awareness of the importance of the state's joining the EU still does not exist in the broader public. The shortage of trained people who know what the European Union is and what its policy towards Serbia is and the region of Western Balkans in general, on one hand, and what is necessary for a state to become a member of the European Union, on the other hand, appears as a problem. Therefore the education of as wide circle of people as possible arises as a great need, both those who have already been employed in the state administration and those who could be employed in the near future or could in some other way participate in debates on these issues.

The general goal of the project is to contribute to spreading European values in this region through its activities, as well as to increasing the level of citizens' awareness of the importance of Serbia joining the EU. The best way to achieve this goal is of course to pass the knowledge about what really the European Union represents and what the benefits from the integration into such a structure are. In that way, as a special goal of the project appeared the idea of the education of pupils of finishing grades of high schools, as the youngest voters, in the European integrations, their origins, development and functioning, as well as the process of association, with a special emphasis on the status of Serbia in that process.

In each of 20 schools (Belgrade (8 schools), Cacak, Kraljevo, Priboj, Loznica, Kragujevac, Sombor, Zrenjanin, Novi Sad, Pancevo, Zajecar, Nis, Vranje) in which the project “Let's Learn about Europe” was carried out, 4 cycles of educational panels and one quiz were held. The brochures “Let's Learn about Europe ”, created for the needs of the project by a team of authors were distributed to the pupils. Around 600 pupils underwent the training.

Educational panels covered four themes:

• What the European Union is and how it was established
• The EU Institutions and law
• Fields of cooperation within the EU
• EU enlargement Policy

The pupils showed the greatest interest in the issues connected with the association of Serbia into the EU, advantages and disadvantages of the membership in the EU, as well as the question of the future of the EU after the referendum on the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe held in France and Holland.

During the work on the project “Let's Learn about Europe” CeSID achieved cooperation with the European Commission Delegation in Serbia and Montenegro which gave its contribution by donating the educational material (brochures, posters, CDs, both in Serbian and English) that was distributed to the pupils.

CeSID, also signed the Memorandum on cooperation with the EU Integration office of Serbian Government.

CeSID's partner on the project “Let's Learn about Europe ” was Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.

The project “Let's Learn about Europe ” was financed by the European Union from the European Integration Fund with the realization by European Agency for Reconstruction and European Movement in Serbia .

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