#GlobalEducationWeek in Cyprus

Image

#GlobalEducationWeek in Cyprus highlighted collaboration between policymakers, teachers, and students. Policymakers and educators from the Ministry of Education, Sport and Youth describe their schools’ Global Education approaches, which highlight principles of human rights and inclusion through experiential activities. Global Citizenship Education (GCE) prepares young people to think critically, evaluating the social and environmental consequences of political and economic decisions. Together with the formal curriculum, nonformal education methodologies foster creativity, adaptability to new challenges, and cooperative learning methods.  

Formal and nonformal education join forces:

Dr. Aravella Zachariou, from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport, highlights the added value of GCE, and its focus on nonformal education to address global challenges: “Nonformal education complements and enriches formal education systems, playing a role in addressing global challenges.” Dr. Zachariou stresses how important it is for students to “experience” issues, to learn through simulations and taking on active roles: “Experiential pedagogies equip youth with competencies to become change agents, problem solvers, and innovators, starting from their local context.” Dr. Marios Antoniou of the Ministry of Education adds that nonformal education "provides flexible, accessible learning opportunities that focus on developing practical skills, critical thinking, and social awareness." 

Greening your city to mitigate climate impacts:

During the #GlobalEducationWeek, one school showcased its actions as part of its participation in the country-wide programme "Greening My School – Greening My Community." To address the global challenge of ecological crisis, students experimented with native pollinator-friendly plants to observe how they impact local wildlife and ecosystems. They monitored the resulting temperatures, humidity and carbon levels in the surrounding spaces and observed - in practice - how plants can reduce temperatures. Connecting the local to the global, they learned about global biodiversity loss and how urban greening mitigates climate impacts, such as heatwaves. 

Under-reported racism:

Another Ministry official, Dr. Elena Papamichael, also describes how school initiatives support the Ministry’s anti-racism policy. An anti-racism network of schools empowers teachers to deal with under-reported incidents of racism and to address the globally evolving nature of racism. In turn, the Ministry provides trainings, helplines and multilingual leaflets for parents.  

The #GlobalEducationWeek 2024 inspired thousands of activities around GCE, sustainability and inclusion in over 26 countries. Under the title “Connected people for an inclusive planet”, educators, students, civil society organisations, government agencies and educational institutions addressed global challenges through local actions during the week of 18-24 November. The formal and nonformal education actions included conferences, school mobilisations, training for teachers and other practitioners that also build learning communities for active global citizenship. The Global Education Week is run by “iLEGEND”, a joint programme co-funded by the DEAR Programme of the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe.

#GlobalEducationWeek activities included capacity-building, civic engagement, awareness-raising and advocacy, with almost one third organizing public discussions and school debates:

Image