Teachers from the southern cluster of Montengrin pilot schools gathered in Budva on 2-3 March 2018 for the workshop “Learning about democracy and human rights through lesson planning, teaching and learning methods”, aimed at discussing how to integrate the Council of Europe framework of competences for democratic culture into the everyday teaching practice. Another important objective of the workshop was to facilitate experiences and exchange between schools and also between schools and local communities through facilitating peer learning and community events.

Milos Boskovic, Project Officer for Actions on Education at the Council of Europe and Milica Pajovic, Ministry of Education, opened the event. Both highlighted the importance of learning about democracy and human rights from an early age.

Working interactively as a group allowed participants to apply competences into cross-curricular approaches, as well as to develop them into annual work programmes and day-to-day preparation in the classroom. They also worked in the inter-school subject groups generating various ideas of activities that would also develop selected competences for democratic culture. The last session of the event was dedicated to the planning of activities for the next phase of the project and cooperation between the pilot schools. The participants were supported by the local school coordinator and a mentor school team who were guided by experienced international and national trainers.

Teachers felt the workshop fully met their expectations and were satisfied with its results. In the two months following the event, the trained teachers will report back on how they have applied the knowledge acquired into their everyday practice.

This activity was organised as part of the European Union/Council of Europe Horizontal Facility Action “Fostering a democratic school culture in Montenegro”.