Understanding Civic and Faith-Based education in Albania

Objective:
It aimed to engage civic and faith-based education in Albania in order to fully understand its role in contemporary Albanian society and develop a range of outreach activities and other programs to strengthen civic education in public and private, faith-based and secular pre-university educational institutions.

Activities/Events:
In the framework of this project, IDRA has established contacts and maintained close cooperation with central, local, educational and religious institutions and communities in Tirana and several other Albanian cities.

Impact/Accomplishments:
IDRA has organized 7 round-table debates over civic education issues with a wide participation of local stakeholders, civil society and religious communities. It has conducted two civic-focused mini-projects with the Medrese of Tirana and “Cajupi” secondary schools to promote civic skills, cooperation, tolerance, understanding and mutual respect. In order to help teachers in their everyday work regarding civic education, IDRA has provided them with a glossary of civics terms, which will become part of the teachers’ package in civic education.

For the year 2005 – 2006, activities in the framework of the project “Understanding Civic and Faith-Based education in Albania ” will focus on three main directions:

•  Organization of five small projects in six different cities of Albania , with the participation of students from public and faith-based schools, which will address in depth issues of local interest and come up with respective solutions. Students will develop portfolios and conclude with a showcase of their projects for their schoolmates and afterwards make a presentation to a local TV channel. There will also be a final gathering in Tirana of all groups, which will make a national showcase of their projects and share them with a selected audience.

•  In order to follow up activities from the previous year, it is the intention of the project to provide in-service training for teachers in faith-based non-public schools, which have agreed to also teach civic education. The idea is to provide them with the required knowledge and skills for an effective teaching of civic education in their schools. This would help to further strengthen the relations between civic and faith-based education, provide students in such schools with civic knowledge and skills, and also improve the climate for further cooperation between public schools and faith-based non-public schools.

•  Publication of materials which can help teachers and students in the area of civic and faith-based education and participation, education for democracy, and also materials promoting the work performed in the framework of initiatives: 1000 glossary of civics to be distributed to public and non-public faith-based schools; 500 brochures or leaflets illustrating activities performed in the framework of the project “Understanding Civic and faith-Based Education in Albania”, 600 leaflets illustrating activities performed in each of the five joint projects for 2005-2006.

Work has already started with Project Citizen and the schools involved in the project are the Medreses: “H.M. Mahmut Dashi” Tirana, “H. Sh. Shamia” Shkodra, “H.M. Varoshi” Durrës and “V. Buharaja” Berat. Another school to adopt the Project Citizen Project format for this year is “Ahmet Dakli” general secondary school in Elbasan.

The teachers engaged in this project received their first two-day training on 22-23 December 2005. The training focused on the techniques to adopt with Project Citizen and simulations of activities to be performed by the four groups presenting their portfolios during the showcases planned in the project. The teachers appreciated the spirit of team work encouraged by Project Citizen and left with better understanding and skills to lead their students all along the stages of the project. During January 2006, there will be follow-up visits in all schools.