Civic Education in Mongolia: school curriculum and in-country experiences

1. Civic Education in Mongolia:school curriculum and in-country experiences Open Society Forum Ulaanbaatar, May 2011

2. Institutionalization of Civic Education Implementation of a new Civic Education curriculum : Started in primary Grade 1 and 2 this year Grade 3 content and textbook development completed this summer Content and textbook development for all other Grades continues Legislations: Ministerial approval of Civic Education curriculum (2007) a stand-alone, compulsory subject in K-12 curriculum one hour per week for each grade 1 through 12 (28 -35 hours annually) Ministerial approval of Civic Education content for Grades 1-3 (2011) President of Mongolia ruled that Traditional culture content is included in the Civic Education formal curriculum

3. What kind of Civic Education? Different concepts of Civic Education: Democracy education, Education for Democracy, voter education, citizenship education, civic education, political education, justice-oriented education, etc Mongolia: Knowledge, skills and dispositions to help become: Citizens who respect Mongolian traditions and cultural values, are able to practice them in their daily life and pass them on to their children, with well-developed sense of national pride and identity Responsible, active, justice-oriented citizens with knowledge and skills of practicing civil rights and responsibilities

4. Conceptualization of Civic Education Explicit reference to shared values Will diversity, respect for minority rights be addressed? Are values (and identity) public or private trait? Family/ parental realm or school arena? No explicit mentioning of HRE, learning about Government Explicit reference to participation (does it include learning about Government?) social justice (is HRE included?) rights and responsibilities of a citizen(Is this the same as HRE?) ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? The answer: we do not know (yet).

5. Curricular approach 3 different approaches: separate subject, integrated or cross-curricular Mongolia: mixed Separate subject with allotted time, separate context framework and textbook But MECS is working “to integrate content of patriotism, humanitarianism and justice into curriculum of history, social studies and civic education” (MECS Progress report from 2010) Regarding mixed curricular, literature recommends integration at primary grades and separate subject in secondary grades. Mongolia seems to prefer separate subject in Grade 1 and 2 and integration in Grades 3 onwards.

6. Content framework: categories Two main categories: traditional values and democratic citizenship

7. Content: allocation of teaching hours Traditional content : democracy education Primary 70% : 30 %. Lower secondary 50 %: 50 %. Upper secondary 30% : 70 %

8. Traditional values content : discourses Character/ moral education: Learning about oneself Love and care for parents Traditional respectful ways of communicating with other people Traditional respect of teachers, knowledge and books Good and bad deed: body, language and mind Kinship and family, respect for home Respect of nature, and sustainable lifestyle Traditional lifestyle Traditions related to five kinds of domestic cattle and herding Traditions related to home and ger Traditional related to adequate consumption of food and drinks Traditional related to national clothes Cultural heritage and national pride Traditional games Traditional celebrations Symbols State symbols National tangible and intangible heritage, cultural values Traditional way of thinking

9. Democracy Education content: discourses Personal dispositions and skills a citizen Norms and practices of behaving in group and social setting Respect for others, collaboration Avoiding smoking, drinking and drugs Personal safety Road safety Reading food labels for personal safety Protecting oneself and others during possible natural disaster and avoiding household accidents Relationship between the state and citizen Obeying rules and regulations, participating in their formulation Understanding rights, responsibilities and obligations Understanding justice and avoiding corruption Paying taxes Participation in election, practicing one's right to elect and be elected Responsibilities of a citizen Accessing state services (police, legal defense, social protection) Addressing administrative organization with inquiry and complaints Accessing banking and other financial services Participating in real estate, property, share-holding securities market activities Participating in labor market

10. Delivery of civic education School-based civic education curriculum review, 2010 Systemic issues: Delivered by untrained teachers; mostly lectures Lack of critical thinking, analysis and discussion exercises No extra-curricular and community service programs School-level issues: Whole-school culture is not supportive to student participation School Boards exist, but dominated by school administration With new curriculum in place, teacher training is expected to follow

11. Civil society as a source of expertise Internationals and NGOs have been actively engaged in Education for Democracy since 1990s Civic Education Center: Project Citizen(since 1992) Danish Bilateral Agency: community decision making project, teacher training (1993- early 2000) Mongolian Foundation for Open Society: Street Law (1999-2003) Democracy Education Center: informal trainings and NGO capacity building Academy of Political Education NGO Voter education center More recent initiatives: Open Society Forum: capacity building and grants for public policy analysis (since 2003), monitoring of government service delivery (since 2005); youth engagement (just started); training of paralegals ADB: best models of fully-functioning school boards World Bank: social responsibility grants Mongolian Education Alliance: teacher training, training of school principals in democratic school governance World service: students as volunteers, community service Zorig Foundation: young leaders grants (includes community service component) MONFEMNET: Hands up for your Rights youth movement UNICEF and VSO: youth volunteers and youth councils

12. What can be done: Develop a concept of Civic Education, to help refine the content framework and discourses Consistently apply the concept in content selection, textbook development and teacher training Streamline Civic Education content along ‘know your rights – exercise your responsibilities’ line Enhance focus on Human Rights Education and democracy Education integrate consumer education, road safety, survival skills,public health, and maybe some traditions and value content into reading, language, social sciences subjects) Introduce extra-curricular activities (community service projects, debate, critical thinking, new media, civil journalism, youth council, etc) Create enabling environment in schools (functioning school board, student committees)