Two of our Living Democracy Campaign team members from North Macedonia, Natalija Aceska (Advisor at the Bureau for Development of Education) and Ivanka Mijikj (Advisor at the Bureau for Development of Education), promoted the www.living-democracy.com website as part of the two-day Civics in Practice: From Classroom to Action conference supported by the USAID Youth Ethnic Integration Project on August 23-24 2022.
The conference was organised by the Macedonian Civic Education Center in cooperation with the Youth Educational Forum, supported by the USAID and Ministry of Education and Science. More than 400 participants – including students from primary and secondary schools across the country, teachers and representatives of a range of institutions and organisations – all united at the conference. Through creative booths and inspiring presentations prepared by some of the students and their teachers, the attendees discovered success stories and good examples of experiencing and practicing democracy in schools. Moreover, during the second day, a workshop was held for the creation of a policy to strengthen democratic competences in schools and encourage democratic values and culture among young people. At one of the sessions during the workshop, the participants (advisors and policy makers) were introduced to the concept of the Living Democracy website. They found the website to be an excellent source of materials and activities for strengthening democratic education, democratic culture in schools and the democratic competences of students, teachers, school staff, parents, advisors and other educational experts, as well as a source of ideas for developing better policies for education for democratic citizenship and better strategies for improving the democratic climate in schools in North Macedonia. Challenges and future directions were discussed.
By Natalija Aceska and Ivanka Mijikj
