Formation of new system of civil education in the Republic of Karelia jointly with Karelian Ministry of Education, Institute of Further Education for Teachers (Petrozavodsk), Saint-Petersburg Centre of Pedagogic Technologies and the Programs "The Democracy Works" and "You The People" (USA) is a new direction of activities of our Centre. Our concept is based on the close partnership of schools with local communities and on decentralisation of process of school management, i.e. involving of the maximum number of people to the process of making important for school and community decisions, e.g. through the Parents Committees, School Councils or Charity Funds. On 15-16 of February 2002 RCEDC together with the Federal Target Program "Formation of the Set-Ups of Tolerant Conscience and Prophylactics of Extremism in Russian Society" has performed the two-days conference "Through Tolerance to the Civil Conscience" in the town of Petrozavodsk, the capital of the Republic of Karelia. More than 150 managers of the high schools and other educational institutions from Karelia and also the leading specialists in civil education from Karelia, Moscow and Saint-Petersburg have taken part in this conference. At the beginning of the Conference the Minister of Education of Karelia Galina Razbivnaia has emphasised the openness of the administration of the Republic to introduction of the innovation methods into school education and deep understanding of the importance of civil education for the development of civil society in Karelia. According the results of this Conference the experimental group from 20 Petrozavodsk schools has been formed, the teams the teaches and school administrations of which are going to develop the experimental programs for civil education according the procedures of You The People Program. These teams have passed the intensive training under the management of Charles Heberle and presented the draft projects of the educational programs for the next school year. |