On November 26-28, several members of the project team and beneficiaries of the “European Lessons 2. Anticorruption Education Component” project participated in a study visit to Lithuania, where  was visited several public institutions promoting education for integrity. As hosts, we had our partners and friends from Vilnius, from the Center for Modern Didactics (CDM), headed by Daiva Penkauskiene.

So, on the first day,  we visited a basic school in Anyksiai, 100 km from the capital, with 430 pupils (20 years ago had more than a thousand students) and 45 teachers, very active in projects, including in Erasmus, but also based on extensive partnerships with Poland. With CDM, from  Vilnius, they cooperate from 2002 projects and opened a Transparency Center in school, holding the Honest school title, the flowers and candy are not acts of corruption, the hosts consider. The situation in the world about corruption has become tremendously aggravated, children have convinced by teachers who have given us two public lessons, and if we do not address it and eradicate it, it will grow alarmingly, affecting us more, and the essence of our existence must become the responsibility.  In particular,  at Ethics lesson, various anticorruption issues are debated, and in each classroom, at the entrance, the Code of Morals / Conduct of Students with golden rules is displayed, having the motto “Our ration helps us make good decisions. ” It impressed us that 27 non-formal education circles are working for free, they praised that the band of students are multiple champions of street dance, an original mix of choreography and sports. The school spaces are nicely arranged, with a very varied and creative design, attractive for children and teachers, with pleasant and useful recreational opportunities.

Another visit took place in Salcininkai, the Janas Sniadeckis Gymnasium, the Lithuanian Polish School,  Honest school , with a specific multicultural context, in a small town on the border with Belarus, with many migrating Poles and natives alike. Honest School status got  by him in the promotion campaign organized by Transparency International in grades 10-12. The slogan for each student was “I am honest,” and this has to be materialized by concrete actions: I will write the control work honestly, oblige me not to copy, etc Then on each work they had to apply the emblem of integrity, and not all of them could do, but after the 6 months promotion campaign, the number of honest students increased. At the end of the campaign, it was a closing event, the students completed a questionnaire, in which they wrote what they learned, how they applied and how they felt about this phenomenon. Some schools continue to earn honest school status by entering this network. Although it is a school for ethnic minorities, they do not have separate lessons from the Culture and Traditions of the respective people, it is done through other extracurricular activities, quite a lot; here we have put a Nota Bene for Moldova, where a big case is made of this, the Lithuanian Poles told us that these (folkloric concerts and performances) were there in the last century. It was also categorically noted that the language of integration of ethnic minorities in the country’s life is only Lithuanian.

It has been curious to hear that their inspections have been renamed to check on the well-being of the child in school, because, they admit, more and more children face psycho-social and social behavior problems. We  knew that there are 1-2 social pedagogues in each school, as a psychologist and a career counselor. They often do classroom classes with the teacher. Every year, Collaboration Agreements with each parent are signed, in order to engage actively parentsin cooperation with the school in child education, stipulating the rights and responsibilities for three parties: the child, the parents, the school. The meeting with parents, only in the presence of the child, is carried out, compulsory twice a year, where, first, the problems spoken and understood by the child are heard, and then the adults discussed. The agenda and electronic catalog are common realities. The school administration board consists of 9 students, 9 parents, 9 teachers, implementing participatory management in decision making, in December this year is dedicated to assessing the efficiency of the school head activity. As a practical learning body of democracy, there is also the Council of Students, more responsible for working with students, maintaining a permanent dialogue with them, but they admit that this is not always active.

School visits have revealed a good situation in Lithuanian society, happy children and talented teachers, some of them are dissatisfied with multiple tasks, and about 700 euros as average salary, but they expect more from the state, at least 1000 euro, promised by politicians, but ….

Finally, we appreciate the positive impact of the visit on the participants, the valuable European lessons learned by us, and we hope that the successful Lithuanian experiences, in particular, and Baltic spirits in general, will be more inspiring in promoting integrity and democracy in our schools, but also in the political and everyday life, so that the European vector will turn into a reality recognized and felt by more and more citizens.

Viorica Goraș-Postică,
Project Coordinator

In the period of 19-21 November 2018, at the EC PRO DIDACTICA, a study visit “Intercultural Education from Primary School to University: Good Practice” was organized for an international delegation within the NGO Education Centers Network, Zagreb, Croatia. The members of the delegation were NEPC (President Mario Bajkusa), Vilnius University Education Policy Center (Rimantas Zelvys), Belgrade Educational Policy Center (Milica Todovici, Lola Hasanović, Žaklina Veselinović) and the Step by Step Program (Zorica Topalovic) – people with the educational experience of teaching and research.

The first visit was held to High School “A. Pushkin” from Chisinau, where we were guided by distinguished director Mrs. O. Abramova, who showed us the institution with an elitist allure in which the transformational leadership is visible. Two quality lessons were presented at the optional discipline “The Culture of Good Neighborhood” (grade 1 – Ms. M. Racul and grade 3 – G. Miteva), through which the beneficiaries of the visit have experienced some novel practical aspects in the implementation of innovations from the intercultural education field, promoted by previous projects of partnership with EC PRO DIDACTICA. Also, relevant visits and presentations were carried out to the high school museums, by which the museum pedagogy for the knowledge of other cultures is harnessed: the Russian culture (Al. Pushkin’s Museum), the Romanian ethnographic culture in Bessarabia (Ethnographic Museum as part of the Cabinet of Romanian language) and the history of the institution (School Museum).

The second visit took place at the State University of Moldova (USM), which has special experiences of intercultural education, known by the participants through the meeting with the dean of the faculty of PSESAS, dr., prof. Vl. Guţu and the head of the Department of Educational Sciences, Dr. M. Şevciuc, but also by visiting the USM Museum, the Japanese Culture Center and other Centers of Foreign Culture and Civilization (Italian, Polish, French, American, Spanish, Austrian) – all opened and functional within the Faculty of Foreign Languages through extra-budgetary projects, supported in particular by the embassies of the countries concerned and exploited in the multilingual training of USM students.

During the 3rd day, visits took place at two rural institutions in the UTAG: Lyceums Moldovan-Turkish in Congaz and the “T. Zanet “in the same locality, where we had the chance to see some integrated non-traditional lessons, but also an extensive extracurricular activity, with the original artistic presentation of the Gagauz culture, in interference with the aspect of the culture of Moldovans, Bulgarians, Russians, Turks, Ukrainians, entitled “We are all different, we are all equal”. The hospitality of the Gagauzians and the generosity of the demonstrated traditional habits, on the one hand, and the professionalism of the teaching and managerial staff, on the other hand, have been fully demonstrated both in the lesson of history and civic education, organized as a press conference and facilitated by 4 teachers of History and Civic Education, Romanian, Turkish, and English languages, but also the original artistic event, when folk music and folk dance with dramatic poetry and art have been combined, with a long lasting impact on the guests, as well as on parents, students, and other community members. In this context, We express our gratitude for accountable involvement and support – Mrs. Alla Nikitcenko, principal consultant from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research and Mrs. Elena Tulba, specialist from the Education Department Comrat, with whom we are cooperating fruitfully for many years.

In conclusion, we emphasize the interest of our colleagues from NEPC for the intercultural education practices known to us, but also the respect, tolerance, the opening of the educational actors from the visited institutions for acquaintance with the values of other cultures, the knowledge and the practice of the Romanian and the English languages, and, last but not least, pride and concern for the perpetuation of the traditional values of the ethnic groups to the younger generation.

Viorica Goraş-Postică, Project Coordinator

Saturday, September 15, 2018, at EC PRO DIDACTICA, within the framework Anticorruption Education Component of the Project “European Lessons 2”, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania from the Cooperation Program for Development and Promotion of Democracy and implemented by PRO DIDACTICA, in partnership with the Center for Modern Didactics from Vilnius (Lithuania),  took place an interactive seminar for teachers of civic education, of history and other school subjects. The participants opted for the promotion of the topic among pupils and teachers in the secondary education. This innovative initiative supports the activities of preventing and eradicating corruption in the country by educating conscientious, critical and responsible citizens to develop and implement education for integrity and against corruption through thematic activities in and out of the classroom.

Expert trainers Rodica EŞANU and Eugenia NEGRU have developed teaching materials for teachers, students and pupils which can be accessed here and taught separately or infusionally and selectively at different subjects, including in the optional discipline “European Integration for You”, namely:

• International and national structures for monitoring and combating corruption;
• Non fighting against corruption means sustaining it;
• Corruption – the “creation” of the man holding the power;
• Succeed history of corruption. Case Study. Corruption in the Soviet economy;
• Extra-curricular activity. Corruption in the eyes of humorists;
• Sources of income of the person. Legal and illegal sources. Risks associated with illegal revenue accrual.
• Phanariot countries in the Romanian countries. Link to Education against Corruption: The History of Corruption in the Romanian Countries; a society tolerant of corruption.

After the seminar, all the trained teachers are committed to apply the experimental materials and gained practices and skills and to continue to be part of the network for raising awareness and preventing corruption in schools, in their communities, and throughout the entire society. Unfortunately, currently all levels of our society continue to be heavily affected by this plague. In this context, PRO DIDACTICA is launching a campaign for the publication and dissemination of the didactical materials on the Anticorruption topic at www.red.prodidactica.md, but also on the pages of Didactica Pro… magazine. Those who would like actively contribute to our campaign, please submit your proposals and materials to the email: prodidactica@prodidactica.md.

Univ. Prof. Viorica Goraş-Postică,
Project Coordinator