Promoting democratic culture in the formal education system contributes to improving the quality of education. The application of the Council of Europe’s Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC), which includes twenty competences for democratic culture, creates a safe and interesting school environment while strengthening the competences of education staff to eliminate violent, discriminatory and anti-democratic structures in schools and school environments, to improve the ethos in schools and to provide support to pupils. These school-based activities contribute significantly to the promotion of a multicultural, multilingual and intercultural perspective in education. To support changes in education policy at the system level, a package of materials from this area has been produced, such as the Handbook of Good Practices in the Application of Competences, Developing Competences for a Democratic Culture in the Digital Age, Teaching Competences for a Democratic Culture through Online Instruction, and Guidelines for Teachers Handbooks “Guidelines for the Integration of the Reference Framework of Competences for a Democratic Culture” in Schools.
In 2022, 20 external consultants from the Ministry of Education for the implementation of the Framework (RFCDC) were recruited in schools, who shared their knowledge and skills for the implementation of the RFCDC and improved the competences of 937 teachers and professional staff. The project “Quality Education for All”, which we are implementing together with the Council of Europe, has entered a new phase and so far manuals for the application of the RFCDC, trainings and much more have been prepared.
