The School is composed of a six-day training and a series of replication civic activities ran by the teachers, under EFOR\u2019s supervision. Teachers learn about non-formal education, principles of democracy and how to write and implement a civic project to solve issues, with the participation of students and the community.<\/p>\n
One of the priorities of the project is to exchange best practices with external stakeholders and partners on local participation and democracy. Special attention is given to the lack of voter education, fighting extremism, populism and discrimination, problems directly tied to the democratic derailments in the region.<\/p>\n
The School started in 2012 and during the first years \u2013 until 2015 – was dedicated to young activities, while afterwards EFOR and British Council worked with teachers. The first edition started in 2012<\/strong> and was dedicated to multiculturalism and gathered a number of 30 students from high schools in seven Romanian cities including Bucharest, Focsani, Cluj Napoca. Because 2012 was an electoral year, the follow-up civic projects were dedicated to electoral education. Therefore, several vote simulations, including mock-campaigns were organized in Bucharest (Gheorghe Sincai, Mihai Viteazu high schools) and in the country.\u00a0 More than 750 students participated in the simulations.<\/p>\n The second edition (2013<\/strong>) was dedicated to human rights, rule of law and fighting bad governance. The School gathered 20 activist students from all over the country. During the summer school, the participants teamed up and produced a newspaper called the Democrat<\/em>, where they reported about activities, public participation experiences or projects.<\/p>\n In 2014<\/strong> <\/a>the main topics were clientelism, monopoly and state capture in failed states. The School brought together 21 young leaders from Romania and Republic of Moldova. EFOR organized for the first time a labyrinth theatre on the 23rd<\/sup> of August in order to make participants understand the importance of rule of law, through an experimental sensorial method. Several civic follow up activities were implemented, including a simulation of elections in Cahul and the development of an on-line database on EFOR\u2019s website that contains information for the citizens on topics such as civic rights, electoral rights, labour regulations etc. See participants\u2019 testimonials here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n In 2015<\/strong> <\/a>we trained 18 teachers and supported them to organize a number of ten civic projects in their localities, for 300 students. The main result is the fact that the young participants understood how the local administration works in a practical way and had the opportunity to express their needs in direct meetings with mayors and local councillors.<\/p>\n Some of the events in 2015 were attended by Mr. Gunnar H\u00e6reid, vice-deputy governor of Sogn og Fjordane Region, Norway<\/strong>. Mr. H\u00e6reid presented during several workshops held in Bucharest and Timisoara<\/a> the work of the institution and good practices of local governance in Norway. The vice-deputy governor also attended a public event (How does the government engage in communication with citizens: experiences from Norway and Romania<\/em>) about transparency and government engagement in Romania and Norway, held in January 2016<\/a>. All the interventions have been highly appreciated and EFOR received requests from schools and teachers for future collaboration with the Governor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n In April 2016, a team of EFOR experts visited Norway to better understand local democracy and the relation of the state with the citizen. A paper was published as a result of the visit – Democracy from the Fjords: civic participation and transparency in Norway. A personal experience<\/em><\/a>. The project was implemented in partnership with the Governor\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n In 2016-2017<\/strong> we organized two editions of the School for Democracy, one for Romania and one for Romania and Republic of Moldova. See more about these editions here<\/a> and here.<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/expertforum.ro\/en\/files\/2020\/04\/school-democracy-1.jpg\")
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