Center For Citizenship Education
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Democracy in Poland, as elsewhere, cannot and will not succeed without responsible and active citizens. We believe that active citizen participation is the basis of democracy and that schools have an important role to play in effectively educating young citizens.
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 Established in 1994, the Centrum Edukacji Obywatelskiej (Center for Citizenship Education, CCE) is a non-governmental educational foundation. CCE promotes civic knowledge, practical skills and attitudes that are necessary in the building of a democratic state founded on the rule of law and civil society. CCE also operates a non-profit teacher-training institute registered with the Ministry of Education and Sports.
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 A curriculum and textbooks for teaching civics in lower secondary schools , designed with the use of active learning techniques. The Civic Education Program has been distinguished by the Minister of National Education, and the CCE has been awarded the honorary distinction "For Outstanding Services in Education" for promoting the program in Polish schools.
 A network of schools which the CCE supports in their efforts to incorporate quality assessment systems. Quality assessment requires that the school focuses on: teacher teamwork, goal development and monitoring progress, and an aware organizational, didactic and educational practise. The program is run in cooperation with the Polish-American Freedom Foundation.
 Trainings are addressed to teachers and members of school staff, and cover such topics as: formative assessment, active learning methods, teacher assessment and civic education. Some of the courses are conducted over the internet.
 The Young Entrepreneurs program is geared towards middle school students and teachers throughout Poland. It is in effect from January 1st to December 31st 2009. It is a two-phase program: students working in small teams form and run a company and next manage it with their own resources.
 The Kulthurra! Program (a combination of the words „culture” and „hurrah”) is conducted by the Center for Civic Education under the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage's operational program - „Cultural Education and a Diagnosis of Culture.” Kulthurra! Is a series of art classes in the cultural education program where students under a teacher's guidance prepare an artistic project according to the theme „My town, my history.” Students taking part in the program are also invited to lessons on theater, film and photography.
 The School Filmotheque is an enterprise of the Polish Institute of Film Arts under which more than 14,000 Polish schools received a package of 26 themed lessons on DVDs. These contain some of the greatest Polish films made as well as documentaries and animated films with commentaries of specialists in the field. The CCE can help train teachers and students for the most interesting and effective use of these materials.
 I’ll Tell You About Free Poland – a meeting of youngsters with the witnesses of history is an educational program conducted by Center For Citizenship Education, The Institute of National Remembrance and The Warsaw Rising Museum.
 "Education On-line for teachers” is a joint venture of Polish Telecomunication Group Foundation and the Center for Citizenship Education, that is directed towards improving ICT (information and communication technologies) skills of teachers of Polish of middle schools.
The children and teenagers taking part in the educational program Traces of the past search for a historic monument in their region learn about its history and take care of it. They try to restore memories of the place and the people connected with it.
The educational program Traces of the past - students adopt monuments started in 2001. Program is realized in cooperation with the Leopold Kronenberg Foundation and the National Centre for Culture in a frame of Ministry of Culture Programme “Patriotism of Tomorrow”.
 A civic knowledge curriculum and textbooks for higher secondary schools: "Friends with Democracy", "A Young Citizen’s Guide" and "The Graduate’s Guidebook".
 All over the country secondary school students read books to children in primary schools, kindergartens, special education schools, hospitals, children’s clubs and orphanages.
 The Program was officially launched in 2005. Before that date many activities concerning global issues was incorporated into other CEE programs (eg. lesson scenarios included into the Civic Education manuals published by CCE, workshops on intercultural issues).
 Since 1995 this project has enabled young under-age citizens to participate in elections, parallel to all state elections. The project helps young people organize presidential, parliamentary and local government elections as well as referendums in their schools, the results of which are published in the media.
 The electoral committees (of presidential candidates or political parties) provide answers to questions, prepared in collaboration with the papers "Gazeta Wyborcza" and "Polityka", concerning key issues confronting Poland and the world,. A special online program helps voters decide whom to cast their votes for.
 The project "Righteous Among Nations - righteous among us" is an oral history project addressed to the students from middle and high schools in Poland. In the project students are collecting the life stories of people, who saved Jews doomed to extermination during the Second World War, people awarded with a title "The Righteous Among the Nations".
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 The program requires that participating schools attempt to implement such principles as: providing every student with a good education; guaranteeing fair assessment; developing thinking skills and helping to understand the world; promoting a social orientation; helping students believe in themselves; preparing young people for the future. Over 5000 schools have been awarded the title of a "School with Class". The program has sponsored such projects as the "School with Class Academy", "Lego, cogito, ago" and "Teacher with Class". It is run in cooperation with the newspaper "Gazeta Wyborcza".
 "School of Thinking" is all about reasoning, asking analytical questions, solving problems and using knowledge in practice. The program is implemented within "School with Class" campaign, that has been conducted for 6 years.
 Teachers learn how assessment can help support students in the learning process. The CCE helps schools to implement formative assessment and publishes materials on the subject. In cooperation with the National In-Service Teacher Training Institute, the CCE is running a pilot formative assessment project commissioned by the Ministry of National Education
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 Young Citizen is a program geared towards helping local governments encourage youth to take part in local social actions. It also serves to facilitate middle schools and teachers conform with newly adopted guidelines requiring approximately 20% of the curriculum dedicated to civics to be in the form of students' projects. The Center for Civic Education has created three options to support local governments and their schools and teachers in conducting students' projects.
 The @ctivist program is intended for middle school students throughout Poland. It shows young people how to actively and responsibly make use of the new media as tools for social commitment, encouraging them to take an active part in their communities. It aids in forming coalitions of schools and the local media in helping young people take a greater role in public life. Participants of the program also have the opportunity to obtain and make use of knowledge regarding the European Parliament.
 Watch and Change is a new project within the Global Education program. We prepared a set of documentary films that can be used by teachers and students for raising global issues in their schools. The program is addressed to all grammar and high schools in Poland.
 1March 2008 saw the launch of a new ecological education project: Active by Nature – Young Ambassadors for Environmental Treasures of Local Communities. The main aim of the project is to activate young people in local communities, promote the natural beauty of local nature, think about sustainable ways of living and raise environmental awareness through student designed educational projects and initiatives.
 Students search for information concerning the literary heritage of their town and region. Their findings are placed on an internet map of Poland, and the most interesting testimonials are published in a printed edition of the Literary Atlas of Poland.
 A business studies curriculum and textbook for higher secondary schools. Every year several hundred student teams participate in an online project "Establishing and running a company", simulating the operation of a small enterprise.
 The CCE assists local governments in developing their educational policies, in cooperation with teachers, parents, students, local employers and representatives of the local educational administration.
 A European educational project which focuses on informing young people about the opportunities and perspectives created by Poland’s membership in the European Union. It helps answer what it means to be a citizen of Europe today.
 The CCE prepares classroom curricula and trains teachers in lessons on corruption, its dangers, and the ways it may be combated. It encourages students to undertake their own anti-corruption projects. The program is part of a Polish-American program for preventing and battling crime.
 Young people identify problems affecting their local community and select one they consider to be the most significant. They develop solutions which they then persuade the local authorities to implement, or implement themselves. The program is part of the international "Project Citizen", run in several score countries all over the world.
 The project focuses on increasing the educational opportunities of students attending rural schools. 443 schools received grants supporting their school development projects. The program, jointly funded in the 2005-2006 school year by the European Social Fund and the Ministry of Education with a sum of 43 million zlotys, is implemented in cooperation with national and regional partners.
 What does it mean to be a patriot in our time and age? What do the words "my homeland" mean to me? Students search for answers to these questions during classes conducted using materials prepared by the CCE, and participate in an online debate on patriotism.
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