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Project Citizen India
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Learning Links takes up a new project titled Project Citizen India which
is supported by the Center for Civic education California.
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The project We the People
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Project Citizen is a portfolio-based civic education project and a model performance
assessment activity. Project Citizen is a civic education program that promotes
competent and responsible participation. It actively engages students in learning
how to monitor and influence public policy and encourages civic participation among
students, their parents, and members of the community.
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We began this programme with support from the Centre for Civic Education, California
in 2005. It was started as a pilot Project in 11 schools in Delhi. We have already
trained over 515 teachers by April. 2008. They are currently running this programme
in 252 schools in thirteen states and 2 Union Territories in India. Of these 252 schools
, 100 schools are in the rural areas and are run under the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya.
We have had three national Showcasings at Delhi in 2005 - 2006 and 2007. All the
five regions ie, West Bengal, Rajasthan , Karnataka, Kerala, and Chandigarh have
had one showcasing each in 2006. Kolkata and Jaipur region have had their showcasing
in early 2008. Delhi had the showcasing in October 2008.
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The success of the programme has been recognized and as a result India has been
linked with Maryland University in Washington and the Civic education programme
in Kazakhstan. A delegation of senior Government officials including Dr. Anjlee
Prakash CEO Learning Links have already visited Washington, in April 2008 and Kazakhstan.
in August 2008 During this visit they were exposed to the functioning of the State
Department of Education Maryland and the civic programmes in the state . They were
also exposed to another programme titled We The People which is based on the Constitution
of America. At Kazakhstan they had the opportunity of seeing the education programme
and the civic curriculum This exchange programme was supported by the United States
Department of Education.
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Values and attitudes inherent in the Project Citizen program
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These include individual rights and responsibilities, self-discipline/self-governance,
civility, courage, respect of the rights of other individuals, respect for the rule
of law, honesty, open-mindedness, critical-mindedness, negotiation and compromise,
persistence, civic-mindedness, compassion, patriotism, tolerance, active community
participation, fairness, decision-making, balancing individual interests, and the
common good. Project Citizen is designed to be used with students from ages 11 to
18 and therefore could be used at various grade levels, depending upon the decisions
of the School Administrators.
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We are now linked with the University of Indiana and the Education Department of
Malavi to undertake more programmes to propagate Citizenship education in India.
Mrs. Meera Balachandran Director EQFI is also the Country Coordinator for the programme.
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